Taking a Walk With a Twist!

 

I suppose I have always enjoyed walking.   I suppose  my love for walking started  back in my teenage days when I was in scouts and we walked over 150 miles on the Appalachian Trail.   My love for walking has increased in these pandemic days.   When the gym closed due to the order of our governor, it seemed to be  a good option to continue my fitness and exercise regimen.  Most days, I walk between 10,000 to 13,000 steps which equals 5 to 6 miles.  

Walking also provides the opportunity for something else:  spiritual exercises.   Most days, I spend some of my walking time listening to Bible readings and praying.   In recent weeks, I have been doing what someone many years called a “prayer walk”.    As I pass by homes in my neighborhood, I will pray for the people who live there whether I know them or not.   I will say prayers for people I see doing errands around their homes or going to and fro.   I do not live in the same neighborhood where my church is located, but I have started doing “prayer walks” in the neighborhood around the church I serve.  I know the names of some of the neighbors, but not all of them.     Whether I know the names of the occupants in the homes and the people I see in their yards, I find myself praying for them. 

In James 5:16, we read the following words:    ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.     I am a righteous person for one reason alone:  the righteousness that is found in Christ.   I believe that everyone needs to pray and to be prayed for.    You may not be able to able to walk daily as much as I do, but each of us can pray:  for the people who live next door… for the persons in the car beside us at the traffic light… for the person who waits on us at the store.  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

 

 PRAYER

            O God,  you are as close to us as our heartbeat and breath.   We thank you for the gift to pray and to be prayed for.   We pray for the people we know and do not know.  Remind us daily that we need you;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.   

Small Things, Big Results

            Like many of the folks whose families grew up in Piedmont North Carolina,  my family was employed in the textile mills.  My Grandpa Wall was a fixer in a hosiery mill after he moved to Burlington in his early 20’s, and my stepfather was a fixer in the weave room at Burlington Industries’ Pioneer Plant.   My wife Ann’s Grandfather Verble was a superintendent of the Roberta Mill in Concord.  My first full time job as I prepared to go to college was working in the spring winding department at the textile mill.    The lint dust of the textile mill fills the blood of my family.

            I think of that family history as I read these words in Isaiah 10: 20-23  which says,

 ²⁰ In that day the remnant of Israel,
   the survivors of Jacob,
will no longer rely on him
   who struck them down
but will truly rely on the LORD,
   the Holy One of Israel.
²¹ A remnant will return,^[y] a remnant of Jacob
   will return to the Mighty God.
²² Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel,
   only a remnant will return.
Destruction has been decreed,
   overwhelming and righteous.
²³ The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out
   the destruction decreed upon the whole land.

I was familiar with remnants growing up.  Fabric remnants were scraps of cloth left over from a large job.  My Grandmother Perry, an accomplished seamstress, shopped often at a business called the Remnant Shop where she would buy leftover cloth to make clothes for herself or family members.  In this passage of scripture, Isaiah the prophet is saying that though Israel has been unfaithful to the Lord there is a remnant that will return to the Lord and rely on Him.    Though they may be small in scale to the entire Israelite nation, the Lord will work in and through them. 

One of the wonderful things about the God we serve is that he does not need big numbers to do big things.    Through a God/Man named Jesus, He saved the world; through 12 folks called disciples, He turned the world upside down.  Thanks be to God.  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

 

  PRAYER

            O God,   we ask forgiveness for the times that we live like bigger is always better.  Remind us, Lord, that those who are in Christ are always strong and mighty.  Help me rely more fully on you;  through Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Sometimes, No Words Are Necessary

Back during the beginning of the pandemic last year, I heard a lot of folks speaking about how they were struggling with being at home with their family.   One of the reasons it seemed that they were struggling was spending  too much time together.   Perhaps they were too close for comfort.   My wife, Ann and I were talking a couple of months ago about that.  While I am not sure we are a normal married couple (whatever that is), but one of the things we sometimes do is simply enjoy being together.   Whether it is travelling in the car or simply sitting in the home, I enjoy sometimes simply being with Ann and not feeling like we have to fill the air or one anothers ears with words.   Sometimes, words and talk is not necessary and it is simply good to be together. 

After that discussion between Ann and I about being together without saying anything, it occurred to me that I can say the same thing about my time alone with God.   Sometimes, I pray with words outloud to God.   Sometimes, I pray in words silently to God.   And then , there are other times when I do not talk but simply enjoy being in God’s presence.  Sometimes in that time of silence, God speaks to my heart and soul.   Sometimes, I sit and simply be with God just enjoying His presence without words.     Habakkuk is undoubtedly not on most folks list of “Top 10” favorite books in the Bible.      Yet, I am reminded of these words from Habakkuk 2:10 which say: The Lord is in his holy temple;  let all the earth be silent before him.   Sometimes, it is simply good to be silent and be with God.  I commend it to you.   Have a joy-filled week!.-  Pastor Randy Wall  

  PRAYER

            O God,  we are grateful that you are only a prayer away.   You are as near to us as  our very heartbeat.   Thank you for the fact that you are always ready and willing to spend time with your people.  We love you, Lord; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  

Thank You, Seniors

Through my years of ministry, there have been numerous mistakes that I have made while  leading worship. Let me share one of those mistakes with you.  In my late teens while I was still in college, I served as associate pastor at Salem UM Church in Fayetteville.  While I was participating in worship on Senior Citizens Day, the Senior Pastor asked me to read the scripture.  While I was supposed to read from Matthew 15, I made a mistake and read from Luke 15.  After I read a portion of the parable of the prodigal Son, the Senior Pastor told me that the only way that he could see that scripture fit with his sermon on Senior Citizens Day was that the elder son was actually an “elderly” senior citizen. 

 In the days of Jesus, senior citizens were held in high regard.  They were elders in age and wisdom.  In Isaiah 46:4, we read:  “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.  I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”    What the prophet Isaiah is saying is that God was at work in senior citizens as he was at work in the lives of other folks.   We see that truth in the scriptures in the lives of people like Abraham, Moses, and others being used by God even in their older years.   

 The season of Autumn or Fall is a beautiful time of year.   I don’t know about you, but I love to see the bright colors of the leaves in the Fall.  Many folks travel to the mountains to see the Fall colors.    Has it ever occurred to you that the leaves are a fitting metaphor for the human life?    As the leaves are beautiful near the end of their life, so the senior citizen days of human life also have great beauty and fullness.   If you are a senior citizen, I trust that you will “not hide your light under a bushel” but let God work in and through you.  If you are not a senior citizen,  give God thanks for the beauty of the lives of  our senior citizens live among us. -  Pastor Randy Wall 

 

PRAYER

            Loving and living God, thank you for the bounty and blessing of the older adults in my life, our church, and our community.    Give me an open heart to see the life lessons they have to teach me;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.