For those very same reasons it will be a sorrowful departure. I consider many of you friends. It is always hard to leave friends, especially when, like me, you move on alone. I didn’t get to know all of you as well as I would have liked and that causes me sorrow as well. I will miss breaking bread with you and visiting with you in your homes. I’ll miss the camaraderie of the chancel choir, praise band and the women’s Sunday evening Bible group. Though I’ll grieve for awhile; it will be a good grief. If there isn’t some grief, then it would likely mean these past three years haven’t mattered much.

I know I made mistakes while serving this church. It would be pretty amazing if I hadn’t made any. I ask forgiveness. That’s part of the sorrow as well.

Just know that I am glad I had the opportunity to pastor this church for the past three years. God’s blessings upon you all as we part. You will be in my prayers and I hope I will be in yours.

In Christ,
Pastor Donna

It’s 4:55 PM and I still haven’t written my article for the newsletter.  Time seems to go by really slowly when you don’t have much to do.  It seems to go really fast when you want 5 more minutes of sleep.  Truth is time doesn’t speed up or slow down, does it?  We each get 24 hours a day – the present, a gift from God.  I read somewhere once that what we do with our time, our day is our gift to God.  So what are you doing with your time?

That’s it; I’ve run out of time.  How do you run out of time though?  Something else to ponder.

In Christ,

Pastor Donna

As I was sitting in the doctor’s waiting room this morning I scrolled through Facebook to view the “news feed.”  I came across a video I decided to view.  An older woman was being interviewed near what remained of her home.  She had been hit by the tornado that swept through Moore, OK on Monday.  She talked about her harrowing ordeal – how she had huddled in the bathroom with her dog.  She was thrown around by the winds, and she lost her dog in the storm.  She was still being interviewed when the reporter spotted a dog in the rubble.  The dog climbed out, with a frightened look on its face, to the waiting arms of the woman.  She responded with joy and said God had answered one of her prayers. It was touching and gave me hope.  Hope that there would be more reunions – between parent and child or husband and wife.  Hope that more survivors would be found – and apparently there have been.  When the world seems to come crashing down around us, we need hope.  Where does our hope come from?  From the God who made heaven and earth – the God who is with us in the storms of life.

The old gospel hymn asks God, “When the storms of life are raging, stand by me.”  God does stand by us.  God gives us strength, courage and presence.  God gives us comfort and encouragement.  God pours his grace upon us even in the storm.  God doesn’t necessarily protect us or save us from the storm, but God is with us in the storm.  And that’s the good news isn’t it?  God is with us.

I was reminded of this scripture from Paul’s letter to the Romans:

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

God bless the people of Oklahoma, Granbury, Cleburne and West as they go through the storms.  God bless us all in the midst of whatever storms may come our way.

Peace,

Pastor Donna

When I was a young girl, my family liked to take Sunday afternoon drives.  We often drove out to the lake.  One particular Sunday afternoon we stopped at the spillway pond across from the lake.  There were lots of people there doing a little fishing.  My dad had his pole so decided to join them.  My older sister and I, ages 6 and 4, went with my dad while my mom stayed up the hill in the car with my baby sister.  I started getting closer and closer to the edge of the pond.  My mom yelled from the car that I was too close to the water and needed to back away.  Of course, I knew I wasn’t that close to the water and was in no danger.  Besides my father was keeping a close eye on me.  No sooner had I assured my mother I was okay then I went sliding down the muddy edge of the pond and fell face first into the water.  My dad quickly picked me up and saved me from drowning.  I was a wet and muddy 4 year old, but I was safe.  My father carried me up to the car and my mom.  My mother drove us home, cleaned me up and put me in dry clothes.  We then went back to the lake to pick up my dad and sister.

How often are we like that in our relationship with God?  God tells us we are getting too close to the edge, to the water or we’ve wandered off too far or we’re bending the law if not outright breaking it.  We ignore God’s cautionary word or respond that we’re OK; we know what we are doing.  And then, down into the water we go.  Fortunately, God is keeping a close eye on us and is there to pick us up.  We may be wet and muddy but we are saved.  We may suffer the consequences from wandering away from God – from falling in the water – but God has compassion and forgives us.  He will set us right again if we let him.

With Christ,

Pastor Donna

As I drove to the church today I heard a George Strait song – “I Saw God Today.”  It’s a song about a man who spent 18 hours by his wife’s side as she delivered their baby.  He was walking to the coffee shop for a break when he spotted a flower pushing up through the concrete – like it was planted there for him to see.  He responds, “I saw God today.”  He also seems to have seen God in another couple who were expecting a child and in the sunset sky.  Then he sees his newborn daughter in the nursery – a miracle – he calls her concluding, “I saw God today.”

 Jeremiah Adam is the lyricist of this song.  The chorus says this:

  I’ve been to church

  I’ve read the book

  I know he’s here

  But I don’t look

  Near as often as I should

  Yeah, I know I should

  His fingerprints are everywhere

  I just slowed down to stop and stare

  Opened my eyes and man I swear

   I saw God today.

We’ve been to church and read the book.  But do we look for God in the everyday of our lives?  Do we see God in the ordinary?  In the people we encounter?  In the nature around us?  In the things we read?

I saw a tree once that looked like a burning bush with the sunlight hitting its yellow, orange and red leaves just right.  Could that have been God talking to me?  Should I have taken off my shoes because I was on holy ground?  I’ve been in the clouds on a mountain top – a place God is often found in the scripture.  It did seem like I was close to God.  I’ve been to the hairdresser and seen little old men bringing in their little old wives for their weekly hair appointments.  I know I see love; do I see God?

Let’s open our eyes and look around us.  Who knows?   Maybe we will see God today

In Christ,

Pastor Donna.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

I was reading through the 2012 Program for the Victory Bowl – a football game sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.  For the past four years this game has been played by senior boys from high schools all across central Texas; it will be played again this year in Waco.   The program has a picture of each participant and some information about the student including what their favorite scripture verse is.  Over and over again I saw the verse above mentioned as a favorite verse.

It was my mom’s favorite verse too, especially after my father died.  There are times when you just don’t think you can go on or you can survive or you can do what is being asked of you.  At those times we can turn to Christ and he can give us the strength we need to do all things.  We are not alone in this life; we don’t have to make it alone, depending on our strength alone to get us through the difficult times, the wilderness times in our lives.

I can only imagine what the folks in West are going through right now, but it must surely be a most hard time.  I pray they know that Christ is with them to strengthen them so that they can do what they need to do to survive and recover from the tragedy.  None of us may have ever gone through such a time as those in West; I hope we never will, but we all go through times that are difficult and test us.  At such times may we know Christ is with us.

God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the

earth should change,

though the mountains shake in the

heart of the sea;

though its water roar and foam,

though the mountains tremble

with its tumult.

-Psalm 46:1-3

Christ be with you!

Pastor Donna

I’m not sure what to say about what happened in Boston yesterday.  The only thing I’m certain of is that God is present in the midst of the loss and pain and shock and fear.  God is comforting families who lost a loved one.  God is strengthening and encouraging the injured.  God is holding those who are afraid.  God is listening to those asking, “Why?”  God is with all of us in this time of tragedy.  That’s the good news of our faith.  God does not abandon us or leave us orphaned.

I remember when I received the terrible news that my 16 year old cousin had been killed in a car wreck.  I was stunned and disbelieving at first; then I was angry and sad.  I asked the question why. I grieved the fact that she was alone when she died.  Then I remembered, she was not alone.  God was with her.  God was with her in spirit but also in the hand of a stranger.  God was with her in the faces of the paramedics.  God was with her and that gave me great comfort.

God is the light that shines in the darkness.  The darkness will not overcome the light.  That is the promise of God.

With Christ,

Pastor Donna

I was out visiting members one day in the community of Desdemona.  It is a very small town with few street signs, so the directions I got to visit this one family were something like, “Go past the old, run-down Smith house and turn right on the road where you see the junked cars.  Then keep going straight a few miles until you see a dirt road going to the right.  Take that road and then their house will be the third one on the left.”

I actually make it to the dirt road all right, but then I got into some trouble.  There was a huge puddle of water covering the entire width of the road.  Since it was a dirt road, I figured it had turned to mud underneath the water.  I decided to go around the puddle into the grassy area.  That’s where I ran into mud.  I ran into it and got stuck in it.  My tires just spun and spun.  I decided to get out in my Sunday clothes and shoes and do what they do in movies – find some sticks to put under the wheel.  A snake swam by in the meantime.  The sticks under the tire didn’t help a lick.  So there I was stuck in the middle of the road.

I didn’t know how far down the road the third house on the left was, but I started walking in that direction.  Fortunately, it wasn’t too far.  The family had a big laugh on the city-girl preacher.  They had to get their tractor to pull out my car.  They gave me a little advice for my next trip on a dirt road:  always stay straight down the road where the ruts are, if you go off to either side, you’re bound to get in trouble.

I think Jesus tells us the same thing: stay straight on the narrow path and follow me for I am the way to abundant life.  If we wander away from Jesus going our own way, we’re bound to get in some kind of trouble.  Jesus is our shepherd and wants us to follow him.  He’s also the shepherd who will come looking for us when we do go off on our own.  He will bring us back to him if we let him.  

-Pastor Donna

Life

Life.

Energetic.

Brilliant.

Wonderful.

Life.

Bursting out of every crevice.

Crashing out of caves.

Smashing through boulders.

Life that cannot be contained by our expectations.

Or confined by our ideas.

Beautiful.

Exciting.

Surprising.

Life.

And we had thought that death was all there was.

We had despaired.

Mourned.

Our hearts broke.

We could not believe what had happened.

But we had to believe because we had seen.

Life nailed up.

Legs broken.

Life taken away.

Dead.

Defeated.

Shut away in a cave.

Guarded by rock and soldier.

We ran away.

We hid.

We were scared.

It seemed that life itself had been stolen from us.

There was nothing we could do.

We were helpless.

But now life has exploded out of its prison.

Life is here.

All around us.

Inside of us.

And there is nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

In all of creation.

Or beyond it.

That will ever by the same again.

The Lord is risen.

He is risen indeed.  HALLELUJAH!

 (Dramatic dialogue written by Paul S. Glass in Companion to the Revised Common Lectionary, Volume 9)

I must have been about 6 years old when my father brought home the blue parakeet.  He was a postman and had found the parakeet on his route.  I guess it had flown out the open door or window of its home and didn’t know how to get back.  My father got an old bird cage and managed to lure the parakeet inside it.  After checking around the neighborhood to see to whom the bird might belong and finding no takers, daddy brought the bird home to my sisters and me as a surprise.  The cage with the blue parakeet sat on top of the chest of drawers in my sister’s and my bedroom.  He would hop on our fingers, chirping and singing.  We put in a mirror so he could look at himself.  We got to feed him and afterward got to clean the cage.  We even tried to teach the bird to talk.

One day, a stray cat came to our house.  He wasn’t wild, just stray.  He let me hold him and pet him.  For some reason I decided to take the cat into the house, down the hall and into my bedroom.  We were sitting on the bed when he spotted the blue parakeet.  I asked him if he wanted to see the bird, which of course he did.  I held him tight and lifted him up to see the bird.  He freed one of his front legs from my grip and with one quick movement stuck his claws into the bird’s chest.  The bird was dead.  The blue parakeet my father had rescued and given to me was dead.

To this day I don’t know what possessed me to show that cat that bird.  I was only six but surely I knew cats and birds don’t mix.  I don’t know who I told first – my sisters or mother, but my mother told me I would have to be the one who told my father.  Can you imagine being six and having to confess to your father that you killed his bird?

With fear and trembling and tears in my eyes I told my father what I had done.  After questioning me some, he decided my punishment would be no TV for the foreseeable future.  I remember it was around Christmas time because one night I was lying on the floor in the living room coloring with my little sister.  The Christmas tree limbs covered the TV enough so that I couldn’t see the picture.  My father told me to go to my room.  My little sister begged him to let me stay and color since I couldn’t see the TV anyway.  He said no, I had to go to my room.

A little while later my father came into my room.  He sat on the edge of the bed and asked me if I wanted my spanking then or later.  I nervously said, “Never.”  You see I thought not watching TV was my punishment.   Sure enough the spanking never came.  Instead my father took me in his arms, smiled and hugged me.  He said I was forgiven.  I could come out of my room and watch TV.  I was restored to the family circle.

God never quits loving us even when we do stupid things or even sinful things.  That doesn’t mean we won’t first suffer the consequences of our sin; it does mean we won’t have to suffer them forever.  God forgives us and welcomes us back into relationship with him.

In Christ,
Pastor Donna