Other Sundays after Pentecost: Green is used, to indicate our growth in faith as we follow the teachings and ministry of Christ
Trinity
United
Lutheran
Church
Summer is humming along. I refuse to say “it’s going too fast!” It’s
actually going at the same pace it always does. I’m just trying to make
more of it this year.
As you take time this summer to swim, fish, eat, tan, grill, eat, mow,
read, rest, run, paint, eat, repair, renovate, travel, and reconnect with
family, don’t forget to also PRAY (which is both listening and talking to
God), MEDITATE, READ YOU BIBLE, SING, AND WORSHIP! Thanks
to all of you who have gone out of your way to worship regularly! Way to
go. If summer is for re-creation, then God should be right in the middle
of it.
Now, this month, to feed your soul I want to share several favorite
poems. I hope you enjoy them.
Peace, Pastor Rich
Forsaken — Tommy
Forsaken
Utter Emptiness
Bounded By Fear
Cannot Evade The Pain
Soul Is Trembling Deep Inside
Finds Happiness In All That's Impure
Lives A Facade To Hide The Emotions
Has No Control Over Free Will Or Independence
Cries For An Answer To Which There Is None
Why? Stands Along A Ledge Of A Bottomless Drop. Why?
Life Flashes, Quick To The Eye, Slow To The Heart
Sees Sanctuary Under The Cross Of A Shooting Star
Begins To Believe In A Power So Great
Tears Emerge From A Soul Once Lost
On Bended Knees, In Deep Prayer
Feels Content Like Never Before
Seeks Refuge In Him
Bounded By Love
Born Again
When Death Comes — Mary Oliver
When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes like the measles-pox;
when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common as a field daisy, and as
singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something precious to the earth.
When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to
amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
Poems are from New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver
(Beacon Press, 25 Beacon St, Boston, MA 02108-2892, ISBN 0 870 681).
Heartprints— Lisa
Wherever our hands touch
We leave fingerprints!
On walls, on furniture
On doorknobs, dishes, books
there is no escape.
As we touch, we leave our identity.
Oh God, wherever I go today
Help me leave heartprints!
Heartprints of compassion
Of understanding and love
Heartprints of kindness
And genuine concern
May my heart touch a lonely
neighbour
Or a runaway daughter
Or an anxious mother
Or perhaps an aged grandfather.
Lord, send me out today
to leave heartprints.
And if someone should say
"I felt your touch"
May that one sense YOUR LOVE
Touching through ME.
No Time — Anonymous
I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.
So I knelt and said a hurried
prayer,
And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease.
All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer.
No time to speak of Christ to
friends,
They'd laugh at me I'd fear.
No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry,
No time to give to souls in need
But at last the time, the time to
die.
I went before the Lord,
I came, I stood with downcast
eyes.
For in his hands God held a book;
It was the book of life.
God looked into his book and
said
"Your name I cannot find..
I once was going to write it down..
But never found the time"