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Patience, kindness, goodness — May 3, 2021

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Over three issues, the Outlook is digging deep into the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  This issue explores how the Spirit works through patience, kindness and goodness.  And, we offer an exploration of what Christ’s Ascension means for the church. Click here to read the issue in the Uberflip reader Patience Neal Presa explains how a call to live into what the Spirit of Christ is doing is embodied through patience. Kindness Jen Brothers regards kindness as well suited to grow new creation. Goodness William E.W. Robinson considers the fruit of goodness to be the light of the Spirit. Ascension Donald McKim explores what Christ’s Ascension means for us. … [Read more...]

Tagged With: fruit of the Spirit

Unexpected grace

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Nothing was working. Not getting up in the middle of the night to log into the Walgreens site. Not repeatedly checking the portal at my doctor’s office. Not happening to be in a CVS when they started giving away extra shots. I just couldn’t seem to get a COVID-19 vaccine appointment. And then, in the middle of a busy day, I got a text from Ginger, my pastor’s wife, who is also the church director of Christian education: “Are you 65 and want a vaccine at the Arthur Ashe Center today?” She had just heard from Katherine, a member of our church who worked at the vaccine center. “They have extras,” Ginger told me. I quickly texted back: “Wow! Yes!” She replied, “You have 30 minutes to get there — go!” I dropped everything and raced to the vaccine center, terrified that I would be late. I made a couple of calls along the way and got turned around trying to find the entrance. Had it been 30 minutes? I was sent to a holding area with the other walk-ins and waited tensely for the … [Read more...]

Tagged With: COVID19

For what else were we born?

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Years ago, there was a recurring segment on NPR called “This I Believe.” People from all walks of life submitted brief statements of a truth they held close. Most were positively framed: “I believe in the strength of community” or “I believe in resilience.” But one compelling credo, broadcast in 2007, shook me. It began, “I believe in a potential for brutality.” The speaker was Yinong Young-Xu, who had emigrated from China as a teenager. He said: “When I was 6, in the streets of Shanghai, near the end of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, I watched a parade of trucks carrying political dissidents on their way to be publicly executed. At the front of each truck was a young man, roped from head to toe, wearing a sign that said ‘Counter-revolutionary.’ ” Yinong went on to say that the scene was like a traditional New Year’s celebration, except for one thing — “the city was celebrating its own brutality.” On reflection, Yinong believed that he was fortunate — too young to be fully … [Read more...]

Presbyterian Women: Mother’s Day (80 years ago)

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80 years ago — April 30, 1941 “From many sources come information and earnest appeals … to help the mothers and children of China, Britain and the conquered European countries. … A report made late in December was to the effect that more than 18,000 Chinese children had been found dead in the streets of Shanghai during 1940. Most of them were victims of exposure and malnutrition.” These children are the collateral damage of war. Many more are being housed in orphanages. Information provided indicates $10 in U.S. currency would support one of these orphans for a year. “The orphans of Britain are gathered together in homes superintended by some of the prominent people of England.” Save the Children Federation is working to provide support for these children as well as the thousands from other European countries seeking refuge in Britain. “The plight of all these children in the midst of air raids is tragic beyond words. Yet despite the constant terror by day and by night there they must … [Read more...]

5th Sunday of Easter — May 2, 2021

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Acts 8:26-40 Easter 5B We often speak about life as a journey, a road that we travel. As we go, we are joined by others. Some are with us for just a little while; others walk with us for a very long time. The journey has a variety of twists and turns. There are stops and starts and new directions. There are scary parts and joyful parts. There are parts that take us right through the valley of the shadow of death and parts that lead to places completely unexpected, completely unimagined. The journey just continues, and we keep going, and others go with us, helping us find our way. Sometimes people will engage a counselor or a therapist to accompany them for a part of their journey that is particularly hard because of grief or loss or sadness or separation. When that aspect of the journey is over, the counselor may step aside, while we continue on. Many folks find comfort and strength through the service of hospice. For an individual nearing death and for a family … [Read more...]

Not ready, but called

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Guest commentary by Anna Kendig Flores In the agonizing hour before the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial was announced last week, I was getting texts and seeing posts from all over Minnesota and the rest of the country talking about how on edge everyone was. My sister texted at 3 p.m. from her workplace, a bank near the University of Minnesota campus: We’re closing early and being sent home. The roads were jam-packed for her commute because of the mass exodus from the city, which quickly felt quite deserted. Meanwhile, I was sitting in my home office just a mile or so outside of Minneapolis, trying to work on the final touches to two separate statements (depending on the decision) leaders in the presbytery had prepared for the verdict. Just that morning we had met together on Zoom, praying for “words for what is beyond words.” Now I was editing commas while incessantly checking my live video feed of the courtroom. In my state of dread and waiting, more than anything I was … [Read more...]

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