Happy Friday!
Can you recall “THE MOMENT” t when you realized, “This is it!”
“This is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with!”
“This person is going to be a lifelong friend.”
“This is the city I want to live in.”
“This is the perfect job for me.”
“This is my ‘happy place.’”
Those moments are great. And hopefully, moments we all experience that ultimately shape us and our existence in this world.
But there is potential for another moment. One that changes everything.
The moment when you realize you are not alone in this world in a spiritual sense.
That there is a God that prevails in and through all things and abides within you.
And you will never walk alone.
Father Richard Rohr writes, “Human relationship with the divine normally starts with the specific, the concrete, the “scandal of the particular,” and then we universalize from there—but the realization process takes the whole of our lives. The sixteenth question in the old Baltimore Catechism was “Where is God?” and it was answered straightforwardly: “God is everywhere.” The pinnacle of prayer is reached when we can trust that we are constantly in the presence of God. We cannot not be in the presence of God! Where would we go? As the psalmist reflects, if we go up to the heavens or underneath the earth, we still can’t get away from God (see Psalm 139:7-10). God is either in all things, or God is in nothing.”
“Many Christians say they believe in the Presence, but they don’t get that it is everywhere—which is the whole point! They don’t seem to know how to recognize the Presence of God when they leave the church, when they meet people who are of a different religion or race or sexual orientation or nationality. They cannot also trust that every person is created in the image of God. Jesus spent a great deal of his ministry trying to break down the false distinctions between “God’s here” and “God’s not there.” He dared to see God everywhere, even in sinners, in enemies, in failures, and in outsiders. Usually, early stage religion is not yet capable of that, but fortunately God is patient with all of us and with history itself.”
This summer, the series we are hosting at West is to help us all experience God everywhere!
We come at faith from about 450 different angles (that’s a rough estimate of how many people call West their faith community home).
Each of us experiences God in different ways. As a community, this summer we will expose ourselves to those different ways, learning and growing out of respect for one another and The Divine AND a willingness to grow.
That’s what discipleship is all about.
Growing.
And none of us are ever finished.
This Sunday is Yoga and Meditation.
If you have a Yoga mat, bring it and experience that powerful transformation led by Jena Gallagher.
If Yoga is something you simply cannot do, then in the auditorium we will have a meditation and spiritual reflection time/experience for you!
Also . . . .as we go through summer, we need your hands! Your physical ability.
We set up and tear down every Sunday.
It would be AMAZINGLY GENEROUS if you would click on the link below and graciously give of your time one or two weeks this Sunday.
Truthfully, if we’d all help once or twice, there’d be no need for us to worry about “will we have enough people.”
You may be thinking, “If I’m there, I’ll help out!” And yes, that does help. But we also have to plan . . and we recognize that we can’t do it alone. So when no one signs up prior to that Sunday we have to recruit help.
It is one of the most deflating feelings to send out a sign-up for something that matters and then no one responds. Especially when that sign-up is to “have a physical church experience.” You do not have to have the ability to push the heavy carts. It can be folding tablecloths, etc. There are lots of things everyone can do!
No, I am not trying to guilt-trip you. But I am trying to convey the absolute importance of our working together to set up and tear down on Sundays.
The staff cover this every week and it would mean a lot to them to have some additional hands. Thanks in advance for signing up.
Please click here to check out the Sundays we have available!
I hope you have an amazing weekend and I look forward to worshiping with you on Sunday!
Grace and Peace,
Andrea