This week was a week of celebration in our family so I’m in the slow lane for freerangefriday today. We were celebrating my dad Wilbur Sensing’s 95th birthday. Family arrived from all over arrived. We began his birthday with a picnic bbq lunch on Saturday with about 50 friends and family. The celebration continued on Sunday with relatives for lunch and watching old movies and laughing a lot. And on July 23rd, his actual birthday, my brother and his wife and my husband and son who all live here in Nashville, took dad out for dinner. It was his first time having dinner in a restaurant since mid May when he had emergency abdominal surgery. Let’s just say that birthday parties are much more fun than funerals! We all felt so much joy that Dad was no longer in hospice care and back to living! If you’d seen him in the ICU on May 31st you’d know what a miracle a steak dinner out was!
We are very grateful!
Dad and me on Tuesday Night!
What are you grateful for this week? Take some time and thank Jesus for all the good things you’ve experienced this week.
- Zinnias blooming along the driveway
Time with our son and his dog Smithers (he lives in denver and came in town to celebrate dad’s birthday)
Shopping with my sister ( She also was in town for the festivities)
Nice weather for the party
Fun with cousins and their kids
Good books and new library card
A new friend
Reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
zinnias
I’ve also been rather scatter brained with all the news around who is running for the US president.
I was on a call last night with close to 150,000 white women who are planning to support a woman for president! It was the largest call in the history of zoom!. So much hope and excitement, and a realistic understanding that it’s not going to be easy to defeat hate and fear and racism.
I honestly haven’t had much hope for American politics since 2015.
Our politics has been so divisive and abusive that it’s caused families to divide, divorces to occur and churches to split.
I started grieving our country in 2015. As an enneagram 7, I could no longer reframe the situation. But Today I have hope again.
What is bringing you HOPE today?
Underneath all our emphasis on successful action, many of us suffer from a deep-seated, low self-esteem. . . . And so our actions become more an expression of fear than of inner freedom. . . .
As we keep our eyes directed at the One who says, ‘‘Do not be afraid,” we may slowly let go of our fear. We will learn to live in a world without zealously defended borders. We will be free to see the suffering of other people, free to respond not with defensiveness, but with compassion, with peace, with ourselves. Henri Nouwen
This quote leads us to the gospel for this Sunday.
In case you missed it, last week we had an interrupted Gospel lesson in Mark 6. Jesus saw that his disciples were exhausted and he attempted to take them on a retreat so they could rest. Instead, they were interrupted by the crowd that raced around the lake to find Jesus. The second part of last week’s Gospel was about what they found on the other side, when Jesus and his disciples made it back across the lake. There were the crowds again, this time seeking to be healed by Jesus.
In this week’s Gospel, we get the middle story. The feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on the water. We’re in John 6 rather than Mark:
JOHN 6:1-21
Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles,[b] they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.
READ this a few times…what do you notice? What does the Holy Spirit highlight for you?
I notice that Jesus knows that the people are hungry and he already has a plan for how to feed them all.
That gives me hope! Jesus already has a plan! And Jesus knows what we are hungry for!
I’m hungry for peace, and justice and rest from politics, war and injustice!
I notice that Jesus has no interest in being a King. He has no interest in political power. And he sends his disciples away before this gets out of hand. Is it because he knows they are still exhausted? Or is it to protect them because he knows that some of them want him to be a political leader too?
What is is about us that we think we need power and control?
Why are we so afraid?
Read Henri Nouwen’s quote again!
Underneath all our emphasis on successful action, many of us suffer from a deep-seated, low self-esteem. . . . And so our actions become more an expression of fear than of inner freedom. . . .
As we keep our eyes directed at the One who says, ‘‘Do not be afraid,” we may slowly let go of our fear. We will learn to live in a world without zealously defended borders. We will be free to see the suffering of other people, free to respond not with defensiveness, but with compassion, with peace, with ourselves. Henri Nouwen
We really do need to know how much we are loved!
We need to know and remember that we are “God’s best idea” Dr. Sara Sosa
When we know and believe we are loved by the Creator of the entire universe, we don’t have to be afraid of other people and other ideas.
I know that I need to remember that even in the storm, even when the boat is rocking and seas are high, Jesus tells us not to be afraid! Jesus gets in the boat with us!
How can you experience more hope, gratefulness and love this week?
What small things can you do to show love to someone who needs it?
I think I’m going to make more cookies for my neighbors just to say I care! And to meet some of the newer neighbors whom I haven’t met yet! This might be my new weekly or at least monthly practice. I am also going to be making more phone calls to check in with friends who are in rocking boats right now. I’m going to keep reading books rather than looking at my phone at night and keep using that new library card rather than my Amazon card! I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Remember that you have permission to REST! #restisHoly
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
I John 4
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