Text Devotions «

October 31, 2021 Text Devotion

Posted on Oct 31, 2021 in Text Devotions |

Hello Devotioneers! A happy Halloween to you!

My daughter, Farmer Steph, has allowed me to share a post she shared on Instagram recently as the skies continued to release rain upon the earth. Even though it is time to sow and harvest, farmers are stuck this fall. However, this moment was a blessing from God and she knew it. Enjoy!

Click here to be taken to the post.

(If you aren’t familiar with or don’t have Instagram, your picture may look different from others. Before you start the video, scroll up and see what Steph posted about her short video. Then tap the sideways triangle for the video to play.)

Feel blessed and know that God is with us!

Thank you Stephanie, for being in the right place at the right time so often.

~Shauna Weil, merely a messenger

A devotion provided by the GUMC Devotion Ministry

October 27, 2021 Text Devotion

Posted on Oct 27, 2021 in Text Devotions |

Pastor Joel’s sermon gripped me last Sunday. We are in the middle of a series called Scary Love. He spoke of Jesus walking on water toward the disciples in their boat. All disciples feared the seeming apparition fearing it might be a ghost but Peter, who doubts that it is really His Lord, vocalizes his doubt to Jesus and is called out of the boat to walk on water toward what he is not quite sure is His Savior. It must have been scary as we are told the waves were rough that night.

Who am I kidding?!!

It was just plain scary because humans do not walk on water! No, I do not watch horror movies either.

But Pastor Joel said something that has stuck with me into this week and I’ve been thinking about his statement. Yes, Peter did well at first but then began to sink and grew more afraid. Jesus merely reached out His hand in that storm and took Peter’s. That was it. He was at once safe again. God the Son asks an awful lot of us at times, doesn’t he?

And we are a people, who more often than not, are simply afraid of being afraid. Well, we’ll leave the disciples in the storm and the boat with Jesus lifting Peter and what Pastor Joel said for later, because this has triggered a memory of Michael Card speaking at the Winsome Women Retreat. (Just to put a little hanger on who Michael Card is, he has written many songs but among them was El-Shaddai and Emmanuel made hugely popular by Amy Grant.)

Almost as if Michael knew that Pastor Joel has been speaking on Scary Love, he looks up from his notes, and abruptly states in a non sequitur fashion, “Jesus can make you really afraid!” He rubs his hand worriedly up over his head and down the back of his neck as if to still the chills that are sneaking up his spine and into his scalp. I think, “Uh-oh, where are we going now?” Do I run for the car with the engine already running or the barn with all the chainsaws to stay safe? Really, the same guy who says, “Let the little children come to me”?

What Michael says next bears truth. He is scared of Jesus because of His absolute Lordship. Doesn’t seem scary but Michael presses the point. “When Jesus says, “Follow me,” it’s not really an invitation like to a birthday party complete with bounce house, bring a gift if you want to. It’s not a casual ask with Jesus saying, “Oh yeah, I’ll be hanging around here for awhile, just get back with me on that sometime.” Picture the flutter of Jesus’ hand as he waves you off, diminishing his ask even further.

No, Jesus is serious and absolutely asks for all of you right then and there. No time to put your nets away properly, remember the disciples left their nets, what self-respecting fisherman would do that? No time to say, “Well, I’ll just jot on home and talk to the wife and kids and let them know I won’t be home for supper for a very long time. Be back in a jiffy.”

Michael says, “He wants ALL of you.” That’s a BIG ask and I remember reading in the Bible of those who were asked to give up their wealth and all they had and to immediately follow Jesus. Some simply could not do it. It was too scary.

That creates a tad of a storm in your life, like a tornado that rips through, touches down for a moment, and leaves your life upended after it has passed, while you’re still thinking of an opportunity that has also passed.

Now, I’m back to Peter in and out of the boat in the storm. I think Jesus is supposed to be something of a storm cloud brewing as he comes among us for life often puts us in scary and difficult places and that is where we learn if we choose to. We can learn that we are never alone no matter how scared we are. Pastor Joel said, “God conquers the storm with us, not us with Him.” Pretty powerful!

I, who will no longer watch horror movies, will grab on to this ‘scary love’ because I know without a doubt, it is the sweetest thing we will ever know.

Similar to Jesus, I will invite you to follow me to worship this Sunday at 9:45 a.m. for this week’s sermon on scary love – Perfect Love. Come in any way you can. Pastor Joel says, “Be not afraid!”

The Fray says, “Be Still.” Listen below.

~Shauna Weil

A devotion provided by the Devotion Ministry of GUMC

October 22, 2021 Text Devotion

Posted on Oct 22, 2021 in Text Devotions |

The last few days have held many interesting and quasi-exciting/challenging moments. One of the first things was a hand addressed piece of mail. That’s relatively unusual in our house. It was a note from the family of Mitch Plant. I was so moved by the included scripture:

Isaiah 58:10

Feed the hungry,

And help those in trouble.

Then your light will shine

Out from the darkness,

And the darkness around you

Will be as bright as noon.

Yes, I did cry. This is such an appropriate scripture for Mitch and really the Plant and Bohlen families. What a simply perfect and probably heart wrenching choice as they walk with grief beside and in them.

Second, Mary Ann Slade and I attended the Covid version of Winsome Women this past week. Both of us are still walking in grief over the loss of both of our parents. We discovered we both have been lonely in a way that is difficult to fix and feeling like wandering orphans of the world as for us, both sets of our parents have now left this world. As they say, ‘we know we will join them again someday’ but we also feel very strongly their absence in this world God created for His humans to live out their earthly lives.

Mary Ann and I walked together for two days, talked so much, laughed a lot, sang God’s word in song and heard such inspirational sharing from people like Michael Card, Sandi Patti and Ruth Graham, all on the shores of Lake Michigan on cool, gray, often rainy days. The retreat theme was Joy and I think we found it together and certainly with God’s help and abiding presence. (Abiding – lasting a long time; enduring. A very intentional choice of wording)

You can lose yourself in hurt and we were reminded by every presenter there to send praise to God unceasingly!

Michael Card, singer, songwriter, theologian and author, put words to our current walk of woe with excruciating purport (Purport: the meaning or substance of something. Substance, my meaning, the very ‘stuff’ of something.) And maybe to your walks of woe too. Grief and feelings of loss and pain come to us by many paths, not solely by death alone.

He uttered the word excruciating as he spoke of Jesus’ life and ripped that word apart for us. That was not a lightly chosen word by Michael that day, for within the word excruciating is the word ‘cruce’ which means cross.

What does that mean? Well, we were not left in darkness. Michael continued to explain that a death on the cross was a most excruciating one. We cannot know joy without pain and Jesus brings it to us through the very act of the ugliness and pain of dying on the cross.

Mary Ann and I looked at each other. We remembered Sandi Patti singing it to us, Ruth Graham speaking it to us as she shared of her loneliness, and Winsome Women Pastor, Patrick Bonnie, telling us it is all right to feel discouraged and hurt. If we but embrace it – we will eventually know Joy. My mother, Barbara Crumm, was not in the line up of presenters, but she should have been. She knew that you need to speak to God of the joy you find and share your praises with him. We were always finding at least a little joy together each day as mother and daughter.

The Plant/Bohlen family knows in the choice of the scripture for Mitch that feeding the hungry of Goodrich and beyond brought joy to Mitch. His food brought joy to us individually – come on, pause and think about it.

So….feel the pain, the joy; we know that our lights will shine with the presence of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit within us to erase that crippling darkness if we but return steadfastly to the journey. All these people have reminded us: Patrick, Sandi, Ruth, Michael, Barbara and Isaiah.

But perhaps most importantly, Isaiah intimates that not only the darkness within us can dissipate but the light of God will shine, bright as noon, all around us. That means we, too, can be sharers of joy and light. Michael spoke of the angels of God speaking to people in the Bible and he jokingly asked us, “What is the first thing the angels always say when they appear?” He was smiling broadly. We answered in a good approximation of a chorus, “Be not afraid!” Like, how can you not be, right? He laughs and pantomimes how we might all react if an angel appeared to us and basically says take your moment to be afraid, terrified, scared, heebie jeebied, whatever. Then get on with it! Praise, hurt, love, cry, find joy and shine the best we can at any given moment.

Amen and Amen! So be it! We agree this is true!

~Shauna Weil

A devotion provided by the Devotion Ministry of GUMC

Whether you’re ready for this much joy or not take a listen to Sandi Patty’s Step Into the Joy. Tip: If you can’t do the joy – listen to the verses as hard as you can.

October 18, 2021 Text Devotion

Posted on Oct 18, 2021 in Text Devotions |

Genesis 9:12-15, 17
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.

17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

I tell you, you sure have to be on the lookout for God signs in this world! We need to be fortified!! Reghan Bechtel was on duty a few days ago and caught these beautiful rainbows as she went past our farm. I was so thrilled she Snapchatted it to me. Look at its beauty and notice the absolute brilliance at the bottom of the clouds shining down to us.

Even though God made His covenant with Noah so so long ago, he still means for it to be a real vand meaningful promise for us yet today. Soak in Reghan’s work and her ability to appreciate it for what it was and to capture it and then….the BIGGIE….letting me share it so we all can be strengthened by God’s promise to care for each one of us. Each…and…everyone…of…us.

With head bowed, I humbly thank Reghan for reminding us all whose we are today. Little reminders feed us all for another space of time. Make sure you feast and why not

make a connection for keeps.

While this may not be theologically sound, take a listen to one of my favorite songs about rainbows sung by a frog. Yes, one of God’s creatures included in the scripture as ‘all life’. Here is my favorite frog.

~Shauna Weil

A devotion provided by the GUMC devotion ministry.

October 14, 2021 Text Devotion

Posted on Oct 14, 2021 in Text Devotions |

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

God has plans for us. I was reminded of that this morning as I made my way online to Bible Gateway to look up a scripture I had in mind for today’s devotion. As the site popped up before me, the scripture verse above was already there for the reading. It struck me because it crept right into my heart as assurance of the things our Goldendoodle Izzie and I have been contemplating hard today. (While Izzie is amazing, she cannot read, however she is an expert at providing support. ♥️)

I went to sleep last night with big questions for God and my mind was engaged in maximum gear to try to discern God’s intent. The best thing about this experience – the minute I began to talk to God, my heart was calm. Can you be peaceful yet troubled at the same time? I guess so, because I was.

I awoke this morning, got some courage from Izzie, and sought out God, presenting some of the same questions still niggling from the night before. My mind and heart were both at work praying and talking with God; hoping to know my God better so I can grow and serve Him in His way.

For one thing, I wanted to know if it was indeed right to want to use my mind and continually push to stretch it to learn and understand more of God’s will for me and to work and read and extend myself beyond what I thought were the limits, to understand how God is at work in this crazy, sad, sometimes hurtful, often mean fractured world we face today.

Am I supposed to do this difficult thing by continually engaging in desiring to learn and grow? Am I? Or am I supposed to sit and simply believe in God and call it quits? Izzie raised her beautiful eyes to me as if to say, has this all been resolved? I told her that we were sitting at a crossroads today, and I was almost going to relinquish the choice of path to her sometimes very able nose. After all, she is a beautiful companion to our whole family in life. She is beyond well loved!

Just let the dog decide, my mind faintly urged – just putting it out on the table. Was that where I was? Not to dismiss Izzie, but had I done that as an easy way out, we might have just ended up tracking a mole in our backyard. I smile and chuckle because I suspect this devotion would have then been very different and I would maybe have had a much more difficult time writing it.

So, alas, I let Izzie return to her nap and I headed to Bible Gateway and there was an answer to one of my questions on the opening screen. I didn’t even have to search. I picture Joan Turner lifting her finger and waggling it before me to pack her statement with emphasis, “See, again, God is always in it (meaning everything). You may not think so, but, ah, he is always in it.”

And indeed he is. Look at that verse from Romans! Clearly we aren’t supposed to just conform to this world! NO! And my heart begins to sing a bit. And the next bit of scripture clearly tells me I am supposed to use my mind. I am meant to think and dive deep and ask questions. In fact, God calls us to that very place in life where we work ourselves hard to understand and be instep with His wonderful, amazing, always mysterious ways! How ever are we going to discern His will if we don’t bring it to the table?

I will tell you, it is not always served up to you on a plate with the ringing of the dinner bell or hearing the excruciatingly loud whistle of your dad (my dad) calling you home from hither and yon to be fed. (An occurrence which often happened when we lived in the Goodrich parsonage.) We ran home hard because you didn’t want to hear that whistle twice.

And a new memory of my dad suddenly comes to me – and here my dad would sometimes pause for some time at the pulpit on a Sunday morning and then would eventually say, “I’ve just had a new thought about the scripture today. I’m going to share it with you.” He would then go off script and share his new thought.

I am going off script now straying from where I intended to go (you didn’t see my long pause as something occurred to me) and I believe I have my father’s blessing to do this. Yes, as kids, we ran home hard, we put ourselves to work, to get home to be fed. We were young, our parents fed us. I sit here and think about this memory of my father which popped into my head unbidden and I think of the latter part of the scripture above.

I was but a young child and understood but childish things. That was just a whistle to be heeded or else. Now I am an adult and my parents are no longer calling me home by whistle to be fed. I am an adult, and while I don’t think it wise in building your faith life to leave all childish things behind, I realize – maybe with a good dose of poignancy – I am an adult and I must now come home to feed myself regularly and often.

And just as my dad used his mind to bring messages to his congregations for well over 40 years, I too, will follow the passage from Romans and know that God intends for me to use my mind often and with good and noble intent to grow in discipleship and to discern the will of God in my life. It is all that is hopeful; it is God’s dearest wish for us to bend toward Him to learn His ways and hear of the plans he has for you and me; it is all that gives me a sense of calm. Small things, that can change a big world.

Do you hear a whistle coming to you on the wind? Or perhaps it is a sound that speaks to you more personally of childish things. Use your mind! It may be God calling you home to the feast he has prepared for you. You don’t want to be late.

Thank you Dad, Mom, Joan Turner, Jo Ann Miska, one of my mother’s oldest and dearest friends who was actually more than a friend, whom I spoke to at length and with depth yesterday, Shannon Byard who mentioned in a recent conversation of her love of learning; you all in your own ways have served to strengthen me. All of God’s messengers, thank you. I say to you all, come and be fed. My dad never allowed hats at the table but our Father God may just excuse us if we put our thinking caps on before we come to His table.

Let’s begin with grace:
My mom’s sister, our Aunt Helen used a piece of scripture verse often as our table grace. En famille we call it Aunt Helen’s Prayer. In my mind’s eye I can envision our family around her table, heads bowed, hands clasped. Let’s come before the Lord: “Whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, may we do all to the glory of God. Amen.”

We all may need to think on that just like the Romans were encouraged to do.

~Shauna Weil
A devotion provided by the GUMC devotion ministry.

October 9, 2021 Text Devotion

Posted on Oct 9, 2021 in Text Devotions |

Did anybody catch the beautiful rainbow in the sky yesterday afternoon? God’s wonderful promise that he will care for us. I did and was thankful for God’s reminder.

You have seen a few of Stephanie’s photos. The picture above is another one. She loves sunrise pics and this is another one, I think is so neat. It was only later I realized what she really captured. Read the following scripture:

Matthew 28:16-20
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Do you see it in Stephanie’s picture? I did. That is a photographic image found in God’s creation of Jesus’ assurance in the New Testament; similar to God’s assurance given to Noah, his family and all generations in the Old Testament.

You read that, of course, the disciples doubted that it was really Jesus when they first saw him on the mountain! Of course they doubted – didn’t Jesus himself, teach them for three years! Yes, yes…. but even as the chosen disciples, they remain human. They have times of doubt. I know, even at some of these pretty absurd moments we might judge. I would encourage us not to judge these folks as we are often so like them. Perhaps these occurrences are included in the Bible to reassure us today when we are so human as to doubt.

Have you seen this bit of reassurance from God’s world in Steph’s picture yet? It’s all there. Look at the tassels on those cornstalks – they form a triangle which represents the Holy Trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. (It is not an equilateral triangle, but God does not want pettiness. It’s a good triangle!) And rising at the bottom is the sun, or to give it totally away I could spell it Son. If busy farmer Steph had stayed there longer and waited, I’m confident that the ‘sun’ would have risen brightly to the middle of Trinity symbolized by corn tassels and its light would have shown forth touching all sides of those framing tassels. I take this beautiful photo as an assurance to those of us who doubt. And whether you will admit to it or not, we surely do in our lives have those scary moments when we doubt.

Doubt is merely a bout of maybe one or more of many human emotions. Fear, anxiety, loneliness, shame, insecurity, depression, grief, lack of will, indecisiveness and I could go on and on. Pick the emotion that you know causes you to doubt most easily. Pray about that.

But know without a doubt, even when you may be mushing through a bout of doubt, Jesus says to you even today, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Remember even Jesus’ chosen disciples doubted but they returned and thanked our God and His son Jesus Christ for saving them yet again from their sidetracks on the journey. And let’s remember to continually gives thanks to that wonderful Holy Spirit that resides within us and is there to guide us.

The THREE IN ONE. God didn’t mind tripling down on us, His beloved. Praises to the Almighty for always seeing how we need reassurance and providing it for all time!

~Shauna Weil
A devotion provided on behalf of the GUMC devotion ministry.

PS The accompanying song is so gentle and beautiful – let it slip quietly into your soul.

October 6, 2021 Text Devotion

Posted on Oct 6, 2021 in Text Devotions |

Isaiah 26:4

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal

Philippians 4:8-13

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
10 I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

The scriptures above are words from the prophet Isaiah and words from Jesus’ disciple Paul to the Philippians. They are both words or conversations spoken to encourage us to rest in the Lord. Oh, aren’t we weary at times, and aren’t we eager for the rest that takes away the worries of the times we live in? I know I find myself that way often. Let’s find comfort in those words.

Now let’s bring the scripture right into this time and place. Today I am going to share with you two short conversations I was honored to be a part of with present day disciples because they showed me a way to rest in the Lord in this modern day and time. A NOW reiteration of the lessons above from people like you and me – present day disciples.

Conversations. I have found that we need to just keep talking to each other for our own benefit and the benefit of others. Try hard for grace and kindness with others even though we may be stressed by lots of things all at once and you will be blessed.

Here are my recountings of a couple conversations that I have had recently that have simply inspired me and, as a result, I have come away renewed in my faith. I was texting with Renee Worley, letting her know that I was praying for her and Dave as he deals with Covid. Renee and Dave are members of our church family.

And I will say first, that I enjoy our text conversations because Renee has a habit of saying something that always sets me apondering about my faith. Well, she did it again, thank goodness! In response to my opening text, she replied:

“Thank you! We will take all the prayers we can get. God has been awesome throughout this whole process. The strength that God has given me has been just what I needed.

”

I was struck especially by that last sentence. To me it read God has given me, not an over abundance, but simply just what I need. God can indeed be a lavish God but see the humbleness in Renee’s response? It reminds me of Isaiah above and that last verse of Philippians above, my Dad’s verse and a family favorite. Paul is given strength through Jesus Christ as he needs it to do the Holy work that has been set before him. I have been thinking about Renee’s humbleness. Maybe we need to humble ourselves as we pray so we can respond just as beautifully as Renee did. Think about it. I know I have been since we had the conversation.

The second conversation was with Joan Sefa Turner. Many of you will know her as a Goodrich citizen fixture in the community as well as in our schools. She was my high school librarian. After all these years we have bonded again over toffee of all things and have become faith sisters. We think it was meant to be – we need each other. For those of you who do not know her, she is a petite human dynamo, devout Catholic, and prayer warrior. She is very direct and totally funny. Her word choice is extremely hilarious at times which you might not expect from a demure classic librarian but it is extremely direct and gets her point across quickly. We laugh a lot.

She is recently proclaimed cancer free after a lengthy treatment for a cancer diagnosis. I stopped by to drop off a gift to celebrate with her and we had a wonderful discussion. She long ago asked to be added to the list of people who receive these devotions. We talked about the last devotion as she was particularly fond of the Ecclesiastes passage chosen. I said to her, what about that 11th verse? Can you believe that God tucked all of eternity in our hearts and yet we still can’t understand it all? To me this was a profound conundrum of faith. He gave it to us but our human minds can’t even figure it out. Oh my goodness. I’m like, “What’s it all about Joan? Tell me the wonders of God right now, this is niggling at me bad!”

(Niggling – a word my son Drew uses when you have given him just enough information but not enough for him to understand it all. He does not deal with this situation well and pleads with whomever, usually me, saying that it will niggle at his brain constantly until he can understand. Oh, poor poor Drew. )

Well, now this is niggling hard at me and I am looking down into the direct eyes of Joan asking to be relieved of my unsettledness. She looks at me and delivers a direct salvo to my heart, “I know, isn’t it wonderful?”

“But God does that and then we are not even allowed to understand it?” I practically whine.

This is the salvo, as she waves her hand dismissively, “Yeah, yeah, that’s why we walk by faith and not by sight.”

Boom! Drop the mic. She is done because God has given us enough and we don’t need to nor can we understand everything about God. She walks humbly as well. I am properly chastened but empowered by her answer and also highly amused because to her it is just that simple and I have been off on a faith goose chase again.

These two people in my life are delightful and keep me grounded and my faith strong. There are many others who dwell in this circle – how fortunate I am! I am so humbled, truly, by all the present day Saints I can reach out to for help. You know who you are and I give thanks because you give to me so freely what I don’t always know I need to keep moving forward as a disciple.

I hope you all have a circle of Saints around you and you have faith discussions regularly with them. If you don’t, begin reaching out, I’m sure you will find a warm reception or someone who was just waiting to be reached out to. We all can be on the growing edge of faith, that’s where I like to live these days. And I have been reminded by two wonderful people that if I am humble, I will be given just enough through Christ who strengthens me to walk my faith journey.

Just enough is more than enough with God.

~Shauna Weil

A devotion provided as part of the GUMC devotion ministry.

Love from God’s creation to you. This heart was spied by Dan, my husband, as we investigated Snake Island up on Bois Blanc Island.

October 2, 2021 Text Devotion

Posted on Oct 2, 2021 in Text Devotions |

Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

Life. A space of time. But yet a beautiful continuum. Stephanie, my farmer photographer daughter, who sees beauty in many things, took the picture above. I love her perspective. This is life on the farm. What looks like a dead crop of soybeans is actually part of the life cycle of God’s creation. This is the time for harvest and yet there is a sunrise bathing those beans in its life giving caress. Imagine the darkness predawn and the light slowly rising over its horizon, touching everything in its path. God did indeed create a beautiful circle of life. Read again from Ecclesiastes all that there is a season for in this world paying close attention to verse 11. Some of it is truly a tough journey to get through. We may wonder, as the beloved humans in His creation, where God is at times.

Ecclesiastes tells us God is in all of it!

God tells us, “I will be with you.”

That is something worth hanging on to.

~Shauna Weil

A devotion provided on behalf of the GUMC devotion ministry.

September 29, 2021 Text Devotion

Posted on Sep 30, 2021 in Text Devotions |

I have recently been away. I enjoyed where I was and what I was doing. Then it was time to come home. Do you know that feeling of coming back to what is your home space? You just see your house from the road and you feel reassured by the familiar; you step in the door and you feel more safe and secure, or maybe as you move around, you just feel comfortable and snuggle into being back in your own digs.

Now I realize that there may be people who do not feel a sense of security that is innate with their home space. This comparison may not resonate with you – so if you do have a safe place for yourself, call it to mind.

Coming home in our faith can bring some of these same types of deep emotions to the surface. I have these mini-homecomings all the time. Don’t feel none of us who calls ourselves disciples ever moves away from closeness to God as we go through our days. In my mind, there is no shame or cry of foul on someone, nor should there ever be. We are human – I think God understands and simply yearns for these homecomings however and whenever they arrive. That is when we draw close again to God and he feels our true deep sometimes almost desperate expressions of our love for Him.

To God, this is beautiful to His ears and, though hard to comprehend, know he never stopped loving us. Not even for a hot second. In these moments though, hopefully, you can feel the immense depth of love he has for you. Don’t let yourself get in the way of a good dousing of matchless love.

So, if you have been away and want and need to return, simply do so. No grand entrance needed – just come on home. The reasons that cause this are countless and I suspect are really rather immaterial in God’s incomprehensibly expansive view of the ways of His people. He made us, you think he doesn’t know us? Just read the Bible! Trust me, He knows us. God is always ready for a homecoming of any sort – mini or major.

His arms are open – just turn your eyes and spy that welcome mat that is already out for you whether you are hurt, lost, suffering loss, feeling unworthy, feeling shame, or just busy and lost track of your connection. Yes, the welcome is for YOU, not the other you behind and to the side of you. You! I mean you! Your name is already known and has been spoken. So turn your eyes toward Jesus…..

Listen to Lauren Daigle’s beautiful voice and musicianship below as they bring us home and help us know it is where we need to be.

~Shauna Weil

A devotion on behalf of the GUMC Devotion ministry

September 24, 2021 Text Devotion

Posted on Sep 24, 2021 in Text Devotions |

I wanted to send this devotion out yesterday as a video but I couldn’t as the file was too large. I just figured out a way to kinda get it done! Sorry my brain cells don’t work fast.

I was talking about my mother’s Bible that I use often. Her Good News Bible shows years of faithful wear on it. I don’t think I dare call it a patina. But it is comfortingly worn.

I also said that I had a text conversation with a friend that included sharing comfort, love and compassion. At the end, I think we both wished we could see each other. I began to ponder about how to do better being God’s presence in situations such as this one – because I believe we are often called to be just that for those around us.

I began to think of ways my mom shared those things with me and perhaps my siblings. But first let me share a few scripture passages about comfort, singing and compassion.

Colossians 3:16: Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

Isaiah 40:1: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Isaiah 49:13: Shout for joy, you heavens, rejoice you earth, burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion.

One of the ways I remembered my mom comforting us was to sing a snippet of a song to us. My mom had lots of ditties she sang to us. I don’t know where they came from but she sang them to us. This one was, I discovered for this devotion, a snippet of two lines from a song sung by Paul Robeson called Mah Lindy Lou. The earliest recording I found was 1932 and my mom would have been 7 at the time. I don’t know if mom created this or someone in her family – her mother or father or a sibling – the Yunkers were a musical bunch!

Now take a moment and listen to what my mom sang to me to give me comfort or show her compassion and love for me. She did not really sing it, rather she crooned it. It is not like we think of Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin singing but crooning can mean something that is different from singing. It was more like humming or singing in a murmuring style softly, like mothers would croon to their young. There is a video below. Take a look and pick up afterwards.

See, just a short sweet piece that did the trick every time she crooned that to me. I loved to hear her alto voice layer me in reverberations of sound. Now, I think of the construction of those sentences and I think – who was really telling me they loved me? I always thought it was my mom, but maybe it was the mockingbird through his song, maybe it was God or maybe it was God using my mom to show me love by singing praises and thereby comforting me.

I like to think of my mom singing that song to my friend. It would have comforted her, I’m sure. I look at mom’s Good News Bible and if I put a finger over one O in Good it becomes God News Bible – the Bible is God’s news and it is indeed good news!

It is full of compassion and comfort and love and calls us to sing to God and on his behalf. Music comes from God and I have no doubt that he would croon for us as His young. Think about that…..we are God’s young. He is so much older that any of us that we all fit into this one sweet category, no barriers of any sort can be drawn or made. God would croon to us, his young.

My mother mimicked that for me to comfort me. To teach me His ways. Why not? Why couldn’t that be, even if she wasn’t quite conscious of what she was doing. So, this is for my friend and all of you out there who need comfort and compassion shown to you or you need to be the giver. Whether you choose to sing or not, let’s be aware and ready as God calls us to minister to each other and let’s be present for whose sake? For God’s sake and the sake of His people, each and every one.

And all God’s people crooned, Amen.

~Shauna Weil

A devotion on behalf of the Goodrich UMC Devotion Ministry