Last week was a long weekend. It was the Memorial Day weekend, a weekend indeed where many might be able to slow down or to spend some extra time with family and friends, but it is a time when we might also remember the many who have sacrificed so that we can enjoy the blessings, the lives, and the things that we do. It’s of course a great time too, to say “thank you” to the many who have actively served in our military, who currently serve in the military, and also to pause and gratefully remember those who sacrificed their very lives for the ideals of freedom that we hold dear. While a time when we might enjoy the moment of pause, we take a moment (even here and now) to remember that the long weekend has come at the steepest cost for some…
So last Sunday many of you gathered round the table which has become familiar. And (thanks be to God!) Kerm & Sharon facilitated the study (THANK YOU!). You began in prayer. And then was the check-in, the homework of course was to be praying life all week and to see what happens. I hear that many examples were shared, that praying life was something that was a constant opportunity — something that we are called to ALWAYS be doing. This of course does not make it necessarily easy (how often is that the case, we know what we are to do….but we find it rather difficult….didn’t Paul have something to say about this? 🙂 ) And it also seems that there was a rich conversation about if it is better to pray aloud or silently? The consensus seemed to offer that ANY prayer is good, though the observation was made that praying aloud is often more focused and on-task….seems when we’re silent prayers we also can wander to the mental to-do list and such.
And as is custom we made the turn to scripture — the focus last Sunday being 1 verse, Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. (New International Version)
And the discussion from this scripture noticed that this seems to call for a continual living in God’s presence. A continual living and walking in God’s presence. But of course what does it mean to walk with God? To walk humbly with God? What does it mean to act justly and to love mercy? Can we walk with God if we do not act justly? Can we walk with God if we don’t love mercy? And what about when we don’t, won’t, can’t? And what about when we want to RUN with God in this way?
Lucky of course for us all the homework invites us to consider this! So — the homework is to answer, what does it me to “walk humbly with your God?” And the extra credit (which I hope many are encouraged to do….) is to be ready to share an example from your own life of what walking humbly with God looks like!
Prayers of favor and covering — prayers of LIFE over you until we gather again!
~ Rev. Sabrina Slater