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I call you friends...

Hi Friends

Jesus said, "I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends… You did not choose me but I chose you."

As we walk with Jesus this Holy Week, remember who you are walking with. We are not walking with a high and mighty messiah, but with someone who calls you his friend. The one who loves you, who calls you by name, and calls you his friend is the one who you are walking with this week.

One of my favorite words is “beloved” and the sense of “be loved.” This week amidst all the stuff we are doing, remember to take time to be loved.

With a smile.
Rob

Posted by The Rev. Dr. Rob Voyle with

People in the Church love Change

Hi Folks

Several years ago the devout lady who headed our intercessor group told me that people in the church don’t like change. I thought to myself, and told the lady, “that is the craziest thing I had heard.” She was rather confused by my response and I said, “you of all people love change, because I am sure in your intercessions you are not praying ‘O, Lord keep Muriel’s cancer just the way it is, because Muriel and I don’t like change.’” People come to church seeking to be blessed, and a blessing is always a change.

One of my teachers, Stephen Gilligan once said, "People don’t want to be changed, they want to be blessed." And I believe that to be very true. While a blessing is a change, we in the church need to get out of the change management business and back into the blessing business.

Technically a blessing is any outcome that is more valuable than the starting point plus the cost of the resources (time, money, effort, energy, material) to get there. What people resist like crazy is any outcome of lesser value, and especially one that requires a lot of resources to achieve. Let’s face it, only an idiot would gladly work hard and spend lots of resources to achieve something of less value than they started with. (Be assured, as a psychologist, they learned me how to detect idiocy in school and none of you are ;-) )

The current pandemic has caused radical change. Our task is not to manage it nor endure it and go back to normal, but to transform that into a blessing. If Almighty God can transform the darkest day of history, when humanity killed the Son of God, into the day that death was defeated, then I think the children of God, empowered by God’s love, can transform this current misery into a blessing. I know you have already blessed me in this situation and I observe how you are blessing one another.

Thank you for being agents of blessing.

With a smile,
Rob  

Posted by The Rev. Dr. Rob Voyle with

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