Saturday Smile - Pachyderm Psyche

Friday Favorites - Good Friday Service at Valley

Join us for a meaningful time of worship and reflection at Valley Christian Church tonight.

Thursday Thinking - Saying the Right Thing

Thank you to Becky Watczak for sharing this very helpful article with great insights for determining how to say the right thing to the right person during difficult and stressful situations. The key principle is to "Comfort in," and to "dump out." Very much worth your time.  CLICK HERE TO READ (5 minutes)

How Not to Say the Wrong Thing 
April 07, 2013 | Susan Silk and Barry Goldman | Los Angeles Times
It works in all kinds of crises -- medical, legal, even existential.
It's the 'Ring Theory' of kvetching. The first rule is comfort in, dump out.

Wednesday Words - Bicycle Spring

Windy, sunny, and Sunday,
the afternoon of your father's promise,
you will learn to ride your bike:

your father breathing hard
pushes, runs at your side,
one hand on the handlebars,
the other firm on the seat,

launching you like a glider
to soar long seconds
before wobbling to crash
in the soft green field

until you know how to ride
suddenly except for the brakes
and your father suddenly
is a speck waving way behind.

as you pedal toward strange sights
in blocks where he
has forbidden you to walk.

"Bicycle Spring" by Kevin FitzPatrick, from Down on the Corner. 
© Midwest Villages and Voices.

Tuesday Tome - Vance Havner: Peace Like a River

Yesterday, a friend gave me this little, out-of-print book of folksy meditations by Vance Havner. I will enjoy reading it. Havner's style is a strong dose of old gospel preacher with a good measure of winsome humorist thrown in. Thanks, Jerry!

Publisher's description...
This third collection of meditations, after the pattern of By the Still Waters and Rest Awhile, makes no claim to be profound. Surely in these days we must all be “fed up” with efforts at profundity. A miserable generation, buried under the ruins of its Tower of Babel needs simple truth like sick bodies need old-fashioned air and rest and sunshine. Like David in the cave of Adullam, men long for a drink of water from the well at Bethlehem. This little volume seeks to offer a cooling drink to parched souls in a dry land where no water is. It is offered in the name of Him who invited all to drink of Living Waters never to thirst again. “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” There is good news from heaven: it is a day of good tidings from above and we would not hold our peace

Monday Music - Joyful, Joyful

Here is a song that always feels like springtime to me...

JOYFUL, JOYFUL - CLICK HERE OR ON IMAGE TO LISTEN

Saturday Smile - Excellent Shot, Your Highness

Friday Favorites - The Spider John Legacy

This will be a good show.

THE SPIDER JOHN LEGACY: 
A celebration of folk music on the West Bank

Spider John Koerner, Willie Murphy & Tony Glover, Chip Taylor Smith & Paul Strother (Boston), The Cactus Blossoms (duo), Lonesome Dan Kase, Jack Klatt, Dave Babb and Grant Johnson

Sun, April 9, 2017
Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 7:30 pm
Cedar Cultural Center
$18 Advance / $20 Day of show

From the Cedar Cultural Center website...

The Spider John Legacy
To think about the West Bank folk music scene is to think of Spider John Koerner. For 50 years, Koerner has explored the ranges of traditional American song. He enrolled in 1956 at the University of Minnesota as an engineering student, but in early 1958, he became a student of the burgeoning folk scene. With a borrowed guitar and a Burl Ives song book, he began a journey which helped shape the course of American country blues and folk music, with a music career taking him to stages throughout North America and Europe. Join us at The Cedar Cultural Center on April 9th as we celebrate his music and enduring legacy, from the West Bank to the world.

Thursday Thinking - When God Feels Distant

The new video in John Ortberg's "Jesus on Location" series is up.

The topic? "When God Feels Distant." It's the Palm Sunday installment, on the Dallas Willard Center for Spiritual Formation website through Pentecost. Don't miss it!

Check it out when you've got about 25 minutes to enjoy it.

CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE

Wednesday Words - Looking at the Sky

I never will have time
I never will have time enough
To say
How beautiful it is
The way the moon
Floats in the air
As easily
And lightly as a bird
Although she is a world
Made all of stone.

I never will have time enough
To praise
The way the stars
Hang glittering in the dark
Of steepest heaven
Their dewy sparks
Their brimming drops of light
So fresh so clear
That when you look at them
It quenches thirst.

"Looking at the Sky" by Anne Porter, from Living Things: Collected Poems.
© Zoland Books, 2006.

Tuesday Tome - Being Christian

This is a great this little book by Rowan Williams – just eighty pages, four chapters. Very helpful, humble, and beautifully written.

From the Publisher...
In this simple, beautifully written book Rowan Williams explores four essential components of the Christian life: baptism, Bible, Eucharist, and prayer. Despite huge differences in Christian thinking and practice both today and in past centuries, he says, these four basic elements have remained constant and indispensable for the majority of those who call themselves Christians.

In accessible, pastoral terms Williams discusses the meaning and practice of baptism, the Bible, the Eucharist, and prayer, inviting readers to really think through the Christian faith and how to live it out. Questions for reflection and discussion at the end of each chapter help readers to dig deeper and apply Williams's insights to their own lives.

Walter Brueggemann
-- author of Reality, Grief, Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks
"Who better than Rowan Williams to be our teacher about the essentials of Christianity! In this clear, accessible exposition, we get Williams at his best - worldly-wise, pastorally gentle, grounded deeply in tradition, acutely alert to the real world of violence where God indwells. Williams ushers us more deeply into our best discernment of the Christian life."


M. Craig Barnes
-- President of Princeton Theological Seminary
"The genius of this little book is that it gets right to the heart of the essential Christian experience. . . . We are simply invited to enter the new life discovered through the core practices of the church."

Monday Music - Penny Annie

Here's a song from my Breathe a Little Deeper album...

CLICK HERE OR ON IMAGE TO LISTEN

Sunday Supplication - Your Direction and Wisdom

Almighty God, we come to you today asking you to help us to submit our wills and our desires to Yours. Help us to live stable lives with your direction and wisdom. Help us to love your commands and to delight in your promises as we face the challenges and changes all around us. Give us your joy and peace in every circumstance.

Forgive us our sins, O God. Lead us away from temptation. You are so faithful to forgive and restore those who have sinned against you. Help us to be faithful to forgive and restore those who sin against us.

O God, give us the eyes to see your goodness, and the minds to remember your faithfulness to your people throughout history. Give us hearts that are ready to worship you all day every day, and voices that are quick to sing your praise.

Through Christ, we pray. Amen

Saturday Smile - Making the Case