Eden Prairie United Methodist Church
Connect with Us!
  • Home
  • Being Church
    • Crops For PROP
    • Serving Our Neighbors
    • Fellowship >
      • Women's Retreat
      • Church Directory
  • Children | Youth
    • Nursery
    • Sunday School (Preschool through 7th grade)
    • Especially for Families
    • Rooted (3rd - 4th grade)
    • Vacation Bible School
    • Middle School Youth (Grades 7-8)
    • Confirmation (8th-9th grade)
    • Higher Ground (10th-12th grade)
  • Music
    • Adult Music Opportunities
  • About EPUMC
    • Worship
    • Staff
    • Notes from Pastor Becky Jo
    • Lay Leadership
    • A Reconciling Congregation
    • Tumbleweed Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Annual Report
    • Sermons
    • Calendar
  • Prayer
  • Online Giving
  • Contact Us

Weekly Memo: Moments   of  praise

3/24/2018

Comments

 
This week the spiritual practice we are learning about in order to get ready for Easter is “Praise.” I’ve just had an experience that I think fits what Praising God is in my life, beyond all the shouting we so often attach to it.
 
I’m up at the family cabin most of this week. As many of you know, I come up here to plan ahead for sermons. I had barely unpacked and was looking out the window when I saw five deer peacefully feeding about 50 feet from the cabin. It was beautiful, serene, all you could hope for in the first 10 minutes of being up here. 
 
What do you call that sense of surprise and a bit of awe and wonder when you encounter such surprises of beauty?  I’m sure there is a word for it, but it escapes me right now. It has to be something like a subtle joy, a deeper connection to something mysterious and beyond me. I know in some respects seeing deer was just a little thing, but it was just a little thing happening to me and I was grateful. I didn’t know who or what to thank, so I just stayed by the window watching, as the deer walked down the embankment and onto the frozen lake.
 
There are moments in all of our lives when we are caught off guard, surprised by the beauty of a moment and do not know what to do with it. Some of us will reach for our phone to get a picture or even a video. Others of us will remember something else that has to be done and get to something productive. Still others will begin to dissect what is going on and why some of the deer are eating and others watching and what they are eating and…..
 
When these moments of awe and wonder arrive unannounced at our soul’s doorstep, it is sometimes important to do nothing more than pay attention to that part of us that wants to thank something. When this happens and you allow yourself to just stand there or sit there or lie there and say, “Wow!” or “Thank You.”
Or “I can’t believe this is happening.”  That my friends, is Praise.
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
 
 
Comments

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2012

    RSS Feed

Connect with us!
office@prairiechurch.org
(952) 937-8781

15050 Scenic Heights Road
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Picture
Picture