319-352-2590 triumc@gmail.com

March 30, 2020

Here’s A Few:  Idea to Live By . . . .

  • Participate in our Five Friends program. Ross is looking for volunteers to call five church members during the week, that’s one per day, to keep in touch and in love one with the other. Call Ross for names and numbers at:319-331-7541.You just may meet a new friend!
  • Exercise every day. Ideas: if you need a flat space to walk get out on the sidewalk or in a parking lot and walk; take a walk with the other captive members of your household – the Rail Trail is a great place to see the outdoors and be safe.
  • Clean out your flower beds or the flower beds of a neighbor
  • Spend 15 minutes in prayer and silence. The silent time is the time you wait for the Lord to talk back to you. Have a note pad ready as the ideas that come to you will fade quickly if you don’t make note of them.
  • Read the final chapter in Restored: Finding Redemption in our Mess. The study group that is working on the book Sunday at 9:30 in a ZOOM conference. Let me know if you need a book or an invitation to join the Zoom meeting. ALL are welcome.

 
In the reading for this past week in Restored there is a paragraph that I want to pass along to you. “(The Greek word) Perispao describes our inner life when we are anxious over what’s happening around us. It involves being diverted from our lives with God because we’re so energetically fulfilling our roles and responsibilities. In attempting to get everything right, we forget or avoid God’s gracious presence. Distracted from Christ, we enter a downward cycle into the mess. Suddenly we say things we regret and do things we shouldn’t. In trying to clean up the old mess, we make a new one.”

This is a time of closeness with our families if we are lucky enough to have our love ones with us. That closeness provides wonderful opportunities to catch up on ‘being family’. Remember that often consensus works better than authoritarianism, smiles rather than defiles, and sharing rather than just bearing.

Be safe, be loving, and be the loving presence of God.                                                 
Pastor Tom