"Midweek and Two Questions and an Assignment" Pastor Cindy's Devotion 06/02/2021

 

Good morning friends!

Today I have two questions for you and an assignment.  All this leads up to worship on Sunday. 

The questions:

Question #1:  When has someone told you that they believed in you?  They may not have said it in those exact words, but when have you known by someone’s words or actions that they believed in you?  That they believed you had the personal character to do what needed to be done?  That you would do your best to do the right thing? 

Question #2:  How did it make you feel?  Did knowing that someone believed in you change your behavior, make you try a little harder, trust yourself a little more?

I think of times when I was a young teen and my parents would go out for the evening and leave me at home.  They believed in me.  I admit, if they stayed out late, there were times when I was a little scared, but they believed in me, so maybe I could believe in me.

In 2017 at my ordination, I knelt and Bishop Julius Trimble put his hand on my head and said “take thou authority” and lead the church.  It was his way of saying we believe in you.  It felt good.  It was also followed by a lot of responsibility.  There were many times when I was called to do more than I thought I was capable of.  But the Bishop believed in me, so maybe I could believe in me, dig deep and find a little more courage. 

Who has believed in you? 

And now the assignment.  Learning that someone believes in you is a powerful thing.  We can give the gift of belief to others.  So today, give some thought to the people you believe in and tell them.  Let them know what you see in them and why you believe in them. 

And then, join in worship on Sunday and we will talk more about who believes what and what a difference it makes. 

Every blessing to you on this beautiful day,

Pastor Cindy

Pastor Cindy Hickman

West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Avenue
West Des Moines Iowa 50265
515-279-0926

Like us on Facebook or visit us at wdmumc.org

AND join in worship in person or online.  Whatever is right for you! 

In-Person Worship at 9 a.m. this Sunday!  Note the new time.   This service is live-streamed!

And online at 9:25 a.m. 

Coming Up At WDMUMC

The Iowa State Fair!  The best state fair anywhere is back August 12-22 and our food stand will be back.  And we need volunteers.  Working at the food stand means making walking tacos and egg sandwiches and LOTS and LOTS of friends!  You can sign up to volunteer at wdmumc.org.  WHOOO!  HOOO!  How Iowa has fun! 

Wisdom Worship Service on June 27th.  We are inviting our 90+ members to share their wisdom with us.  If you are 90 or older and would like to be part of this, please reply to this mail.  We want to hear what your faith has meant to you!

Vespers is back!  This Sunday afternoon Bill and Helen Brantley are again hosting a vespers service at Edgewater and Pastor Cindy will preach.  So good to be with our friends at Edgewater. 

Welcome, Paige and Sara!  Paige and Sara Little will be baptized this Sunday.  They are the daughters of Lisa (Hickman) and Ryne Little and the granddaughters of Cindy and Dave Hickman.  Congratulations! 

A note from Pastor Cindy:  As I approach retirement, please no gifts.  You all have been a gift to me!

 

"Midweek: We Belong to One Another" Pastor Cindy's Devotion 05/04/2021

 

Good morning friends,

Every Monday morning shortly after 10 o’clock, a small group of men arrives at the church.   They’ve come to ring the bell as a memorial to the people across Iowa who have died in the previous week due to COVID.  At 10:30, whether it is pouring rain or minus 17 degrees or if we have glorious blue skies that seem oblivious to the sad loss of life, we announce the number of deaths and we ring the bell.  It is a solemn moment.  We imagine the grieving families and their heartache, hoping that this recognition in some small way acknowledges their pain and lets them know that others are thinking of them. 

After we ring the bell, we gather in the narthex.  Sometime during the 49 weeks that we have been doing this, someone started bringing donuts.  A pot of coffee appears, and we circle up chairs at a COVID-advised distance, and for half an hour or so we talk. 

Maybe this is a reaction to the acknowledgment of death, a bit like the luncheon after a funeral, a time to reaffirm that despite the loss, life is good, and we are here together.

Over all these weeks we have talked about babies born, grandchildren's adventures, mailboxes, Corvettes, heart surgery, dental work, how far one person traveled to get married, computer challenges, and car accidents, all the adventures that make up life.  We tell our stories and share our lives.

And you know what God has done. 

God has turned a shared task into a place of belonging, friendship. 

It’s happened to you.  A work-group at the office, a yoga class at the Y, soccer parents standing at the edge of the field, even a committee at church, a group gathered for some particular task.  While you are at the task, you begin to tell your stories, and something just as important as the task happens friendship forms.  When the task is over, what you take away is friendship, a sense of caring about others, and being cared for.  Maybe this is even more important than the task.  Ask someone who worked at the church’s State Fair Stand what it was like.  They will not tell you how gratifying it was to serve biscuits and gravy.  They probably won’t even tell you how much money the stand made the day they worked and how that advanced the mission of the church. They will tell you about the people they met and worked with. 

We belong to one another.  We are God-designed to be connected.  Mother Teresa said, “If we have no peace, it’s because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”  We like to think that we are independent individuals, standing on our own, making our own decisions, but we are deeply connected.  To deny our connection creates conflict and only brings us pain.  It is the stuff of war. 

This pandemic has demonstrated again and again how deeply we are connected, how dependent we are on one another.  We depended on medical providers to step up, work harder and longer, to meet the needs of covid patients.  We discovered how much we depend on farm and grocery workers all along the supply chain to get food to our tables.  Scientists working in far-off labs squinted over microscopes to develop vaccines to keep us safe.  And friends, on computer screens or in texts or from a distance of six feet at our door, checked in on us, reminded us that we were not alone.  That we belong to one another. 

In silent, often imperceptible ways, God moves among us, drawing us to one another.  God is love. That is an incredible gift, received with gratitude and handled with great care.   

Thanks be to God. 

Blessings,

Pastor Cindy

Pastor Cindy Hickman

West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Ave
West Des Moines Iowa 50265
515-279-0826

Like us on Facebook or visit us at WDMUMC.org

And join us for worship!  We worship at 8:30 in-person in our sanctuary.  Please wear a mask and plan to social distance.  There’s room for you!  This service is live-streamed—so you can catch it on our Facebook page.

We also worship in an online worship service that premieres every Sunday at 9:30.  Worship in the way that is right for you! And know you are among friends. 

 

Coming Up At WDMUMC--

All Church Picnic May 12th at 5:30 in Raccoon River Park in the shelters.  Bring a lawn chair and wear a mask as you are comfortable.  It’s time to reconnect!  We will pray a little, laugh a lot and share in a meal.  We can still use servers.  Email Pastor Cindy if you would like to help. 

Memorial Remembrance

Friday, May 7th at 1:30 we hold a memorial service for Jackie Johnson.  We will remember this much-loved wife and mother and friend.  Please hold Bob and his family in prayer in this time of sadness. 

 

"Midweek Friends" Pastor Cindy's Devotion 04/28/2021

 

Hello friends,

We are in the last week of our worship series on friendship, and it has been fun renewing friendships and making new friends. 

But, when Jesus called us “friends,” he may have been thinking of friendship a little bit differently than we typically think of it.  We tend to think of friends as a private relationship between two people or a group of people.  We are possessive of our friends.  We claim them saying things like “Sally is my friend.” Friendship is personal. 

The people in Jesus’ day had a different understanding of friendship.  At that time, being a friend was a role you learned.  When Jesus called people together, they learned how to be friends, maybe the way we might learn how to be a musician or a chef.  They learned friendship by following Christ and practicing things compassion and caring, sharing and mercy, empathy, and forgiveness.  When a musician becomes skilled, they share their music with the world.  When a chef becomes good at preparing food, they cook for a broader audience. In Jesus’ day, when you became skilled at being a friend, you lived as a friend in the world in all your encounters.  You were a friend to God and people and the entire world.

Jesus wasn’t looking for a clique of followers.  He was forming disciples who could live as friends to the world for God.  

Kind of interesting, don’t you think?  What if each of us, as followers of Christ, lived as a friend in the world—not just to particular people, but to everyone?  What if we all listed “friend” on our resume as our profession?  What if a church was a place where friends gathered to practice and improve their skills at being friends so that they could be better friends in the world? 

It all just has me thinking. I will soon need new business cards. What if my new business cards simply read “Friend”?  Could I live up to that? 

BTW:  what’s on your business card? 

According to Jesus, what should be on all our business cards? 

Blessings and see you Sunday,

Pastor Cindy

Pastor Cindy Hickman

West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Avenue
West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
515-279-0826

Like us on Facebook or visit us at wdmumc.org.

Worship!  (Where people become friends!)  We worship in person at 8:30 on Sunday mornings.  That service is live-streamed and available all week long.

And at 9:30 we post an online worship service.  Worship in the way that is right for you!  This Sunday we will be sharing in Holy Communion. 

WDMUMC News!

Hello Edgewater!  We will resume worship services with the residents at Edgewater this Sunday.  We have missed you!

All Church Picnic!  Mark your calendars!  May 12th at 5:30 at a shelter at Raccoon River Park.  Bring a lawn chair and we will provide the food! 

Memorial Service for Jackie Johnson This service will be held in our sanctuary on May 7th at 1:30.  Please keep Bob and his family in prayer.