"Midweek and All of Creation is in Our Hands" Pastor Cindy's Devotion 06/26/2019

Happy Wednesday!

This Sunday in worship we will be sharing the story of Noah.

Do you remember Noah?  God watched over the world and was discouraged by the wickedness of humankind. God decided to do a do-over and wash the world clean of human beings with a flood.  Not everything would be destroyed, just human beings.  The rest of creation would be saved.  God needed help with this part of the plan.  God called on Noah and asked him to build an ark and fill it with pairs of every animal on earth.

And Noah did it.  Built an ark, gathered up owls and zebras and aardvarks and Noah’s own family, loaded them in the ark and for days and days waited out the flood.  Noah was faithful and courageous.

God actually put all of creation in Noah’s hands.  Quite a responsibility, don’t you think?

As strange and outrageous as it may seem, I think God still puts all of creation in our hands and asks us to care for it.  Creation.   The air and sea and the sky.  Mountains and valleys and deserts.  In the first few chapters of scripture, God hands the stewardship of the earth over to us.  We are caretakers, not owners, just temporary help.

Spring comes to Iowa and the world is green and lush.  We know the power of our soil to produce amazing crops.  This Sunday Courtney will sing “What a Wonderful World” and it is a wonderful world.

You have to marvel at God.  Why would anyone put something as beautiful as the earth in the hands of people like us?  How much God trusts us.  What faith God has in us.

Hold out your hands!  God has placed the care of all creation in our hands!

Blessings!  And see you on Sunday!
Pastor Cindy
Pastor Cindy Hickman
West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Avenue
West Des Moines Iowa 50265
515-279-0826

PS:  If you want to read the story of Noah, you can find it in Genesis chapters 6-10. 
Like us on Facebook or visit us at wdmumc.org.

We worship on Sunday mornings at 8:30 in a traditional way and at 11 in a casual way.  You are invited!

This week at WDMUMC:
Walk and Worship!  Tonight at 6 pm meet Morganne at Raccoon River Nature Lodge for a walk around the lake.  Walk, pray, worship.  Kids, dogs, and strollers are welcome.

Thursday Movie Night!  This Thursday movie night will be held at Aldersgate United Methodist Church at 6 pm.  The movie is Tangled!  Come and enjoy a movie together.

Simpson Youth Academy!  Kylee Rugg and Abbie Clark are exploring faith and discipleship at the Simpson Youth Academy this week.  We are proud of you!

Parking Lot Plans!  Our Trustees have received bids for the parking lot and are making plans for the resurfacing of the parking lot.  Keep them in your prayers as they review and plan next steps.  We are blessed to have strong leaders.

Forming a Reconciling Ministries Group  This Sunday at 5 pm a group committed to greater inclusivity in the United Methodist Church will be gathering in the Wesley Center.  The group will share an inclusivity statement that has been created.  If inclusivity is important to you, come and learn more.

How are kids doing in Iowa?  The annual KidsCount report has come out.  You can follow this link to read about the challenges children face in Iowa.  https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data#IA/2/0/char/0

"Thoughts and Prayers" Priscilla Joel's Devotion 06/19/2019

Hello everyone!

If you haven’t met me already, I am Priscilla, the intern here at WDM UMC this summer! Pastor Cindy is still in Cuba, so this week’s devotion will be from me!

Aside from this internship, I am also taking an engineering class online, which required me to take a midterm exam just this past Monday. I am required to take this exam through a proctor who submits my exam online. Shortly after, I receive an email confirming that the exam has been received by the department. I waited anxiously to receive my confirmation email; I needed to know that everything had gone through! But as I sat there, impatiently anticipating the response, oddly enough, it reminded me of prayer.

I thought about how when we pray, we submit our thoughts and petitions. But how do we know if they are heard? To be honest with you, I have been struggling with this question for a while now. How do you know what to say to an all-knowing God? If God knows our every thought even before we do, what then is the purpose of prayer?

This also makes me think about the phrase: “thoughts and prayers,” that is used too often today. The phrase is said so often, and by so many people, that it has seemingly lost its significance. When tragedies happen, we are quick to pray. It is pretty easy to mutter a quick prayer and move on to the next thing on the to-do list. Praying is certainly not an inappropriate response to circumstances that arise, but I believe that it is only the first step.

I see prayer as a part of a mechanism. It is like a compass that guides you in the right direction. Prayer is not just a substitute for action, but rather an active conversation with the Holy Spirit. And a conversation means that traffic goes both ways. It means that while we lift our thanks and requests up to God, we also assume a posture of listening.

When reflecting on my own spiritual life, I think about how I can sometimes get into the habit of physically praying, but not spiritually. I can close my eyes and say all the right words, just to realize that when I say “Amen,” I have no idea the significance of the words I just uttered. And it is difficult to focus, when you have been saying the Lord’s Prayer or singing the same hymn for several years, to pay close attention to exactly what it is you are reciting.

But I find that when I stop and really think about the words that are forming my prayers, things can look quite a bit different. I think that prayer is like a zipper that opens up new possibilities and new opportunities. When we allow ourselves to become completely vulnerable, and speak those things that are deep within us, that is when the Holy Spirit can start to work with us.

So, you have said your prayer. What is God telling you to do next?

Blessings,

Priscilla

Priscilla Joel

"It's Wednesday and I am Thinking of You and Abundance" Pastor Cindy's Devotion 06/12/2019

Psalm 23:  My cup runneth over.

Remember those old words?  That is not a description of an unfortunate encounter with a pop dispenser.  Those words describe the abundance of our lives.  In the last week, my cup, my minutes, my days have been filled with abundance, and I am grateful.

On Friday night a group of women presented a worship service here at West Des Moines United Methodist Church in response to sexual violence.  The service was beautiful and sad and honest.

From Saturday through Tuesday I attended the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.  This is the time when Methodists from across the state gather to talk and pray and worship as a way of discerning where God might be leading us.  A few months ago the world-wide United Methodist Church reaffirmed a 1972 UMC law that prohibited the ordination of LGBTQ persons and same-sex marriages. So this year at the Iowa Annual Conference, the big question was:  Are LGBTQ persons fully welcome in the United Methodist Church?  The clergy and laity at Annual Conference discussed, debated, prayed, and, in the end, voted to express their disapproval of the prohibitions.  This does not end the prohibitions.  There is still more discussion, debate, and prayer to do, but in short, the answer to the big question was yes, LGBTQ persons are welcome in the West Des Moines United Methodist Church.

And last week I helped officiate at a funeral.  The person who had died was a husband, father, and a grandfather.  He was also a firefighter and a person of faith.  I stood with family and friends as they remembered and cried and thanked God for their loved one.

This may not sound like the sorts of things that make cups runneth over.  But there is an abundance here.  An abundance of connection.  An abundance of opportunity to address pain.  An abundance of opportunity to make a difference.  An abundance of courage in the people I encountered.  And hope? Hope runneth over too.  Hope in the strength God gives us when we come together.  Hope in the plans God has for us.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Those words also come from the 23rd Psalm.  In all this, I feel goodness and mercy creating my path and the house of the Lord opening its doors to me.

May your cup runneth over.

Blessings,
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

On Sunday’s we worship in a traditional way at 8:30 and in a casual way at 11.  You are invited!

This week at WDMUMC:
The Mission Trip Team leaves on Saturday for Cuba!  Keep this group in your prayers as they celebrate our faith with the people of Cuba.

District Superintendent Heecheon Jeon will preach this Sunday at 8:30.  Our district superintendent has been a great friend to our church.  Come and hear what he has to say about “Hope Made Real.”  At our 11 am service, our intern Priscilla Joel will lead "worship to go".   Come and see what she has planned!

Faith & Grace Garden is looking for volunteers to help in the garden, green thumb optional.  The garden is located near St Timothy’s Episcopal Church on Ashworth.  Get your friends and small groups together and spend some time in the garden.  Volunteer times are Monday and Wednesday from 5:30 – 7:30 PM and Tuesday and Thursdays 8:30 – 10:30 AM.  Friday and Saturday by appointment.  To sign up go to growthefood.org and look for their latest newsletter.  From there you can go to the link to sign up.  Enjoy the spring and summer weather and help out our community.
Annual Conference  If you would like to know more about what happened at Annual Conference, check out  https://ac2019.iaumc.org/

Saturday is World Juggling Day!    So juggle something!