Choices choices choices 1

I have been away from sharing my thoughts that it feels strange to sit here and write about what is happening. Lent and Easter tend to be busy times for churches that once again proclaim the Good News that Christ is alive and active in our world today. It is also a time that many faithful make sure to attend worship services. Easter is the most important Christian holy day for it is the foundation of our beliefs. Often after the Easter services are done there is often a let down of attendance in worship services. We forget that Easter is every day not just one day out of the year and that the season of Easter lasts 50 days. What I would pray is that we remember Christ in all of our choices that we make knowing that he is with us and empowers us in the Holy Spirit.

Last Sunday I attended a good friends church and they had Holy Humor Sunday. This is a movement that was based on some of the writings of the ancient patriarchs that talked about the great joke that God did on Satan by raising Jesus from the dead. My friend based her sermon from the verse in Nehemiah 8:10. I would encourage the reader to read Nehemiah to get an idea of what the concerns that the exiles had when they returned home. Actually one should also read Ezra as well. The exiles returned to Jerusalem to a city that had been sacked and the temple destroyed. In their return they came across the book of law by Moses and the people wept and mourned as they had not been living by the law. Nehemiah proclaimed that rather than just mourn the people needed to remember that God had remembered them and rejoice.

How often we tend to bring to God our tears and petitions but find it difficult to bring our joy and laughter. In most of the services that I do and ask for joys and concerns the number of concerns are probably 3 times as many as joys. I know that when I did counseling as a psychotherapist and would ask people to list characteristics that they liked about themselves and also what they would like to change, most people could list several areas of change but had difficulty stating what they like about themselves or that they were gifted.

God created us as a whole person and declared us good. As we live and make choices, we tend to either affirm our Creator or we drift away. We need to remember that God gave us tears to mourn, a community to affirm, and laughter to heal.

This coming Sunday I will be talking about choices and Paul's conversion story. I will also be using the poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. Every day we make choices and for the rest of the week I will be discussing the choices that we make.