We’ve turned the page to October, and we’re headed down the home stretch of another year. These years are moving too quickly! Would someone kindly put the brakes on?

I like to read. Some of the best books I have read are the simplest. There’s no rule anywhere that I’m aware of that says that a book has to be hard to understand in order to be good.

There are lots of places in the Bible where you and I are invited to be instruments of encouragement. I love that word, “encourage.” To encourage is to hearten someone. Courage, I believe, is the state of big-heartedness, and to encourage another is to give them heart, to inspire them, to infuse their spirit with support and help.

So, I use this space to bring you a word of encouragement, in the spirit of what the Bible calls “building up one another in love.”

“In the midst of life, we are in death.” These are old words. They are words that linger in the liturgical resources of The United Methodist Church. They are words that remind us of one of the great mysteries and one of the most intensely painful experiences of human existence.
One of the blessings of human consciousness is our awareness of being. One of the curses of human consciousness is our accompanying awareness of non-being. They go together. Hamlet, of course, said it this way: “To be or not to be; that is the question.”

I can tell you where the love affair began. It was the summer of 1962, and my family and I were visiting my grandparents in Nashville, Tennessee. At the time, my grandfather was the pastor of the Hobson Methodist Church. (Yes, this was before there was a United Methodist Church!)

Okay, let’s do a little word association exercise here. I will write a word—a name, actually—and note the image that comes to your mind. Ready?

So often, the word “provocation” and all of its siblings and cousins carry a heavy pejorative connotation.

“He provoked him to anger.”

“She was provoked into doing that terrible thing.”

In fact, in some dictionaries, the first definition for the word “provoke” is “to anger, enrage, exasperate, or vex.”

As a result, it is also not often thought of as a good thing to be a provocateur.

This latter-day understanding of the word is sad to me, because I love the word “provoke” and the word “provocation.” I love it because of what it really means.

‘Tis Spring. Happy Spring to you.

In Jesus’ Tracks
A Poem for Outreach Sunday
Embry Hills UMC
March 29, 2009

And so, boys and girls, let’s all look now and see
One very good thing that can fill us with glee!

It’s following Jesus with love in our hearts.
It’s following Him through our life’s stops and starts.

“Okay, Mr. Mark, please tell us,” you ask.
“Just how can we learn more ‘bout this holy task?”

I’m glad that you asked me, and now I will share
The things that we do if for Jesus we care.

So, perk up your ears and remove all the wax!

Once again, the Church observes the season of Lent. Traditionally, Lent is the period of spiritual preparation for Easter, sometimes characterized by giving something up, like eating desserts or smoking cigarettes or watching television. For others, Lent is better spent doing something with greater intensity and proactivity, such as giving more or finding additional avenues for service or investing deeper time in prayer. Please allow me to share another view of Lent that I believe can be helpful to us.

As I write this article, it a cold and blustery day, a few days before our congregation gathers for worship once again, this time to reflect upon what Dr. King referred to as “The Beloved Community.”

As I ponder, I think about Embry Hills, about what a beloved community we have been given, about the difficulties we have experienced, about the hope we all share, about the wonderful and life-giving diversity that characterizes our congregation.