As information continues to come in concerning Moore and Shawnee, you may, like me, have an overwhelming urge to do something that matters. Many groups are gathering supplies and heading toward central Oklahoma. I urge us to do what Week of Compassion says: Pray. Pay. Stay.

First, we pray. We pray for the parents who have lost children. We pray for the teachers who shielded children with their very bodies. We pray for the two men in their 70′s that passed away in Shawnee. We pray for communities who are responding to their neighbors with inspiring courage. We pray and express our outrage at such disasters just as the Psalmists did to God. Second, we pay. On Sunday, we will receive a special offering specifically for Week of Compassion’s response to the tornadoes. If you would like to give earlier, please click here to give. Third, we stay. We stay in our own community and acknowledge that at this time we should not be rushing to the store to buy bottled water or gathering used clothes. We stay and wait to hear about what is needed over the next few days. It feels unnatural to stay, because we want to help. But, trained responders are doing important work and the way we help them is by sending money and staying home. There is one important thing you can do in our own community. If you are eligible, give blood with the Red Cross or Oklahoma Blood Institute. Make an appointment and help replenish the supply for our state.

Pray with me: Almighty God, we are too sad for words. We wonder what is good in this world when tragedy strikes. We see images that break our hearts over and over again. Give us strength to see the good news lived out as First Responders do their work and we prepare to respond as needed. Amen.

Love to you each,

Kelli

We gather Thursday, March 28 at 7 p.m. for Maundy Thursday worship. It is a time of reflection, music and communion.

We gather Friday, March 29 at 7 p.m. for Good Friday worship. It is a time, of music, reflection and participation in the last day of Jesus.

Bethany is updating our ability to connect with people. We are now live streaming worship every Sunday at 10:45 a.m. **Please Note that the time on Livestream.com is Eastern Time. It will show one hour ahead.**

Click here to worship with us! http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2393151

This year, our Ash Wednesday Services will be at Noon and 7 p.m.

February 13, 2013

The noon service will be small, intimate and focused on prayer.

The 7 p.m. service will gather the community of faith in song, reflection and prayer.

The season of Advent brings to us a rare opportunity: WAITING.

As a child, I remember getting catalogs in the mail. Occasionally, my mom would order something on my behalf. We had to mail the form in with payment and wait weeks for it to be processed and sent. Now, I regularly order items from Amazon and get them within 3 days. My ability to wait grows smaller every day.

In college, as the internet grew and became the go to place for information, it was common to ask a question and get the answer in a matter of minutes with those dial-up modems. Today, I can usually find it in 10-15 seconds with a simple search on my phone. My ability to wait grows smaller every day.

There are far too few opportunities in life to learn this important skill: waiting. A once normal element of life has gone away in a world with 24 hour stores and lightning fast internet connections.

Advent and Christmas are a holy time, preparing for the coming of Jesus. We rightly focus on the celebration of Jesus’ birth, on Mary and Joseph, and remembering the first Christmas so long ago. Jesus brings to us great joy and life filled with God’s love. The power of God is not limited to the moments we celebrate Christmas. The time of Advent brings us opportunity to see God as well. We learn how to wait. We learn how to wait for what we already know is coming.

It’s easy to jump straight to Christmas. Waiting during Advent allows us to focus on the blessings of paying attention to what is before us in the moment. God is already doing work in our lives and we wait to see the next moment of that evidence. It’s not only in the manger we find God’s work in our lives. It is there before us every day, waiting for us to notice.

We know Jesus is coming. May we wait and see through the stable to know the work of God on each day between now and Christmas.

Kelli

Once upon a time, I thought I wanted a bicycle. Nick heard me talking about it and surprised me with a pretty sweet vintage cruiser. It even had the 1978 bicycle permit on it from Orange County, California. In my joy, I set out to ride down to my favorite coffee shop. From our place to the coffee shop was not even two miles. It was only 98° outside with the sun shining down in August. Halfway through the ride, nausea set in and I got off the bike. Between the heat and the fact that it felt like the cars were aiming for me, I walked back home. Grabbing an ice pack out of the freezer for the back of my neck, I flopped onto the couch and started cooling off.

That was the last time I rode a bicycle. In all honesty, I’m done with them. The cars freaked me out and my constant bruises can tell you my coordination leaves much to be desired. Not for me. We sold the bike to our neighbor who gracefully rode it all over our neighborhood. A part of me was just glad someone was getting use out of it. Another part of me was highly embarrassed that she rode with such ease when I couldn’t. There may have been some jealousy, too.

That experience solidified something I was trying to ignore about myself. I like to succeed quickly. I hate trying new things that I am pretty sure I won’t be good at immediately. It’s a personality trait that I struggle with constantly since I really do like trying new things and experiencing new adventures.

Recently, I talked myself out of joining a gym and taking the kick-boxing class I really wanted to take because I knew I would not be good at it right away. I hear you saying, “Good, at working out? Is that even a thing?” Well, in my head it is. My step in the right direction was streaming a netflix video into my living room. Yes, now I can jab, cross, hook and uppercut slowly in sequence. I’m not particularly excited about sharing this with you, but it’s part of holding myself accountable. It’s also something I’ve been thinking about in the context of church.

My experience has taught me that we can try new things in church as long as they work well quickly.  Too often, we expect results with little to no time passing and little to no room for the Holy Spirit.

New approaches (or just things we haven’t done in a while) can breath life into our faith and open the doors for people who need to know God’s love again or even for the first time. More often than not, it will not happen immediately. It will happen with a slow and steady commitment.

Now, back to my jab-cross-hook-uppercut routine.

my once upon time sweet ride

Thanks for taking the time to visit Bethany Believes, the new online home for Bethany Christian Church. This site is under construction and we invite you to visit http://www.bcctulsa.org for details about us. Worship is at 10:45 Sunday morning and Sunday School is at 9:15.

With joy,

Kelli Driscoll, Pastor