Best News of the Week:
Typically, this is an uplifting video or story. However, this week I have chosen to share a story about a person holding a “Black Lives Matter” sign in Harrison, Arkansas; the headquarters of the Ku Klux Kan. WARNING, this video includes offensive language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltmlvk9GAto
News from Peace:
This article was recommended by Cindy Tidball; it originally appeared in Looking for God in Messy Places. Reprinted with permission.
REACHING YOUR LIMIT
July 29th, 2020
by Jake Owensby
Here’s the pandemic’s spiritual news flash. Despite what you might have assumed while you were enjoying your pre-pandemic normal, you really do have limits. As human beings, our understanding, our imagination, and especially our power to control the course of our own lives are all finite.
By contrast, once life overwhelms you, you know in your gut that you’re finite. You genuinely acknowledge that you’re limited precisely when you’ve reached your limit. There’s no deceiving yourself any longer.
Oh, you may have acknowledged your limits intellectually. But you could still act as if having the right plan, the sufficient willpower, and the best connections would get you where you wanted to go. You could say, “People are finite,” without that idea actually changing how you live.
And that is just when God can become real for you. You feel in your marrow that God is God, and you are not.
Contrary to how some people think, faith is not at its core having the correct ideas about God. Instead, faith is having the humility to let God be God in your life. One of the greatest stumbling blocks to faith is the certainty with which we cling to our concepts of God.
But our finite capacities of understanding and imagination are incapable of fully and finally comprehending the infinite God. There is always more of the holy God than we’ve gotten our hearts and minds around. So faith involves having the humility to face our limits so that God can stretch us beyond them.
Summer Concert in the Peace Back Lot!
Enjoy an evening of toe-tapping music outdoors in an appropriately socially distanced environment. The Jumpin’ Jehosafats will present a concert beginning at 6:30 pm, Saturday, August 1st, in the Peace Church back parking lot.
Time for Annual Love Offering
Each summer, the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church collects funds for the annual Love Offering. These funds provide the opportunity for us to be light and hope for those crying out for love, grace, compassion, and social and racial justice in their lives. The four recipient organizations this year are:
Emma Norton Residences (40%)
Simpson Housing Services (40%)
Joyce Uptown Foodshelf (10%), and
Committee on Native American Ministry Diaper Drive (10%).
Please go to https://www.minnesotaumc.org/loveoffering
to make your donation today.
United Methodist Happenings
Pastors with a badge advance police reforms.
https://www.umnews.org/en/news/pastors-with-a-badge-advance-police-reforms
Standing Against Racism: Minnesota United Methodist Rev. Dr. Shawn Moore shares his experience.
https://vimeo.com/436792902
Grace Connections of the Week:
Grace Connections invite you to find the power of God’s love in the midst of the harm, confusion and news of the week. Below are a few stories from the news of the week.
Video of the Week:
Hear from the ‘Wall of Moms’ on the front lines of Portland protests
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbrnypHWSEs
Photos of the Week:
Top photos of the day
https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/top-photos-of-the-day-idUSRTX7MTKY
MINIMUM WAGE, MAXIMUM EXPOSURE: How Remote Work Divides America
https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/USA-REMOTEWORK/xlbpgbrljvq/index.html
Coronavirus: Social distancing for the visually impaired in Italy
https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-53403780