Goodness Weekly 9.5.22
“All twenty-four hours today are a total gift. And so, the only real prayer is to say ‘Thank you!’ and to keep saying it.”
– Richard Rohr
What’s Good:
For years, groups of people (including our kids!) would stay after church on Sunday to make 240 breakfast tacos for CAM, Christian Assistance Ministry. Retired senior minister, John Harp, would deliver the tacos to CAM every Monday morning, along with hot coffee to serve the unsheltered people of downtown San Antonio. This stopped in 2020 with COVID and health restrictions, but we are so thrilled to share that we will once again start this simple ministry of love. Send us an email at hello@chariscollective.org or click the link below if you’re able to help with this & we’ll get you in touch with Maria Perry, our volunteer coordinator.
Message From Jess:
The first Labor Day celebration was September 5, 1882 in New York City. This celebration was a march of 10,000 citizens fighting for labor rights as the average American worked twelve hour days, six days a week. For many, not much has changed since then, and for many of us, even if we’re not technically working, we are often thinking about work, checking on work, or planning to work.
In my life recently I have found myself with what feels like an incredibly difficult task—planning to rest. Our eldership has given each of the ministers of the church a sabbatical every five years, and I am now in year nine trying to plan my first. I have done what I typically do when faced with something I can’t figure out—I consulted an expert, a sabbatical coach and spiritual director. In our first meeting she shared that she studied the concept of rest at Oxford for three years. Can you imagine?
I can. Because it is one of my greatest challenges—creating a rhythm of rest. How do we acknowledge that we are in fact human beings and not human doings? We begin with rest. Small bits of time set aside for nothing but being. I wonder what that looks like for you? Maybe it’s sitting with a book and cup of tea, or a long quiet walk, or a movie night with a friend.
In God’s radical hospitality we are invited to rest in God. Weekly in Sabbath, daily in prayer, moment by moment in the Spirit’s presence. We believe in a holistic spirituality—that God desires for us as whole human beings to flourish, mind, heart, soul, body, spirit—and are seeking ways to create these rhythms of rest in our community and our lives.
This week I invite you to join me in finding a new practice of rest, trusting that your value is not defined by what you do, but who you are—God’s beloved.
Upcoming Events
Sunday, September 11th, 4:30pm Prayer Service for Peace & Remembrance
Sunday, September 18th, 4:30pm Chapel Worship & Liturgy
Tuesday, September 6th, 9:00am Story Time on the lawn
Saturday, September 10th, 9:30am Story Time & Family Morning
Morning:
Today God, I accept your invitation to rest,
not because of something I did to earn it,
but because I acknowledge that you are God
and I am not.
I confess I have fooled myself into believing
that the world cannot spin without me and
I confess that this is rooted in my desire
for purpose and control.
I open my hands to what you have for me to see today.
I open my heart to who you have for me to love today.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
Evening:
Tonight I rest in you Lord. I come to you crying out
for your grace and mercy to cover me.
For all that I have seen, all that my heart is carrying,
all that I have done, hear my prayer.
Bring peace to our world, to our humanity,
to our precious Earth. And may that peace
start with me and within me.
Give me the strength to make peace,
to abide in you, and to love your world
and every person you have created.
Amen.
