Labor Day is a time to return thanks.

I called my dad just to thank him for the 59 years that he worked. Born in the 1920s Jim Duley was one of 7 kids in the Arlington home of a painting contractor (a grandfather I never knew since he died almost 2o years before I was born).

Dad went to work, after school, at a neighborhood grocery store when he was only 9. The family needed the help. He says he may have made 12 cents an hour. That’s just inconceivable for me, born in the 60s, with every convenience – and never really having to break a sweat at work!

Dad enlisted in the Navy, 1944, right after high school graduation. Returning from WWII safely, and with a grateful attitude, decided to enter the ministry. Rev. Jim Duley served God for 47 years in the United Methodist Church. 47 – that’s impressive. I’ve been in for 16, his record seems so out of reach!

So, I said, “Thanks Dad for working so hard, and so long, for your family. That’s a lot of faithful service.”

Well, being thankful is the easy part. The labor of a lifetime, now that’s hard work.

Right now, America is suffering from “labor pains” with so many millions unemployed. I pray for them.

At the same time I am thankful that many more millions are working. All of us have a part to labor along, to help one another, to carry our share of the work-load.

So, thank you – in all that you do – for the common good, for faithful service, and for answering your personal call from God:

‘Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty (Haggai 2:4)

No doubt you are aware of America’s 14+trillion dollar (I can’t even count that high!) national debt.

But that’s not what this is about.

Can you imagine a greater debt? There is a debt that I owe, that surpasses all numerical calculation. A debt I can never pay off. It’s best enumerated this way:

John 3:16 declares “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life.”

There was a debt of sin that I owed. I could never repay it, no matter how much good I did, no matter how long I lived.

Christ died to cancel that debt. Now I owe a debt to Him. If you multiply that by every human being, not only the near 7 billion people alive today, but all the humans who’ve ever lived…

Then that is a debt you cannot even imagine, let alone ever repay.

Stop for a moment & ponder the debt you owe God. Pray for a moment & give thanks that we don’t have to pay it back!

Thank you, God, for Jesus our Savior!

There’s a serious heat wave going on this summer. July 2011 has brought s major high pressure system which has stalled over the central USA – and doesn’t look like there’s much that will change it for a few weeks.

My sister in Michigan & my brother in Atlanta have similar 90 to 100+ temps. In Michigan they built a nice house 20 years ago, but never thought they’d need central AC !! (oops.)  Well, many people don’t plan for the effects of extreme heat.

This is killer Heat. Seriously, more people die from the heat annually than from other major weather-related events: tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, etc. Some reports claim as many as 400 Americans dies of the heat each summer. Without air conditioning, and when nighttime lows are stuck in the 80s the bodies of weak and/or older people are vulnerable to heat exhaustion or heat stroke. The body is unable to cool off, for long enough, and becomes highly stressed.

The experience can be matched SPIRITUALLY. The Bible experience is largely a HOT one, a desert setting for most of the Biblical stories & peoples.

The Scriptures then caution us against the dangers of heat, exhaustion and “dehydration.” The desert-wandering people of the Old Testament learned it was a matter of life and death.

The broom tree is a rare but life-saving sight in the desert wilderness. Elijah found God’s solace there, according to 1 Kings 19:4: “Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed…”

The psalms teach: The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day…” (Ps 121:5-6).

Spiritual heat stroke symptoms include: over-heated attitudes, hot-under-the-collar, lack of compassion, concern mainly for self, dehydration of a desire for God, and more.

Ultimately, the greatest cure for spiritual heat-risk of hell, dehydration & death is Jesus Christ. Jesus is our spiritual “living water” – the source of all spiritual-thirst-quenching.

In Christ, we learn to seek that which is truly lasting & life-giving: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Jesus, Matt. 5:6).

Revolution of the Spirit

The month of July is often a time to revisit the stories of our nation’s birth, in a spirit of revolution. It’s often said: “Freedom isn’t free.” Right. So it is good to remember and to give thanks for the many soldiers, in many wars, in many places who gave such a great cost to win our freedom.

I’d like to go further with those thoughts.

There is One warrior who gave the Ultimate Sacrifice, on the Cross. Jesus’ death and resurrection didn’t start a new nation, but something greater. His was a revolution of the spirit. Jesus’ death proves that our freedom isn’t “free,” for He paid the price. It is free for us to receive once we surrender to Him.

That’s the seemingly contradictory reality of true freedom.

Our souls, once revolting against God, now experience revolution in the act of surrendering our own will to His. That done, we can experience true freedom – to do what God wills.

Freedom doesn’t simply mean “I can do whatever I want.” It more definitely means, “I can now, in Christ, do what God wants – that for which I was truly made.”

That kind of freedom brings a lasting significance, an abiding joy, because it’s living alive, living on purpose.

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” – The Bible

No, that’s not a typo. I have a quilt on my conscience.

Here I am at Annual Conference in Roanoke, as 3350 United Methodists have descended upon the valley in order to lift up Jesus.

Missions is one – amazing – way that God’s love is being experienced here. Children from Brazil have come to share in worship & to show gratitude for the missional love we Methodist Christians have brought to their home country over the years.

Pictures at vaumc.org (for copyright reasons I won’t insert them here.)

Up on the stage the children presented our conference with a gift of appreciation.

A quilt.

A very large one. A quilted table-cloth to be precise. It’s many panels each embroidered with a red cross.

It’s beautiful. But it’s really not about the quilt.

What’s on my heart is the gratitude. Deep gratitude is a state of grace. It’s much more than saying words like “thanks” – which are appropriate, and meaningful when shared from the heart.

What is more, is this expression of gratitude took much time, involved many of these children & families – investing precious resources.

When the “needy” invest themselves in giving to the abundantly blessed (pssst, that’s you & me)… I am touched … moved … hopefully even moved into action.

Moved to gratitude & gracious generosity.

What about you?