Your life boat cannot sink with God at the stern

In the centre of the storm Jesus rested, while all around him the disciples were paralyzed with fear, the fear of dying.

Like the disciples we fear what we cannot control, what we cannot understand, and what we cannot see.

Our fear is contagious and so panic rages through a crowd who on mass turn from their fear and trample each other trying to get away from what they are afraid of. 

We stopped thinking, giving over to panic.

We lose sight of the possibility of joy, of help, of piece, of a solution, a the way through our fear.

All we know is panic.

Jesus rested into the chaos of the storm that night.  His  focus was not on the lightning, the thunder,  the way the waves rocked the small boat that he was in he was focussed on faith.

He knew his father controlled even that storm and in those moments while all around him terror raged he saw God and knew peace.

Here is the challenge that we are left with, to control  our fear, to focus on our faith in God to be the calm in the storm knowing  that God controls even the thing you are afraid of.

To learn to pray in the face of fear with the  expectation of joy and peace.

Grandma Snyder

©twosnydergirls 2018

Thank you Juanita Laverty for your words of wisdom this morning and inspiring this post.

A Pilgrim Or A Tourist

Pilgrimage brings to mind the process of travelling to a place of spiritual and historical significance and every religious group defines both the place and how you must travel differently.  

As Mennonites we really do not have a place that we spiritually hold above all others as we believe that we walk with God in all things, that all places hold spiritual significance.  

Today Juanita Laverty spoke of pilgrimage as a process of experiencing God within us.  A spiritual practice of quieting the noise within and listening to that unique voice of God’s - being aware of the spiritual ground that we inhabit right now. 

She asked us to consider pilgrimage vs tourism.  The tourist is looking to experience something new while the pilgrim seeks to reclaim their spiritual roots to reclaim their walk with the Divine.  

Are we tourist in our own lives? 

Do we move from one new experience to another, never taking the time to know how God walks with us?  

Do we see the burning bush experiences of our life as just something new or as deepening awareness of God within us, of God’s presence in our daily lives.

I want to walk through my life as a pilgrim and to stop being a tourist!

Grandma Snyder

©twosnydergirls 2018 

Beside Still Waters

By faith we sit beside still waters in this time of great turbulence.

What is Faith?

Hebrews 11:1 Faith is being sure of what we hope for.  It is being certain of what we do not see.

In the presence of God we all sit beside still waters, we know ourselves through the unconditional love of God – know ourselves to have all we need and perfect through love.

Does this mean we will be free of hardship, pain, humiliation, disappointment, grief?  No, it means that when we find ourselves struggling if we take the time to be present with God we will find a calm still place of assurance.

If through faith we remain mindful of God’s constant presence, calm our breathing, silence our minds and open our hearts we will find God’s love and in this love we find ourselves to be beside still waters.

Thank you Paul Klassen for today’s message.

Grandma Snyder

©twosnydergirls 2018

Lectionary readings: Jeremiah 23: 1-6; Psalm 23; Ephesians 2: 11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56.

The Sunday of Prayer that proceeds Aboriginal Day June 21st

Give them an inch and they will take a mile.

The they being referenced here is myself, my forebears who were given knowledge, food – protection those first winters in Canada by the Aboriginal people who then thrived in this land.

Our Caucasian fore fathers then continued to take more than was our right from the people who so graciously attempted to share the earth with us.

We have taken away; safe housing to raise their families in, safe water to drink, we attempt to deny them their traditions, their right to raise their children, their language and so much more.

They made space for us and we continue to push them out denying them a place in the abundance that is Canada.

I worshiped today on the traditional territory of the Haudensaunee (Iroquois), Ojibwa and Anishnabek.

We should always remember upon whose land we live and the price they have paid since our arrival.

Grandma Snyder

©twosnydergirls 2018

I am here Lord that will have to do.

There are times when all that is possible is to goes through the motions of life.  

You rise in the morning looking for an excuse not to get up, yet you rise and go through the motions of our morning routine and you get yourself to the worship service.  

As others praise with joy and expectation all you can say is "I am here Lord that will have to do."

You listen to the scripture readings and you say "I am here Lord that will have to do."

Apathy, depression, spiritually weariness?

I am here Lord that will have to do.

And Juanita  speaks about being weary, faint with exhaustion, having the wind knocked out of you where putting one foot in front of the other is almost too much.

How does she know you have just written these words?

Wait on the Lord and God will renew your strength! 

Is this why I have come, to accept the authority the vitality of God?

I am here Lord, is that enough for me to accept your vitality as my own?

Lord you are always with me, if but I look to find you and the looking is too hard today!

So I am here Lord.

Juanita tells a story of a young child who takes a new bible story book and begins to circle the word God wherever she found it.  Her Mother asks her what she is doing! The child responds circling  God so I know where to find him when I need him.

This is why I am here I have circled this building, this community, this time because I can find God in just a time as this.

Grandma Snyder

©twosnydergirls 2018

5 Minutes Of My Day - Creation is chosen by God

God has chosen all of creation as his own.  Not because humanity is perfect rather because we are his children and God believes in what we can yet become.  

Our way to becoming more than we are is set out in Colossian 3:12-14 “… cloth yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

After service this morning I went out into our garden to pick rhubarb and in gardens not yet weeded burst forth the most amazing yellow flowers.  They were beautiful and also defined by horticultural societies as invasive weeds.  As I stood admiring the colour, how delicate the flowers were this morning words of hope and love came back to me.

We try to design our lives, homes, gardens, communities, what is good and what is bad and we do this from our very small and imperfect view of the world.  

Where God loves it all and over looks the imperfections in favour of what creation - what we can yet become.

I will leave our yellow weeds as a reminder that I am not the creator and I am in the process of becoming all that I can be.

2017 Watching the pollinators move about our flower beds
their sweet buzz everywhere.

2016 Listen to music our house wren was making as she guarded her nest

2015 sitting on the lawn pulling weeds when I notice
this robin following in my wake pulling up the insects revealed.

2014 At a pot luck dinner enjoying fresh strawberries

Grandma Snyder

©twosnydergirls 2018

Immersed in God’s Creation

Slow down your pace, calm your thoughts and open your senses to all that creation is!

Take a deep breath and smell the trees, the soil, the flowers, the air around you.

Listen for the animals who will begin to move around you when you are still, listen to the birds above, to water moving around you, to your heart beating and to your breath.

Feel the ground under you, the air moving around you, the temperature, humidity, feel the air entering and existing your lungs and feel your body as you become part of God’s creation.

Bath in God’s creation becoming once again part of creation, rather then travelling through or trying to control creation around you.

Find your place within God’s creation instead of a place for God within your life.

Grandma Snyder

Inspired by Juanita Laverty’s May 13^, 2018 sermon.

©twosnydergirls

He Is Risen!

He is risen!

 rings from the intercom startling those of us gathered at table waiting for the Easter breakfast to start, and as one we turn to the front.

He Risen!

sounds again and now with understanding as we respond 

He is risen indeed Amen!

Our service begins with a cross of plain wood 

and with joy that is overflowing we sing

and we sing

We sing and wait for the time that we can dress the cross with symbols of our joy.

The children lead us in decorating the cross with new life and joy!

Joyfully we follow the children and place our flowers on the cross

each in our own way as we each know and understand He is risen through personal experience and collective celebration.

There is no wrong way, just your way of knowing God’s unconditional love.

So with humility around the world today Christian’s celebrate the gift of unconditional love as Christ passed through the despair and separation from God for all of creation, rising anew and opening the gates so we can pass through.

He is risen 

and all will enter into eternity by passing through the gates 

of God love for his creation.

Amen!

Grandma Snyder

©2013 to 2018 twosnydergirls

Give thanks to the Lord

Remember back to the most influential teacher that you had in grade school.  

What was it that inspired you?

A group of trainees being interviewed after an intensive training program described the first hand testimonies of the trainers as inspiring.  They were motivated to learn by hearing real life stories of those providing the service they were learning – it was people testifying to the value of the material, of the knowledge being taught.

Teachers who know first hand the truth/value of the knowledge they are imparting to students inspire learning, and create excitement to learn more.

The lectionary readings this week all speak to the power of the witness in inspiring  the world to embrace God’s purpose and power.

In the old testament there was great risk to those who testified to hearing God’s voice, who passed on God’s words to the world.  They did so knowing that they would be rejected, persecuted, and could even be put to death. 

The risk during the new testament was no less the witness spread their experience of Christ in the full knowledge that death was a real possibility.

And yet hearing the voice of God was compelling, as was finding yourself healed or called by Jesus.  And thus word of God spread like wild fire through the voices of those who experienced God’s voice and Christ’s love first hand.

Where are our witnesses today?

Where are the first hand testimonies of God’s unconditional love, of personal experiences of inclusion, equality, hope, and participation in a faith community?

There are Pastors, Sunday school teachers, Priests, and missionaries who teach from the Bible and the doctrine of their particular denomination, they also teach from their own experiences.  Yet our church communities are getting smaller and smaller.  Clearly there is not enough to excite people into know more about the experiences we are having, in wanting to enter our churches.

Are we witnesses?

The dangers to us no longer include death, and it does come with the fear of rejection, humiliation, and public acknowledgement that you are a Christian, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how punitive, exclusive, and dogmatic your community knows Christian’s to be.

Daniel of the old testament was promised that as a witness to God’s voice he did not have to be afraid because as a witness he was beloved of God and was safe within that knowledge.

We are the life blood of God’s witness today.  We must testify to our personal experiences of God’s unconditional love and we do this through service to others.  

We are God’s witnesses, beloved of God and we should not be afraid to spread unconditional love into the world.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2018 twosnydergirls

Lectionary readings Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; 

Mark 1:21-28

Trust God

Is there room in your life to hear God’s call?  

How often during the day do you create quiet spaces in which to listen for his voice? 

The question is, do we believe and trust that God has a message for us and wants too communicate directly with us?

From the moment we get up, too long after we have gone to bed, we are linked to the noise in our lives: radio, iTunes, TV, social media, family, friends and loudest of all our internal voices all clamor for our attention and drown out the still calm voice of the Creator.

Silencing all of the outside noise and  calming our internal voice is hard work and requires that we believe God wants to speak to us – has a very personal message of acceptance, purpose, and unconditional love for each of us.

Spiritual services dedicated to silence are profound as no service full of words and music can be.  The silence creates anticipation, acceptance, a sense of belonging, and intimacy.  

With it comes the knowledge of belonging to God and to each other.

Create space to listen to the words our Creator longs to speak to each of us, trust God.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2018 twosnydergirls

Lectionary readings: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 62:5-12; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20.

You know all about me

Paul works very hard in both his preaching and writing to get people of his day to look and see Jesus a new.  

Jesus like many people today was being defined by where he lived, ‘“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” John 1:46 and Paul asked people to look beyond their prejudice to see Jesus, to be openly curious and learn about Jesus.  To get to know Jesus through shared experiences, to build an understanding of ourselves and the world around us with Jesus.  

Paul asks us to stop making assumptions about Jesus, to come, see and make Jesus and his message apart of our knowledge our community.

Paul’s message resonates just as strongly today as it did then.  People today are defined by where they were born, there are counties whose population are not welcome to cross our boarders, ‘can anything good come out of (fill in the blank). 

We stop being curious about individual people from these places, we stop listening to their stories, we withhold our compassion, becoming prejudicial and we spread oppression in our wake.

Paul calls us to come and see Jesus, to be joyfully curious fully engaged in getting to know both Jesus and his message for the world.  

Jesus then asks us to look beyond the worlds prejudices to see individual people, to know all humanity as beloved by God, that they hold value in the creation of peace today.  

Jesus call us to know him and his message of love, then to go out and spread our knowledge not through fear and violence, through unconditional love and joyful curiosity.

Before people will be curious about our experience of Jesus we must first ‘look and see’ them, hear their stories and with them create new ways of understanding ourselves and our world.

To hear the voice of God in each story, and know God to be speaking to us through them.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2018 twosnydergirls

This blog was inspired by Juanita Laverty's sermon today.

Lectionary readings To enhance your experience, we have included links to each reading 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20); Psalm 139: 1-6, 13- 18; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51

Baptized in the name of the Lord

To know ourselves to be beloved member of the Lord’s family, is to bring forth light into a world filled with darkness.

To know ourselves be members of God’s family we must look for opportunities to:

Serve others,

to bring peace and comfort to others,

 to stand witness to the suffering of others,

to feed the hungry,

to share of our wealth,

to create places of serenity in the chaos of our world,

to actively listen to understand the stories of oppression,

to know our place as oppressors,

to be curious to understand the experiences of the world around us and their understanding of the creator,

to create common ground a common place for all at the Lords table.

To call yourself a member of God’s family is to be actively engaged in and with the world around you.  To know your place at the Lords table to pick up the bread and the wine offered to us only when all are ready to partake.  To be prepared to give up your seat to those who come newly to the table and rejoice with our Lord.

To understand all humanity are member of God’s family and that we hold no special place we have no privilege at the table. 

In accepting God’s unconditional love and being baptized in God’s covenant we are commissioned to seek out and be open to all opportunities to lite candles of peace in the world, to bring light to the world instead of passively sitting by and cursing the darkness.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2018 twosnydergirls

Lectionary Readings Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; 

Matthew 2:1-12.

This post was inspired by Juanita Laverty and in memory of Reservist George Weber who  was killed in a car accident 6 January 2003 while serving with Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq.

Joy

Songs of reversals these are the words Isaiah cries and Mary sings.  Both proclaim joy in a world turned upside down not just for them, no for all humanity for all time.

A world where personal joy and gain is found in safeguarding the joy of those around you.

A world where everyone lives:

Free of human anger, war and self interest

Surrounded by people who love and care for them

Sheltered from the weather around tables of laughter, love with enough food for all

Full of meaningful pursuits, activities of value, interest and creativity.

Grandma Snyder

Inspired by Juanita Laverty’s December 17^th sermon.

©2013-2017 twosnydergirls

Lectionary readings Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; 

John 1:6-8, 19-28.

November 17th remembered

5 minutes of my day

Posts created on this date over the past four years by 

Grandpa and Grandma 
Snyder

November 17, 2014

Cry out in lamination

November 17, 2013
Four Generation Dresden Plate by guest blogger Harriett Pollard

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2017 twosnydergirls

Be Transformed

When trouble is all around you what do you do?

Most people look around for help or a pathway out of danger.

Others begin by crying out ‘Oh God’ or ‘Oh God why me’.

For those who cry out in faith God is there to save.

“…trouble is all around me, but you keep me alive … with your powerful right hand you save me.” Psalm 138:3

God’s response to us is twofold. 

The first is too strengthen our faith in the face of trouble, calm our spirits, allowing us to find joy in the face of adversity.

The second is to be present with us, through human help, support and comfort. 

We are God’s hands, feet and voices to other human being when we allow God’s unconditional love to shine through us.  This means that we must be ready to be what God needs us to be and to accept help from the most unexpected people.

Years ago travelling in white out conditions a Grandmother and her granddaughter were caught in the back seat of a car that itself was trapped in a multi vehicle accident.  It was a dangerous and difficult time, when out the left passenger window an adult who had been walking beside the cars was picked up on the hood of a car travelling through the whiteout in the opposite direction and thrown into the air.

Must later that day when all were safe at home, the Grandmother was asked how she managed to stay calm, she replied “At the point I thought all was lost I felt my 6-year-old granddaughter reach out and take my hand and  she began to pray out loud for God’s protection” I was overwhelmed with the nearness of God and that I rested in the palm of his hand.

“…when I called out to you, you answered me” Psalm 138:3

Be transformed in your times of trouble by calling out in expectation for God's help and then accepting the people God sends to help you.

And

Allow yourself to be transformed into exactly what another human being needs in their time of trouble, allowing God's unconditional love shine through you.

We belong to God and through God's acceptance of us we belong to each other.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2017 twosnydergirls

Lectionary readings for this week Isaiah 51:1-6; Psalm 138; Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20.