I was watching my eighteen month old grandson water the yard. He was so dedicated. He wanted to do a good job. He was so happy. But most of all he was so little.

In the Book of Common Prayer we read, “Save us and make us small, O God: small enough to walk your little way.” Question what is the little way? Well Therese of Lisieux, a nineteenth-century Carmelite nun sought to make the world a better place through small deeds. She tried to do daily life with a smile and with Christ in mind, to do so, if possible, without complaining. She noted, “The only way to make rapid progress along the path of divine love is to remain very little and put all our trust in Almighty God.”

Why don’t you give that a try today. To ask God to dwell within the small things. To help someone, to smile at another. Send a card. Be a child of Christ. Let the pride and the ego go and just lift your life up in joy!

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Me and the family went to “Big Hat Days” a local event that includes food, booths and of course fun things for the children. Kind of preparation for the upcoming rodeo. Lots of people everywhere but not many big hats. But I made sure I dressed for the event.

I got to thinking about getting “dressed” for our Savior. How do we prepare? How do we present ourselves to the world as believers. Do we stand out or are we just one of many in a crowd?

Julian of Norwich a fourteenth-century writer said this, “What, do you wish to know your Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who reveals it to you? Love. What did he reveal to you? Love. Why does he reveal it to you? For love. Remain in this, and you will know more of the same.”

Okay brothers and sisters today when you crawl out of bed. When you look in the mirror be determined to put on that big hat, that Christian walk that says I am different. I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and that is shown through the love I distribute because of Him! Wear a smile today. Stand straight, be relaxed for you are forgiven so share that Good News with another today!!

On our first medical mission trip to China and Tibet one of the team members purchased two terracotta statues of the Qin Dynasty ruler Shihuangdi and had them shipped back to Fresno. They arrived in excellent shape and were placed in our meditation garden in front of the church. They have stood there for eleven years mostly unmolested. There have been cracks and some abuse but they have continued their watch much like those first soldiers day and night year after year.

Then one day I went out to the garden not paying much attention. When I realized something was missing. It was the emperor’s head. It had been knocked, chipped, levered, I’m not sure the method used, but the head was gone. I looked in the fountain, in the flower beds, along the path but the result was the same. We had a ruler with no head.

Read with me from the Gospel according to Mark 12:14-17, “They came to him and said, ‘Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity…Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?’…But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. ‘Why are you trying to trap me?’ he asked. ‘Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.’ They brought the coin, and he asked them, ‘Whose image is this? And whose inscription?’ ‘Caesar’s, they replied. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.’”

Dear God, we know this world is not our home. That the rulers of this world are often merely terracotta. They try to look good but are merely plaster. They make laws that do not lift people up. Nations go to war out of greed. So…what is the answer? We must be a changed people, we must ask God to give our leaders the heads of government wisdom, ask that they think not merely for their own agendas but look to raise a nation up. But…this is not always possible so we pray that you will stamp your image on our lives. You will guide us by your wisdom, by your light so we might bring hope to the hopeless, light to the darkness. Today we give our hearts, our souls our minds(heads) to you. Amen.

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I was leaving a store yesterday looked up and this is what I saw. Okay now I know what it was…contrails or vapor trails. Water vapor from the exhaust of an aircraft(s). No big deal right? But there it was a cross.

I don’t know about you but it seems like every time I turn around there is something that reminds me of the cross. Of our Savior’s sacrifice for us. Is nature, is our world is our Lord and Savior trying to prepare us?

Rev. Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran pastor during World War II wrote this, “First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Dear God, continue to remind me of your saving grace. Open my eyes to the world about me, open my ears to the cries of others. Help me be your hands and feet in this world so that I may follow in your steps. Push me dear God to wake up to what is taking place in this world. Stand beside me as I speak up for what is right when so many turn away. Give me, give us the strength and the joy to stay on the path! Amen! Again I say Amen!

On Saturday I had the privilege of promoting one of our Tae Kwon Do students to yellow belt and ten to orange belt. Those who have finally reached orange I said, “You are now actually starting your martial art training. All the other hours, exercise and sweat has just been preparation for today.”

Question: How are you doing with your training? How are you doing with your spiritual exercises? Such as Bible reading, meditation, prayer and service. Are you just getting started? Have you stumbled? Or are you a dedicated student for our Savior?

Dorothy Day wrote, “What we do is very little. But it is like the little boy with a few loaves and fishes. Christ took that little and increased it. He will do the rest. What we do is so little that we may seem to be constantly failing. But so did he fail. He met with apparent failure on the Cross. But unless the seeds fall into the earth and die, there is no harvest.”

Dear God help us with our training. Give us patience and a humble spirit, strengthen our feeble efforts at being your servants. Bless our training and all the little things we do in your name so that our small acts of faith may find witness among many and thereby send them on their way to you.

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I’ve been running into the shadow of the cross a lot lately. I was walking through our sanctuary when I glanced up and on the wall light had hit the top of our Christian flag and this was what I saw. The cross the emblem of our Savior’s execution. The cross the sign of our salvation. The cross the symbol of abundant life!

The Mozarabic Sacramentary states this, “The Day of Resurrection has dawned upon us, the day of true light and life, wherein Christ, the life of believers, arose from the dead. Let us give abundant thanks and praise to God, that while we solemnly celebrate the day of our Lord’s resurrection, He may be pleased to bestow on us quiet peace and special gladness; so that being protected from morning to night by His favoring mercy, we may rejoice in the gift of our Redeemer. Amen.”

Dear pilgrim are you rejoicing in the cross today? Are you living a life of quiet peace and gladness because you have been saved? Are you lifting your life up to our risen Lord from morning to night? Let me be blunt…probably not. So just take a moment right now to give thanks for the cross. Pause…and say thank you that we live under the shadow of that symbol that reminds us of peace, hope and life with our Savior tomorrow.

Dear God, help us to become so familiar, or at least keep running into the shadow of your cross so often that it consumes our thoughts and waking moments. That we are driven into worship. Then even our smallest actions even our everyday experiences will reflect your light. Amen.

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I was at my daughter’s house looking out at the rain falling. For those of you who don’t know Fresno is in the midst of a long and devastating drought. So…to see and experience rain is exciting. But something caught my eye and was at first disturbing because I couldn’t figure out what it was.

In their backyard is a statue of Mary, in fact I believe it was left there by a previous owner and Rachel and Scott decided not to move her. But you see what was confusing for a moment was the fact it was raining yet there was a beam of sun light on the statue’s brow. Apparently for just a moment the sun broke through the clouds, streamed among the branches, leaves and struck this representation of Mary.

As I stood there contemplating The Gospel According to Abbie Jane Wells came to mind where she states, “Of course, it is possible for God to have a Son of a woman ‘in a different place at a different time’ but that son wouldn’t be Jesus, for Jesus was Mary’s son as well as God’s-which lottsa people tend to forget at times. For all I know-for all anybody knows-God may have “proposed” through the ages but, as far as we know, Mary was the first one to say an unqualified ‘yes’”.

In the midst of her agony, of seeing her son on the cross, with all the sorrow and grief this mother, this woman, this believer who said “yes” knew, she had a divine ray of light in her mother’s heart and hope from her God that her boy and her Savior would return. She knew in her heart and mind there would be an Easter! Amen!

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Yesterday I received a gift from an individual that reads my blog from Romania. He had crafted a Chotki for me. A traditional wool band made of 33 hand tied knots-to represent the years of Jesus’ life on earth. The concept is to look at each knot and recite the Jesus’ Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me-a sinner.” In that way we can obey the command “to pray without ceasing.”

First, what a joy to have the opportunity to know one more brother in Christ. Even though countless miles separate us we can pray for each other and work as a team for the peace of Christ to impact our world. “Christ have mercy on…us.”

The fourteenth-century book on meditation called, The Cloud of Unknowing says this, “For I tell you this: one loving, blind desire for God alone is more valuable in iteself, more pleasing to God and to the saints, more beneficial to your own growth, and more helpful to your friends, both living and dead, than anything else you could do.”

My Father, bind us to you and to one another in obedience to your word. Let us stand up and pray for each other, to bring peace to a broken world bind us to you our Father and to each other through the Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen.

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