Heaven on Earth
Joe Albright

Heaven on Earth

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There is an old tale that offers two images contrasting the difference between heaven and hell. The image of hell is this: There is a large banquet hall and the meal has been prepared by the world’s best chefs. The only unusual thing about this scene is the eating utensils. They are very long, heavy and cumbersome. When the guests sit down to eat, some people are not able to lift any of the utensils due to their weight. Those who are able to lift the fork, knife, or spoon cannot maneuver it so as to get anything to eat. The utensils are too long. Soon those around the table begin to bump into each other in their attempt to get even a spoonful of food. Frustration, hunger, and even anger are the result.

The image of heaven is similar – with a twist. The banquet hall appears the same. Even the large and cumbersome silverware are present. However, there is a different group of guests present who have somehow learned an important lesson. They realize that the utensils will not allow them to feed themselves; but, as they sit down to eat, those that are able to lift the utensils pick up food and maneuver it so as to feed a neighbor. When necessary two people lift a fork and feed a third person, who, in turn, with aid feeds those who fed him. In the end, all eat well. There is laughter and storytelling. Each person is satisfied and even joyful because they have learned to feed each other.

This story of course is also a metaphor for our life here on earth. Life is hell when we make it all about us, whenever we are selfish or self-centered. However, we experience heaven on earth when we serve and love others.

Let us pray: Continue to show us your ways, O God, that we might take hold of the life that is truly life. Amen.

Sighs Too Deep for Words
Joe Albright

Sighs Too Deep for Words

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A father was listening to his child playing in the other room when he heard her repeating the alphabet in a tone of voice that sounded like a prayer. When he asked her what she was doing, the little girl explained: “I’m praying, but I can’t think of exactly the right words, so I’m just saying all the letters. God will put them together for me because He knows what I’m thinking.”

In a sermon some time ago, my friend Charlie Landreth preached from Romans 8, where Paul writes, “For we do not know how to pray as we ought…” In his message, Charlie reminded us that there are times when we feel a deep need to pray, and yet words escape us.

Maybe when you look at the violence and heartache in the world around us, you are grieved by the senseless loss of life. Maybe there are times when that grief can feel so overwhelming that it is hard to know even where to begin with a prayer. Or perhaps you have a loved one who is near the end of life and you want to hang onto every precious moment, but you also know that your loved one is suffering and the quality of life is not there. It is hard to know how to pray or what to pray for. Or maybe you are dealing with a troubled teen or a relationship that is falling apart, and you are not sure what kind of outcome to hope for.

Paul’s words speak to us, “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26)

Let us pray: Loving and gracious God, we thank you that even when we don’t know how to pray, your Spirit intercedes in us and for us. Hear – even now – our deepest cries and hurts… Heal us, redeem us, and help us in our weakness; we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

With Strength
Roger Kunkel

With Strength

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How does faith mend a broken heart? Sooner or later, heartache comes to all of us. Sadness, sorrow, disappointment, grief, rejection, hurt – whatever you wish to call it – rears its head and covers us like a heavy blanket. Let me suggest some resources of the Christian faith that can help us walk through the dark valley of sorrow. First, claim the fellowship of the church. Let the church family’s arms of love surround you and support you. Never forget that you are not alone. God is with you. Nothing, not even death, can separate you from the love of God. No matter how hurt you may feel, let the church be an integral part of the healing process.

Second, and this may surprise you, claim the power of helping others, which comes only from having gone through the grief pilgrimage. Those who have gone through sorrow of any kind have a new empathy, a new sensitivity, a new compassion, and a new power to help others. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!” The word comforted comes from the Latin words – cum, which means “with” and fortis, which means “strength.” So the word comforted means literally “with strength”! Thus, Jesus was saying “Blessed are those who have gone through sorrow, for they are with strength.” Someone once put it like this; “Whoever among us has, through personal experience learned what pain and anxiety are…. belongs no more to themselves alone; they are the sister, the brother of all who suffer.”

Friend of Dial Hope, claim that strength to help others which comes only on the other side of trouble, only from walking through the valley of grief. God needs you to share yourself with others. Memorize this verse: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Trust God…trust God….trust God.

Let us pray: God of love, some days there is so much pain, so much emptiness. And yet, you know what we are feeling. As we count our blessings, keep us from wallowing in self-pity so that we may encourage and comfort others. Turn our sadness to laughter, remembering that “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.’ (Proverbs 1 7:22) Through the grace of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Not Without Hope
Joe Albright

Not Without Hope

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Rabbi Hugo Gryn used to tell of his experience in Auschwitz as a child. Food, of course, was scarce, and his fellow prisoners took care to preserve every scrap that came their way. When Hanukkah arrived, Hugo’s father took a lump of margarine, and to the shock of young Hugo, he used it as fuel for the light to be lit at the festival. When he was asked why, his father replied, “We know that it is possible to live for three weeks without food, but without hope it is impossible to live properly for three minutes.”

The Rabbi’s story reminds me that in life there are concrete actions we can take to bolster hope. Whether it is giving sacrificially to a cause we believe deeply in; setting aside time each week for worship, or offering a few moments to pause in prayer we gain clarity and perspective which open again the avenues for faith and hope to flourish even in the darkest of times.

Our prayer today is based on Psalm 130. Let us pray: Loving God, our souls wait for you and, in your Word we hope. We trust that with you is steadfast love and that with you is the great power to redeem. As we engage in the rituals of our faith, as we give, and as we serve may our spirits be tuned to your Spirit. And, may we be filled with an overwhelming sense of hope. Amen.

Threshold Callings
Joe Albright

Threshold Callings

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In Isaiah chapter 6, we read: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty… Then, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?”

Over the past two days, we’ve reflected on how Isaiah’s calling took place in the midst of a major historical event during his lifetime. These types of events often open our eyes to the great need around us. But it’s not just the major world events, is it? Even events in our own lives can also open our hearts to a new calling…

Perhaps, for you, it might sound more like this: In the year of the diagnosis… In the year my father died… In the year my wife left me… In the year I lost my job… In the year she got sick… I saw the Lord standing above and in the midst of my life… and I knew my life was forever changed… I knew I had to change… I sensed there was more to life than I was living… I was made for something more than this…

Poet and Philosopher John O’Donahue writes about these threshold moments. He put it this way: “If you go back to the etymology of the word “threshold,” it’s a farming term. It comes from “threshing,” which is to separate the grain from the husk. So the threshold, in a way, is a place where you move into more critical and challenging and worthy fullness.”

Through these life events, through these thresholds, God will often speak into our lives and call us to respond. These moments compel us to decide, am I going to go this way with my life – or that way? Am I going to become small and bitter and angry, or am I going to use this experience to grow and to help others?

It could be that you are being called out of this experience to engage the world creatively in some new way… or to give to meet the needs that God has placed on your heart. Or perhaps it could be a calling to get to know those who see the world differently, to build bridges between them, or simply shift your perspective.

Whether you experience that calling as a tug on your hearts or a stirring in your souls – or whether you clearly hear God’s voice like Isaiah, or are moved by the cries of human need… or whether you just sense in your heart: this is one thing I can do right now, these callings speak to the presence of caring God – a loving God – a God whose Spirit is deep at work within us – moving us, compelling us, calling us to reach out to the places where grace is most needed.

Let us pray: Gracious God, open our eyes and hearts to even one small thing we can do, close to home today, to share your love and grace with others in need; in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Here I Am. Send Me…
Joe Albright

Here I Am. Send Me…

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In Isaiah chapter 6, we read: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty… Then, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?”

Yesterday we reflected on how Isaiah’s calling took place in the wake of a major historical event that took place during his lifetime. These types of events often open our eyes to the great need around us.

I think about all the people who responded during the Civil Rights movement – women and men stepped up – even risking their lives…I think about all the blood that was donated in the wake of 911. I think about many missionaries I’ve met over the years who saw human need and suffering in world events and gave their lives in service in response.

A few weeks ago, I was listening to an interview with a woman named Colette Pichon Battle. (Isn’t that a great name! Colette Pichon Battle!) She is a Cajun from southern Louisiana, and she was the first in her family to leave home to go to college. She ended up becoming a powerful attorney in Washington, D.C. She had dreams about becoming Secretary of State or prosecuting international war criminals at the Hague.

But then in 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit, and her family lost their home and their land. Many of her family friends and relatives were displaced, and she felt a sense of calling to return home to help her people. Her work completely shifted after that. She returned, first to helping folks navigate FEMMA paperwork, and then later, working to help them preserve their land as an environmental attorney.

We can almost hear the calling for her: In the year Hurricane Katrina swept through the southern Gulf states, and the poorest of the poor were hit the hardest, I saw the Lord standing above the floods, saying who shall I send?

In this year of civil unrest and protests on college campuses, in this year when anxiety and depression among teenagers have reached epic proportions, in this year when hunger right here in our own country is acute, in this year when the struggles surface within our own families, in this year, even now, the Lord is standing above and in the midst of your life… calling to you, “Whom shall I send?”

Let us pray: Gracious God, open our eyes and hearts to even one small thing we can do, close to home today, to share your love and grace with others in need; in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Whom Shall I Send?
Joe Albright

Whom Shall I Send?

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I remember back in 2002 going to worship one morning, and the pastor preached from Isaiah chapter 6. He started his message with Isaiah’s words: In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty… And then he shifted and started again. The pastor said: In the year the Twin Towers fell, I saw the Lord standing above the rubble… I could see the nations up in arms… but it was the need and the suffering of the people that called to my heart…

That pastor said that the historical reference to Uzziah to the heavenly throne of God is meant to set us on edge… it is meant to grab our attention.

Years earlier, when he was a boy, he had heard a pastor preach on this text who began his message: In the year the bombs fell on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, I saw the Lord standing above the mushroom clouds and the smoldering ruins…

I’ve thought about this often since… In the year of the COVID-19 global pandemic… Or perhaps today we could say: In the year of the second election between Biden and Trump… in the year the country was divided and the social fabric of the nation was fraying at the edges… I saw the Lord sitting on his throne… And I said, “Woe is me… I am lost…I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.”

Of course, not everyone gets to see a vision like Isaiah. But we know this vision is true; that God Almighty stands over, and even right in the midst, of whatever historical events are happening at the time. And often, out of this awareness, comes a calling:

Whom shall I send?

Whether you experience that calling as a tug on your hearts or a stirring in your souls – or whether you clearly hear God’s voice like Isaiah, or are moved by the cries of human need… or whether you just sense in your heart: this is one thing I can do right now, these callings speak to the presence of caring God – a loving God – a God whose Spirit is deep at work within us – moving us, compelling us, calling us to reach out to the places where grace is most needed.

Let us pray: Gracious God, open our eyes and hearts to even one small thing we can do, close to home today, to share your love and grace with others in need; in Jesus’ name. Amen.

When Hope becomes Strength
Joe Albright

When Hope becomes Strength

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Years ago I heard about a school system in a large city that had a program to help children keep up with their work during long stays in the hospital. One day a teacher was called in to visit a young boy. However, no one had mentioned to her that he had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, “I’ve been sent to help you with nouns and adverbs.” She later left feeling as though she hadn’t helped at all.

The next day, a nurse approached the teacher and asked, “What did you say to that boy?” The teacher thought she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. “Oh no,” said the nurse, “That’s not what I mean. We’ve been so worried about him. But ever since your visit yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting and responding to treatment. It’s as though he’s decided to live.”

Later, after the boy recovered, he explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher showed up. He said, “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”
G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all… As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.”

Let us pray: In the darkest moments of night, it is hard to believe there is a way forward. When we can’t see a path, when we can’t see a future, when we can’t see your gifts along the way, that is when we need you most. I pray today for those who feel they are in that place, O God. I ask for them an overwhelming measure of hope, a desire to overcome, a willingness to ask for help, and a strength and a courage that is beyond them. I entrust them to your care. Rest your Spirit on them and on each of us. Fill us with your peace. Amen.

Abandoning Resentment
Joe Albright

Abandoning Resentment

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I was listening to a podcast on forgiveness on my drive home from work the other day. They interviewed the psychologist Robert Enright who had been working with children in Liberia. You may remember that that country had been wracked by civil war. He was talking about a Skype session he had with a young boy who asked him, “Should I forgive the person who killed my momma?” Then, a little girl asked, “I loved my sister so much… should I forgive that man who took her life?”

Enright said it just broke his heart. And yet he knew that if they didn’t… if they couldn’t… the bitterness and resentment would be carried not only for a lifetime – but possibly for generations to come. Hatred of this other group would be handed down to children, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Enright went on to define forgiveness, at least in part, as a is a willingness to abandon one’s right to resentment.

What strikes me is that according to that definition, we do inherently have a right to be bitter or angry. And, at least initially it may be important for us to feel those emotions. But long-term, we have to ask ourselves, “Is this something I want to continue carrying around inside me long term? Do I want this other person – or people – to live on inside my head and heart in that way? Do I want what this other person did to control my life in any way shape or form?

Maybe you know what it’s like not to want to forgive – not wanting God to forgive. It’s human. The need for revenge is a powerful emotion.

And yet the truth is, when we carry it around with us – the person it really hurts the most is ourselves.

Let us pray: Loving God, we begin simply by lifting up to you those people who may have harmed us or cheated us, or betrayed us. Wash over us with your grace and help us to let go of any bitterness or resentment. Even though we may never be able to reconcile – or even to forget the offense, begin even now to cleanse our souls of hatred. And as you do, replace those emotions with an overwhelming sense of your peace. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Angel in That Rock
Roger Kunkel

Angel in That Rock

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There’s a legend about the great artist Michelangelo pushing a huge piece of rock down a street. A curious neighbor, sitting lazily on the porch of her house, called to him and inquired why he labored so over an old piece of stone. Michelangelo is reported to have answered, “Because there is an angel in that rock that wants to come out.”

Friend of Dial Hope, think imaginatively. Color outside of the lines. Think of rocks as those challenges which you have met. Think of rocks as those things you have tamed, or those times when you brought order out of chaos. Whenever you find angels in rocks you are being creative. It is our creative potential that puts us in the image of God, for it is our charge in life to be creators. Some of you will be creative with pen or brush, others with touch or thought. Be you a teacher or a veterinarian, a parent or a chef, an engineer or a musician you will fulfill your post through creativity.

Vincent Van Gogh used to say that “many painters are afraid of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the passionate painter who is daring and who has broken that spell of “you, cannot!”‘ The creative person paints. In Genesis 1:26 we read, Then God Said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.”

Let us pray: Loving God, whom we see in every summer flower and flowering stream, teach us to see you as well in the haggard faces of the old, the gaunt or bloated bodies of the poor, and the imploring eyes of children. Help us who are called by your name to have your vision of the world of the future, as a place where the lion lies down with the lamb, the person with two coats shares with the person who has none, and everyone takes care of children and the aged. Release us from our bondage to self-interest. Grant today your amazing grace to those who are ill in body or spirit. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.