Let the Light Shine Through
Joe Albright

Let the Light Shine Through

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There is a story about a young boy who attended church with his grandfather on Sunday. The church had beautiful stained-glass windows, and Grandpa told his grandson that the windows contained pictures of Saint Matthew, Saint Mark, Saint Luke, Saint John, and Saint Paul, along with many other saints.

When they got home, the boy told Mom and Dad all about it. Dad, curious about what his son had learned, asked, “What is a saint?” The boy thought for a minute And then replied, “A saint is a somebody the light shines through.”

You know, that really is a great definition of a saint: somebody who the light shines through.  And it raises the question: who are your saints? Who are the people in your life who have let – or who still do let the light of God shine through them for you to see?

And, maybe more importantly, who in your life might look to you as a saint? Is God’s light shining through you – for others?

Let us pray: We thank you, O God, for the people in our lives who show us your love, mercy and grace. May we – in our own lives – allow your light to shine through us – that we would be a blessing to others and to you. Amen.

Where the Light Shines Through
Joe Albright

Where the Light Shines Through

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I was recently reading something about Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen related to using the technique of art therapy for people who have experienced great loss. Apparently, she spent some time helping a twenty-four-year-old young man who had to have one of his legs amputated to stop the spread of bone cancer. This young man was angry and bitter. For a long time, he couldn’t seem to look beyond his disability. 

Eventually, Dr. Remen was able to help him come to grips with his emotions and to let go of his disappointment. As he recovered, she also encouraged him to reach out and help others – to turn from an inward self-centered focus – to an outward focus. He began to visit others with physical disabilities and to share his own story with them. 

One day this young man visited a young woman who had just been operated on for breast cancer. She was suffering from deep depression. Her room was silent, except for some music playing by her bed. He couldn’t seem to get through to her in his usual manner, so he tried something different. He suddenly took off his artificial leg and began dancing around the room on his one good leg. The woman began laughing. She said, “Ok if you can dance, I can sing.”  And she did. 

About a year after the young man’s turnaround, he sat down with Dr. Remen to wrap up his therapy. At one point, they looked over the artwork and discussed how his views of life had changed. One picture expressed it beautifully. The young man, when asked to draw a picture of his body, had at first drawn a vase with an ugly, jagged crack running down the middle. This crack represented all the anger, and bitterness he felt after he lost his leg. He had seen himself as broken and therefore useless.

 But now as the young man looked at the picture, he knew it no longer represented how he felt. He took a yellow crayon and drew vibrant yellow streamers pouring from the crack in the vase. Then he explained, “You see here, where it is broken, this is where the light shines through.” 

Friend of Dial Hope, I don’t know all of the brokenness and hurt that you may be feeling today. But I do know this: that every one of you has been through difficult moments in life.  You have felt this brokenness. 

The promise of the gospel, however, is that we worship a God who brings light out of darkness; and hope out of despair. And so often what we find is that when we turn back to help others, it is precisely through our own past heartache and brokenness and even failures that God’s light shines the brightest. 

Let us pray: God of Grace, help us to trust you with our needs. And empower us to help others. As we have been blessed, so may we be a blessing. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Changes Along the Journey
Roger Kunkel

Changes Along the Journey

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Today’s message was written by Rev. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

Lilian Carter, the mother of Jimmy Carter once said, “Every time I think I’m getting old, and gradually going to the grave, something else happens.” 

It is so true – life is filled with delightful detours, if we are looking for them. Some changes of pace just happen to us; others we create along the way.  In either case, the lives of alert, awake, flexible humans display creative change. As someone noted, “Happiness is the art of making a bouquet of flowers right around you.”

Let us pray: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.” God of love, we know in our bones that you are there, even when our bones are aching from loneliness or disease. We know in our minds that you are the center of our lives, even when our heads hurt from trying to figure out what to do next. We know in our hearts that you are love, even when we feel that love has vanished from our lives. We know in our souls that you have made us and shaped us for a reason, even when our inner core feels empty and devoid of purpose. Lord, spread your mantle of comfort and grace over those who are hurting this day. Fill our hearts now with contagious enthusiasm, joy, and hope as we partner with you to make this day a masterpiece. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Created to Be Free
Joe Albright

Created to Be Free

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I heard a story recently about Nelson Mandela. Apparently, there was a time when he met with former President Bill Clinton. Clinton asked him a rather pointed question: “When you were released from prison, Mr. Mandela, I woke my daughter at three o’clock in the morning. I wanted her to see this historic event. As you marched from the cellblock across the yard to the gate of the prison, the camera focused in on your face. I have never seen such anger, and even hatred in any man as was expressed on your face at that time. That’s not the Nelson Mandela I know today. What was that about?”

Mandela answered, “I regret that the cameras caught my anger. As I walked across the courtyard that day I thought to myself, ‘They’ve taken everything from you that matters. Your cause is dead. Your family is gone. Your friends have been killed. Now they’re releasing you, but there’s nothing left for you out there.’ And I hated them for what they had taken from me. Then, I sensed an inner voice saying to me, ‘Nelson! For twenty-seven years you were their prisoner, but you were always a free man! Don’t allow them to make you into a free man, only to turn you into their prisoner!’”

We can never be free as long as we carry around hate. We can never be free as long as we carry around bitterness. And we can never be free as long we hold on to old grudges, hurts, and wrongs.  God didn’t create us to carry that stuff around. God created us to be free. 

In a very real sense, forgiveness isn’t just about other people – it’s about us. 

Let us pray: Loving God, may your Spirit fall gently upon us and empower us to forgive and let go, so that our souls may be set free. Amen. 

In the Very Pouring Out
Joe Albright

In the Very Pouring Out

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One of my pastor friends has a pretty powerful call story. There was a time late in his college life when he struggled profoundly with the meaninglessness of life. It got to the point that he began to despair of life itself. He was not a Christian at this time.

Then one Sunday morning, somehow, someway, God led him to get out of bed and drag himself into a church. But what is really significant, is that when God touched his heart again, it was not at a point in the service where he felt like he was being fed – but where he felt like he was being challenged. It actually happened during the singing of an old African American Spiritual – the choir and the congregation were all singing – I’m gonna live so God can use me – anywhere Lord, anytime… I’m gonna live so God can use me…

It was not that God was just saying, Ok son, I’m going to heal you. I’m going to make you whole. I’m going to provide for you or protect you. No. No. There was far more. God spoke to his heart and said,  I’m calling you to give your life away – to pour out your life for others… And in that very act of pouring out, you are going to find deep meaning and hope.

It’s a little bit counterintuitive, isn’t it? But my friend will tell you that he has found, as many others have, that it is true. In giving we receive.

Maybe that’s what Jesus meant when he said, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it..” (Matthew 16:25)

Let us pray: God of Hope, meet us again this day at the deepest point of our need. Fill us with your Spirit and empower us to pour our lives out for others in need. And as we do, may we find your healing grace. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Letter of Thanks
Roger Kunkel

Letter of Thanks

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Today’s message was written by Rev. Dr. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

Today I want to suggest an exciting idea – I want you to try giving yourself away. 

I once knew a man who suffered a nervous breakdown, during which he sat for months in gloom and mental darkness. One day I suggested he try to turn off his dark, depressing thoughts by practicing thanksgiving. I said, “Start thinking of people who greatly helped you in your life.”

So, he wrote an elderly school teacher, Miss Elaine Smith, who had been a positive influence on his life. A reply came, written in the shaky handwriting of an aged lady. “Dear Willy,” she wrote, “When I read your letter I was blinded by tears, for I remember you as a boy, and as I think of you now I see you as a little fellow in my class. You have warmed my old heart. I taught school for fifty years. Yours is the first letter of thanks I ever received from a student, and I shall cherish it until I die.” 

Friend of Dial Hope, writing a letter of thanks – a project like that – may involve taking a little time – but it’s an opportunity to give a little of yourself, and really that’s the best you can give. Strangely, when you give yourself, you find yourself. 

Let us pray: God of hope, we come to you when our hope is vanquished, and our faith is small. We come to you when the promise of the “good life” has been found lacking, when clothes and cuisine, cars, and cappuccinos become insufficient nourishment for the hunger of the human spirit. We come to you because we have nowhere else to go. O God, save us from ourselves; from self-indulgence, and self-idolization. Heal us from the sickness of the body but even more from the sickness of the soul. May we get caught up in the current of your compassion, the flood of your forgiveness and so lose ourselves in the wide ocean of your love. In the name of the risen Christ. Amen.

Faith and Politics – Ultimate Hope
Joe Albright

Faith and Politics – Ultimate Hope

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I think it was just before the 2004 elections, I remember hearing about a church up in North Carolina where the pastor told his congregation – if you are not going to vote Republican, you’re not really Christian, and you may as well leave this church now. Can you imagine? I mean is God a Republican? Or, is God a Democrat for that matter? Can you reduce God to a political party? 

I remember a time in seminary when almost the opposite happened. Someone posted a note on the community bulletin board that asked, “Can you be a Republican and still be a Christian?” 

Someone wrote back, “All things are possible with God.”  And then someone else wrote, “Be careful, my friend. You are making an awfully small god. 

Have you ever noticed how we do that sometimes? We try to make God in our own image. Or we try to line God up with our own agenda. We’ve got to be humble enough to know God is bigger.

I like what Methodist pastor James Howell wrote due to his commitment to Christ: “I cannot stake out some dogged allegiance to any particular political arrangement, Republican, Democrat, conservative, or liberal. All these are human, fallible lunges by fallible people, trying to cope with chaotic life in a fallen world. No party, no candidate, no political line of reasoning can command my absolute zeal.”  

Amen to that!

We are blessed to live in a country where we have the freedom to worship, the freedom to vote, the freedom to serve others, and we have the freedom to speak up, to critique, and to engage.  

My prayer is that you would embrace that freedom…without ever denying it to others.  Absolutely let your faith inform your politics.  Pray about it. Spend some time reading the Gospels. Keep an open heart. Pray again about it! Get involved in the process, vote, debate, discuss, engage. But may you do it in a way that God would be glorified!

Let us pray: We pray O God, for our country in this election year. In spite of our political differences help us to listen deeply to one another, help us listen deeply to you. Where we disagree with one another – may we do so in a spirit of love. May we, who seek to follow you, be the salt and the levain and the light that reflects your gospel. By the way that we live, by the way that we speak, by the way that we work and play and interact – use our very lives to bring hope and mercy and joy to a world desperately in need. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Faith and Politics – Humility
Joe Albright

Faith and Politics – Humility

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Over the past few days, we’ve raised the question: How do we, as followers of Jesus, engage the culture and politics of our day?   

Yesterday we reflected on the need to listen to one another with basic kindness. Today, I’ll simply add the need for humility. 

There’s a great story about the famous Georgia football coach Vince Dooley.  He was in his kitchen, musing out loud one evening, “I wonder how many truly great college football coaches there have ever been?”  And his wife shot right back, “Probably one less than you think!” 

It is important to have people in our lives who keep us humble. 

We are broken people. No matter how much we think we know, no matter how much we’ve studied or prayed, and no matter how well intended – we often are wrong. 

There is no doubt, the Bible is crystal clear about the need for followers of Christ to remain humble. 

1 Peter 5:5 reads, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” 

Proverbs 16:5 says, “Arrogance is an abomination to the Lord.”

It’s written in Philippians 2, “Let the same mind be in you, as was in Christ Jesus… who humbled himself…”

Our prayer today was written by Thomas Merton. Let us pray:  O God, we are one with You. You have made us one with You. You have taught us that if we are open to one another, You dwell in us. Help us to preserve this openness and to fight for it with all our hearts. Help us to realize that there can be no understanding where there is mutual rejection. Oh God, in accepting one another wholeheartedly, fully, completely, we accept You, and we thank You, and we adore You, and we love You with our whole being because our being is in Your being, our spirit is rooted in Your spirit. Fill us then with love as we go our diverse ways, united in this one spirit which makes You present in the world, and which makes You witness to the ultimate reality that is love. Love has overcome. Love is victorious. Amen. 

Faith and Politics – Listening With Kindness
Joe Albright

Faith and Politics – Listening With Kindness

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Over the past few days, we’ve raised the question: How do we, as followers of Jesus, engage the culture and politics of our day?   I’ll offer three basic thoughts, and I’ll start today with this.

First, can we at least agree on the need to listen to one another – with basic kindness?

People on the outside are supposed to be able to look at us and say, “See how they love one another…” Yes, they have convictions. Yes, they have a backbone. But look at these people. They are kind, they are compassionate. And they listen. Because how we handle our differences on these issues definitely affects our witness to the world. While the end result is important, the means are just as important. Because they affect the way the gospel is heard or not heard by the outside world.

Have you ever been around someone, when a controversial subject comes up,  and they have a strong opinion on it – it’s like there’s no air left in the room? They’ll shut you down immediately. And you know that even if you could get a word in edgewise – they’d never hear a word of it. 

I hope that’s not us!

Charlie Munger has this great quote: “I will not allow myself to hold an opinion on a topic that I can’t articulate the opposing view better than those who hold it.”

If you could get to the point where you could argue the issue from either side – then you’ve truly heard. Doing this will either change your heart – or it will strengthen your belief. Either way, if you understand the issue from both sides, it will help you love and empathize with the people you’re talking to. From a Christian perspective, nothing could be more important than that. No law, no program, no agenda… nothing…

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul writes, “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three. But the greatest of these is love.” 

Let us pray: We pray O God, for our country in this election year. In spite of our political differences help us to listen deeply to one another, help us listen deeply to you. Where we disagree with one another – may we do so in a spirit of love. May we, who seek to follow you, be the salt and the levain and the light that reflects your gospel. By the way that we live, by the way that we speak, by the way that we work and play and interact – use our very lives to bring hope and mercy and joy to a world desperately in need. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Faith and Politics – Part II
Joe Albright

Faith and Politics – Part II

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Yesterday, we began to reflect on faith and politics. No doubt, dangerous waters! It would be easier to try to keep the two separate, or just not talk about it.  However, as followers of Christ, we can’t just throw up our hands and say, I’m not going to engage.   

I think about how beautiful it is to read about churches that stood up against slavery. But to do that they had to bring their faith into the political arena. They had to stand up and say, we think selling human beings is wrong.

I remember my friend Rev. Herb Meza telling me that back in the late 1950’s he published an article called, “The Agony of a Southern Preacher.” The agony was that as a pastor, he felt strongly that God created and loved all humans equally without regard to race. And in his heart, he knew how vital it was for the church to push the culture, and to push our country to move towards civil rights. And yet, when he preached on it, many in his congregation said, “Hey – you’re preaching politics. Keep the politics out of the pulpit.”  But he preached anyway… And people threatened his life.

Sometimes the church has done this really well. And other times, we have to admit, we have not had that great a witness.  Part of the complication is that there are times when just don’t agree with one another – and we come down in different places on the same issue.

Even some of the most basic tenants can cause friction. For example, while most Christians would agree that central to our faith is caring for the poorest most vulnerable members of our society – Jesus said whatever you have done to the least of these – the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the foreigner – you have done it to me. However, we just don’t always agree on how to go about that.

And then what about some of the more controversial issues? Capital punishment, abortion, just war, gun legislation, and on and on… Good, honest, faithful people – people who know their Bible, who know their theology – who love the Lord somehow end up interpreting the scriptures in different ways – and ultimately end up with different convictions. 

Why is that, God? What do we do with that? 

I’ll continue the reflections over the next few days. For now, I leave you with this prayer…

Let us pray: Let us pray: We pray O God, for our country in this election year. In spite of our political differences help us to listen deeply to one another, help us listen deeply to you. Where we disagree with one another – may we do so in a spirit of love. May we, who seek to follow you, be the salt and the levain and the light that reflects your gospel. By the way that we live, by the way that we speak, by the way that we work and play and interact – use our very lives to bring hope and mercy and joy to a world desperately in need. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.