I love the Peanuts cartoon that showed Peppermint Patty talking to Charlie Brown. She said, “Guess what, Chuck. The first day of school and I got sent to the principal’s office. It was your fault, Chuck.” He said, “My fault? How could it be my fault? Why do you say everything is my fault?” She said, “You’re my friend, aren’t you, Chuck? You should have been a better influence on me.”

When we make mistakes, or when things just go wrong, there can be a tendency to want to look for someone else to blame – blame God, blame our spouse, blame the boss, blame the job…. I think back to the book of Genesis, when Adam was confronted about eating the apple, he blamed Eve, “The woman made me do it!” Eve in turn blamed the snake! It is human nature.

However, when we own up to our mistakes, when we admit our shortcomings and failures, we develop our integrity and character. And, when we learn from these mistakes, we grow as human beings.

In the book of 1 John we read: “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Let us pray: Gracious God, we thank you that you offer forgiveness for sins and grace for our failures. Help us to own up to our mistakes, to learn from them and then to begin again. May we know your love and mercy this day. Amen.

One of the greatest compliments a person can give is to say, “l need you!” The words melt our hearts and impel us to want to help. We all need to feel needed. A crucial part of friendship is to be able to admit our inadequacies and say to others, “l need you!” We can be sure that if we can’t say that to others, they will probably never say it to us. Actually, confession of our needs is an expression of healthy self-esteem. We value ourselves enough to believe that we are worthy of another’s care. Those who cannot express their needs usually end up unable to help others. Sadly, a man I knew committed suicide; he did not share his needs. What a loss! We were created for fellowship with God. There will be a restlessness, an emptiness within us, until we rest in Him and allow Him to fill the God-shaped vacuum.

Let us pray: Loving God, without you we are truly scared stiff of making mistakes, of being ridiculed or rejected or missing out in our always fumbling uncertainties. So today we pray that your Spirit will hover over us to enable us to separate the light from the darkness. Encourage us to keep getting up and going on no matter how many times we have tripped up and fallen down crying. So move in among us that we may grow in your Spirit and live with passion in this amazing life. How wonderful are your ways, O Lord, how marvelous are your gifts of grace. Straighten the backbone of our beliefs and deepen our commitments to your way so that the roots of faith will reach the center of our hearts. God, we need you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A mother wanted to encourage the progress of her young son at the piano and so she bought two tickets to a Paderewski performance.

When the night arrived, she found their seats near the front of the concert hall and they eyed the large Steinway parked by itself on the stage. Soon the mother found a friend to talk with and she did not notice the boy slip away.

When 8:00 p.m. arrived the house light dimmed, the spotlights came on, the Steinway was bathed in light, and only then did this mother notice that her son was seated at the piano bench, where he began innocently to plunk the keys in a rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

The audience roared, his mother gasped, but before she could retrieve her son, Paderewski himself appeared and moved quickly towards the keyboard. “No, don’t quit, keep playing, he whispered to the boy. And reaching past him with his left hand the Master began improvising a bass part, and then with his right hand, he reached around on the other side of the boy to add a running obbligato.

The crowd was spell bound and the piece concluded in thunderous applause as the boy announced, “I didn’t know I could do that.”

Sometimes, we do not feel worthy or able. We get discouraged and are tempted to give up, but by some miracle of grace we feel buoyed up and nudged on. God whispers in our ear, “don’t quit, keep playing” and as we continue, we are lovingly enfolded, graciously inspired, and from our feeble efforts, something wonderful can emerge.

Let us pray. Thank you, God, that all things are possible through you. Strengthen me as I face the difficulties and challenges of this day. Use me as a blessing for others. Amen.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3: 5-6

My grandmother taught me these verses. I can remember sitting on her lap in her rocking chair – her arms would be extended around me. She would read to me from the Bible. By her words and by her example she provided my first instruction in what it means to trust God.

The instruction my grandmother provided reminds me of the story Henri Nouwen shares about The Flying Rodleighs, German trapeze artists he greatly admired – so much so that he befriended them, attended practice, even traveled with them. (Our Greatest Gift p.66)

“What’s it like?” He asked the leader Rodleigh.

The flyer said, “I must have complete trust in my catcher. The public might think I’m the star – but the real star is Joe, my catcher.”

“How does that work”, Nouwen asked.

“The secret”, Rodleigh said, “is that the flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything.”
You do nothing?”

Rodleigh responded, “The worst thing the flyer can do is try to catch the catcher … the flyer must trust, that with outstretched arms, that the catcher will be there for him.”

Nouwen reflects: “the words of Jesus flashed through my mind. ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
In both living and dying we trust the catcher. Don’t be afraid. Remember that you are the beloved child of God. God will be there when you make your long jump. Don’t try to grab the catcher; the catcher will grab you. Trust, Trust, Trust, Trust!

Let us Pray. Come and embrace me Lord. Hold me secure; Hold me strong; Hold me forever in Your everlasting arms. Amen

A little boy named John entered his first science fair in second grade. Because his Mom has a green thumb, they decided to experiment with the growth of plants. He took two small green plants and placed one on a sunny windowsill and the other in a cardboard box. After a couple of weeks, John checked the two plants. The one on the windowsill had grown a couple of inches and had vibrant green leaves. The one in the box had actually grown a bit, but it had lost all of its green color, becoming almost white and its leaves were drooping. Thinking that the plant might die, John cut a hole in one side of the box, and set the box, with the plant inside, by the windowsill … with the hole facing toward the incoming light.

Of course, we all know what happened, but John was surprised and delighted by this discovery! Yes, over the next couple of weeks, the plant began to grow out through the hole! And a couple of weeks later, it turned to grow up toward the light and even blossomed!

We all need light in our lives.

It’s worth considering – what brings you light? Are there certain people? Your faith? Time volunteering? Time at church? Moments of quiet or moments of action? It is worth paying attention to those people and things that help you grow and blossom. There may be other things that keep you in the dark. May you find ways to cut through those things that leave you in the darkness – and make time for those that shine their light upon you.

Let us pray: Loving God, we thank you for the way your light shines even into the darkest times in our lives. We thank you for the people we know and love who reflect that light. And we remember today that Jesus is the true light of the world. Help us to follow Him so that we will never walk in darkness. It is in His name we pray. Amen.