On my sabbatical a few years ago, my daughters and I had the chance to surf off the rugged north coast of Scotland, at a place called Farr Bay.

The water was emerald green. Sheer rocky cliffs dropped straight into the sea. Pasture land rolled right down to the shore. And the waves were powerful and well formed… nearly perfect.

I remember sitting on my board in-between sets, marveling at the beauty of God’s creation, and the gift of spending time with my daughters immersed in it all. No one on the beach. Other than the sound of breaking waves and light wind, there was a deeper silence.

The ancient Celts had a name for places like that. They called them "thin places," places where the veil between heaven and earth is at its thinnest.

John Philip Newell writes that the early Celtic Christians saw the shoreline in particular as a kind of doorway, that space "between land and sea, between known and unknown," where the seen and the unseen meet.

The psalmist must have stood somewhere like that: "More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters, more majestic than the waves of the sea, majestic on high is the Lord!" (Psalm 93:4)

Maybe you have a place like that. A shoreline. A mountain trail. The wide-open plains. The quiet of a sanctuary. Early morning in the garden.

Where is your thin place?

And when was the last time you went there?

Prayer: Thank you, O God, for the places where you draw near: the shoreline and the mountaintop, the sanctuary and the garden. When we are weary, lead us back to them. Open our hearts to your presence there, and give us strength and courage for the days ahead. Amen.

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

One of the greatest truths of the Bible is ... We - you and I - are made in the image of God. Talk about a miracle! God made cats and dogs, hummingbirds, red cardinals, squirrels, elephants, giraffes, pelicans, dolphins, and the duck-billed platypus. God made the trees, the flowers, and skies. God made all of it and said, "That's good! Now, that's good!" And to cap it all off, God said, "Now, for the masterpiece: I am going to create something like myself!" And God made you! You see, it is a sin for us to say, "Well, I'm only human." If you want to see one of God's miracles, don't gather pine cones, don't look at the Milky Way, don't capture a squirrel, and don’t find a picture of a trout stream, just look at the person next to you. There is God's miracle! There is the crown of God's creation! 

Let us pray: Creator God, we marvel at your small wonders and your overarching grandeur. We crouch down to examine a centipede and we stand on a mountaintop to try to take in the Milky Way. We listen to the tiny cry of a newborn kitten and we cringe in the face of the roar of the thunderstorm. We are small indeed in the scheme of the universe, but we are grateful that you have made us in your image. When we are weary, give us energy. When we are sad, give us comfort. For all those who are suffering loss, who wonder what will happen next, we pray that you will walk before them and enable us to be companions along the way. Now "raise us up on eagle's wings, bear us on the breath of dawn, make us to shine like the sun, and hold us in the palm of your hand." (On Eagles Wings, based on Psalm 91). We ask this in Jesus' name, the friend of all. Amen. 

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There's a story about a mom making pancakes for her two sons, ages four and six. The boys started arguing over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw an opportunity for a little life lesson.

"If Jesus were sitting here," she said, "he would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait.'"

The older brother turned to the younger one and said, "Okay, Ryan… you be Jesus!"

Isn't that just the way it is?

On Sunday, when we're in church, surrounded by good people and good music, it's one thing. But come Monday, with the pressure of work and school and troubled relationships, human nature takes over. It gets a lot harder to live the way we want to live.

Paul told the church in Thessalonica, "Pray without ceasing." (1 Thessalonians 5:17) That sounds impossible. But there's an ancient practice that helps: the breath prayer.

Marjorie Thompson writes about it in her book Soul Feast. It's a very short prayer, just a few words, that you pray again and again throughout the day. You breathe in on the first half, and breathe out on the second.

Breathe in: Lord Jesus Christ…
Breathe out: have mercy on me.

Here are a few others:

Lord… grant me your peace.
Gracious God… teach me patience.
O Christ… give me strength.
Come… Lord Jesus.

You can write your own, or use a line of scripture.

In both Hebrew and Greek, the word for breath and the word for Spirit are the same. So every time you breathe the prayer, you're inviting the Spirit to fill you. And over time, it becomes almost second nature. You begin to realize that God's peace, strength, and presence are as near to you as your next breath.

Prayer: Holy God, in the midst of days that are busy and yet sometimes lonely, meet us. Meet us in quiet moments and in stressful situations, in doctor's offices and classrooms, in board rooms and at workstations, in traffic and in outings with friends. Be here with us, even now.

Come… Lord Jesus. Amen.

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One of the deepest longings of the human soul is the longing to be seen, and to be loved, and to be accepted. Aristotle said that no one would choose to live without friends… even if they had every other good thing in the world.

There would be no question.

And yet, it's not easy, is it?

The poet John O'Donohue said, "There is a natural hunger in the spirit to be loved and to be as you are without being judged." But, he noticed, we offer each other those spaces less and less. We don't take the time. "We've become post-graduates in the art of acquaintances," he said, "but paupers in the art of friendship."

In John's gospel, Jesus tells his disciples, "Love one another as I have loved you." And then he says, "I do not call you servants any longer… but I have called you friends." (John 15:12, 15)

Again and again in the gospels, Jesus shows up precisely where people are lonely, sick, and suffering.

I imagine, at least in part, that Jesus is inviting us to show up the same way he does. I imagine, at least in part, he is inviting us to make sure that no one has no one.

Sooner or later, all of us will face times of loneliness, times of suffering, and times of illness. And so, a blessing for you today:

May God bring into your life at least one faithful friend.
May you be a friend to the friendless.
May you treasure the friends you have.
May you be good to them, and may you be there for them.
May they bring you all the blessings, challenges, truth, and light you need for the days ahead.
And may you rest securely in the love of Christ, who has called you friend.

Prayer: God of love, in Jesus Christ you walked among us, flesh and blood. You ate with sinners. You touched the lonely and the sick. You laughed and cried and suffered alongside us. Thank you for the people you have brought into our lives: neighbors, friends, family, our church family. Be near to those who are lonely today, and to those most often forgotten. And give us grace to be better friends, to those we love and to those who need us most. In Christ's name. Amen.

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There's a well-known story about a business professor who told her class she was going to give a quiz on time management.

She set a one-gallon, wide-mouthed Mason jar on the table. Then she carefully placed about a dozen golf-ball-sized rocks inside, until no more would fit. "Is this jar full?"

"Yes," the class said.

"Really?" She reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. She poured some in and shook the jar, and the gravel worked its way down into the spaces between the rocks. "Is the jar full?"

By now the class was onto her. "Probably not."

"Good!" Out came a bucket of sand. It sifted into all the spaces between the rocks and the gravel. "Is this jar full?"

"No!" the class shouted.

"Good!" Then she took a pitcher of water and poured until the jar was filled to the brim.

"So," she asked, "what's the point?"

One student raised his hand. "No matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit more in!"

"No," she said. "The point is this: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."

Most of us know what our big rocks are. That's not usually the problem. The problem is the sand. The emails. The errands. The phone. A hundred small, urgent things that pour in first and fill every space.

Jesus once visited the home of two sisters, Mary and Martha. Martha was busy in the kitchen. Mary sat at his feet and listened. When Martha finally complained, Jesus said to her, gently, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing." (Luke 10:41-42)

Notice what the one thing was. It wasn't another task. It wasn't doing more for Jesus. It was sitting at his feet… and receiving.

Maybe that's the biggest rock of all. Not something we accomplish, but time we make to be with the One who loves us.

What would it look like to put that rock in first today?

Prayer: God of grace, our days are often filled with a flurry of activity. So often we are worried and distracted by many things. Slow us down. Help us put you front and center, not as one more thing to do, but as the One in whom we rest. Today we pray especially for those who feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. Meet each of us at the deepest point of our need, and grant us your peace. Amen.

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