Pastoral note, from Garrett
Are you paying attention? Many of us have had our teachers ask us that question in class at one point or another.
Labor Day has passed. September is here. It’s fall. In South Texas, fall may not mean cooler temperatures, but like everywhere else, it often means busier schedules. And paying attention to what matters can sometimes get lost in the shuffle.
Sometimes the business of the church calendar doesn’t help. Our Habitat for Humanity build begins on September 13. The next day (September 14), I encourage you all to attend the Festival of Faiths, put on by the Interfaith San Antonio Alliance, at the University of the Incarnate Word.
At the end of the month (Sep 26-28), we will have our annual church retreat at T Bar M Camp in New Braunfels. We have almost 80 people signed up. If you would like to attend, please sign up or notify us now (email Lisa Shinkins or call the church office).
This is just the church calendar. You have other events coming up. You have trips. You have concerns on the horizon. It may feel like the days are flying by.
Are you paying attention?
How’s your spirit? What do you need to give your attention to this week? Will the year end before you know it?
Our time is limited. Our scope is not as expansive as we would like it to be. Our attention is a scarce resource.
I heard the great spiritual writer Ron Rolheiser say recently, “If I say I’m too busy to pray, that may be true for a given day, but not a season of life. If you’re too busy over a season, then you have to slow your life down.”
One of the ways we can slow our lives down to savor the days and moments is by sacrificing that time to the meandering wonder of stillness before God. This could be saying the Lord’s prayer before starting the car. This could mean taking a moment to breathe every day at noon and repeating a bible verse. It could mean listening to psalms on your morning walk.
As fall begins with all its programs and demands upon you, allow me to make one more demand: make a habit of prayer.
Here are a few online daily prayer resources to help:
Passport Camps devotional for all ages: d365.com
Daily devotionals from Richard Rohr: https://cac.org/email-sign-up/
Daily verse and prayer: https://www.plough.com/en/subscriptions/daily-prayer
Or do you prefer your prayers a bit more liturgical with an English accent? Check this out: https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-service-daily-prayer
Grace and peace,
Garrett Vickrey