Friday’s Musings: Running Towards the Mayhem

Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  
Timothy 1:7 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Just this week we’ve seen numerous stories in the news of people helping other people.  I’ll be using some of these examples in this week’s sermon.  From the bombings in Boston to a historic Methodist church burning down in Athens, to the explosions in West, Texas we’ve seen people reaching out to help others.  One member of the United Methodist Church in West writes of spending two hours pulling nursing home residents to safety.  The Red Cross is on the scene as will be United Methodist Disaster Response Teams when they are needed.  You may not know this but the UMC has a huge disaster response program. Teams are trained locally in how to respond to natural and other disasters and do much good work in conjunction with government agencies and the Red Cross.  I helped establish a response team at Bethlehem First UMC and Joe and I went through the training program.  This week, though I’ve been on among others reaching out in other types of personal disaster: I’ve attended the funeral of a friend’s mother, prayed with someone at the hospital before her surgery, mobilized prayer for a church member who is critically ill and prayed with his son and reached out to a family in my group of friends whose husband / father committed suicide Wed. night. 

Whether on a large or personal scale it is rare that someone goes through life not touched by some type of disaster.  Let us all with the courage and love given us by the Holy Spirit engage in disaster response individually and with other brothers and sisters in Christ.

We are saddened by the events of this week Lord. So many people hurt and hurting. Help us to have the courage to run toward the mayhem and to help others. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Blessings,
Paige