Reflections from Sunday evening

Following our church services and a brief administration meeting Cindy and I had lunch with Stan and Linda Shipman. Nothing quite like a peanut butter, bacon burger for lunch! Then I came home and watched the Royals win their second straight game (following 12 straight losses). It's a great day.

It's been tough following my favorite baseball team, the Kansas City Royals, for the past couple of weeks. 12-game losing streaks are not fun. But they are better than 13 losses in a row or 19 like they did three years ago. In truth the Royals have been a bit disappointing since 1985 but who keeps count.

I guess I'm still thinking about these streaks. As with so many other things in life baseball has lessons to teach. We often feel like life is a bit "streaky." We have all had those periods of time when it seems things are always going wrong. I remember the day several years ago when I was borrowing our neighbor's lawnmower to cut the grass. I borrowed her mower and in return always mowed her grass. Well the thing quit. So not wanting to leave the yard unfinished I asked the neighboring Baptist preacher if I could borrow his mower to finish the yard. Before I got done his mower broke down! Being two for two I decided to take matters in hand and go buy a new mower. I had to drive to the next town to get one. My Baptist preacher friend came through again (even though I just broke his mower). I took his pickup to go buy a mower. With the purchase made I came out of the store to find something leaking from the truck. His water pump had gone out. All this in just a couple of hours! You could say I was on a losing streak.

On the other hand we have all had those periods of life when things just seemed to click. It is a bit like worship services and our life together at PWUMC. Week after week we gather and find ourselves surrounded by people who care. We worship and experience the presence of the Lord. We pray and hear the Word read and proclaimed. We sing and feel our hearts lifted. We are not some show business extravaganza. We are the people of God at worship finding His love growing and love deepening.

I see us on a good winning streak at church. God's faithfulness continues.