Yesterday was wonderful and unfortunately, it also felt like a lot of holiday weekend Sundays feel. Attendance down, not a lot of energy and people looking around at empty spaces. I still give the day thumbs up, not big thumbs up, but still positive in many ways.

As for my musings …

-My sermon yesterday was intended to be a “stand alone” message. That is a message that is not part of a series of messages. However, while I was finishing it up on Saturday and even as I ran through it on Sunday morning, I knew that it was really the beginning of a series. It deals with the freedom we have in Christ. Each week we will look at one aspect of our freedom in following Christ. We are Free To _______ and on that Sunday, we will look at what scripture tells us to do with that part of our freedom. Yesterday we looked at prayer. I got kind of fired up about it, especially at my 10:30 church.

-People seemed very engaged in the message yesterday at both of my churches.

-My wife was out of town yesterday. She was visiting some of our grandkids and she attended worship with them. An added bonus, was our son in law leading worship for their church.

-I preach better when she is here, however I am glad that she could get away and spend time with part of our family.

-After lunch, I went to the hospital to be the Chaplain. I was filling in for another pastor who is on a trip to Israel. Part of my time was spent visiting briefly with a lady who will probably not be here much longer. Those are special, and difficult, moments.

-After the hospital, I met a family at a cemetery for a ceremony to bury the ashes of a man whose funeral I did in February. I still miss him, especially when I look at the spot where he always sat on Sundays.

-Then I went and visited with a couple in their home. He is having a procedure done this morning. I wanted to be able to pray with him before he left for that procedure.

-We have an invasion of beetles, I believe they are Japanese beetles, in a couple of our trees and bushes. Thursday evening, I put up a beetle trap. It attracts the beetles and then they fall in a bag from which they cannot escape. I changed the bag 8 times in 72 hours. The bags were full, to overflowing each time. Hopefully, that starts slowing down. It is both gross and cool, at the same time. My wife only sees the gross part and doesn’t understand how any of it is cool. I guess I haven’t completely outgrown my little boy fascination with bugs.

-Last Sunday my wife and I left for the General Assembly of our Denomination. This is an event that people from all over the world attend to share, report and do the business of our denomination. It was wonderful and inspiring. The business aspect began with 1 hour of prayer! No wonder the Assembly went so well.

-I received a call late last Sunday evening that a lady in one of my churches was unresponsive and being life-flighted to another hospital. The next morning, I got the call that she had died. We ended up coming home a couple days early to be at the visitation and then for the funeral.

-Vacation Bible School for my 10:30 church begins 2 weeks from today. The building is beginning to show the signs of VBS as some decorations are going up all around the building. Excitement is building. My 9:00 church begins VBS in 4 weeks. Who says that summer is slow down time?

Here’s hoping that you are excited about something today and that you will share that with someone.

Dennis