Take My Life....Please!

It's the New Year--rarely have we been so glad to start one--Christmas is over, the trees are down, the decorations put away, the cookies and chocolate fortunately almost completely gone.

We had what could barely be called snow (what happened to the good old snowy days?) but the parking lot was icy despite the cheery sunshine.

This morning's service was remarkable in many ways, from the gorgeous Bach music from Marcia, Ray, and Clyde, the climactic faceoff Pastor David explained he would be joining with peacemaking colleagues at a Philadelphia gun shop, the consecration of church leaders and a very moving message about the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

However, the thing I most want to remark on was that we had a little chancel drama! Marilyn and Nancy kicked off the second scripture reading (the Holy Spirit descending on Ch rist after his baptism) with a little role-play dialogue of two observers discussing the events of the day and their imperfect understanding of what had occurred at the baptism of Jesus. "Ooh, cool!" I thought, leaning forward with excitement. It was great to have a little interpretation to make the reading relevant. Chancel drama is a wonderful tool in worship--it's entertaining and a break from routine. Most importantly, it's truly effective in helping people remember and take away the message.

I'm about to go to our global sales meeting this week and I will have to do presentations that I have been preparing for two months, along with my colleagues who work with me on basic science textbooks and review books for medical students. It's a big effort, and I am always extremely anxious for this meeting to be over, so my prayers today were along the lines they often are--help me to find a way to feel that I am serving God even while working fulltime at a corporation. The anthem today was thought-provoking, "Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee......Take my intellect and use every power as Thou should choose." While I often seek out God as escape or refuge of some kind from the challenges and stresses of work, I know that there is no joy without struggle, and that effort and work are always rewarded with the satisfaction of knowing we've done our best!

In fact, we can't really do our best without being synched in with the Holy Spirit. And the more we consecrate ourselves to God, the more good work we are able to do. So let's keep high expectations and high hopes of ourselves and of others, trusting that we'll be able to tap into the power of God to get us through.