Devotionals Detail

Each year for the past 14 years, Flower Mound UMC has engaged in Depart to Serve, a week of outreach events into our community where we are intentionally serving our neighbors.  The intent of the event has always been the same – to be the hands and feet of Christ in our community.  Many of you have been participating in this for the entirety of the Depart to Serve history. From the days where we provided family meals for our neighbors in Rocky Point Mobile Home community, to working alongside the teens at Ranch Hand Rescue boys shelter, to sorting donations for Christian Community Action in support of the working poor.    During this same event many years later, we are serving breakfast in Denton for those struggling with homelessness, packing Lovepacs for children suffering from food insecurity, and building beds for families without a place to sleep. All of these years, our church has steadfastly reached out with intention and in the process our lives have changed.  My guess is that those of you who have been participating in Depart to Serve these many years are experiencing it differently now than you did then. Through the process of serving, your heart has been moved, changed, or softened.  Perhaps you have a different approach to individuals with less judgement and more compassion. Perhaps you have a new understanding of how people become homeless due to the experiences you have encountered. Perhaps you have a changed connection to God in how you are equipped for the work that at first seemed intimidating and now is a natural outflow of your faith.  Take a minute to look back, of how the event might be the same, but your story is different.

 

 

The book of 1 Chronicles does much the same for us.  Many of us might read this conglomeration of stories of David, Solomon and the kings surrounding Israel and Judah and think – wait a minute – didn’t we hear all of this in the books of 1,2 Samuel and 1, 2 Kings?  Don’t jump too fast, because though the events might be the same, the story is completely different.  Chronicles is a theological reflection of all that has happened in the past 600 years and what the people have learned from it.  The audience are those who have returned from exile and have no king. In this context, there is no need for accounts of how the prophets chastise kings or priests bow to their authority.  In fact, quite the opposite.  The purpose of 1 and 2 Chronicles is to detail why the people don’t need a king anymore – all they need is true worship of their one and only God.  So all the events detailed in the story might be the same, but the perspective has completely changed.

 

 

It allows us to pause and consider, how our own life events can have a different story based on our theological understanding of how God has been involved in them, and what it teaches us for how we are called to live today.  How have the events of your life taught you more about who God is and how you are called to serve?  May God’s blessing be upon our service this week, as our hearts are transformed in holy love for all creation.