Considering Our Scheduling

God: Be Still and Know that I am God
Me: Can I pencil you in next Thursday?

Stillness and peace are gifts from God. Stillness and peace are gifts to be glad for. It is good to know that God is "a very present help in trouble," but why is it so hard for us to be still (46:1)?
 
There are many distractions in our modern lives. However, being distracted has been a long-term problem in terms of faith. In Luke 10:38-42, the story of Martha and Mary reminds us that it is easy to get caught up in our work and be distracted from what is most important. Today, we have only to look to our hand-held devices to be connected to a seemingly endless stream of information.

The condition of constant bombardment of information has been called information overload. It has consequences for scheduling. How do we make sense of all this information and make priorities for our actions, our schedules? How do we confront the demands of our society, in general?

The biblical tradition can offer a perspective on all of this information and these demands. By placing faith in the center of our lives, we can have the proper measure to judge the value of competing information and demands. In Micah 6:6-8, the prophet tells us that it is not sacrifices like burnt offerings that please God, but justice, loving kindness, and a humble walk with our God. We can be assured that God has told us "what is Good" (Micah 6:8). 
 
In light of the many demands of modern life, this week we will consider our schedules: We will be considering the questions of what are our priorities and how does our faith relate to our schedules.

We will meet together, but we will separate youth and adults for the meal and discussion. 

Adults should bring food for a potluck and the youth will have pizza.

Here is our schedule:

Meet together at 6pm at the Wesley Cottage.
Snack and Introduction
Youth and Adults separate at 6:15
Adults gather at Monts’ house. Youth stay at the Wesley Cottage.
Adults will have a potluck. Youth will have pizza.

Meet at the Library at 8:45 to finish with an adult / youth manhunt


UPCOMING STONE SOUP GATHERINGS:

June 22: Meet at 6pm. Discussion of "loving your neighbor, even when they live with you." This meeting will focus on questions such as how do we express love when it is difficult and what are the challenges of loving your neighbor when neighbor is less of an abstract concept and more of an everyday reality. For this meeting we will again meet at the Wesley Cottage and will split the youth and adults for  part of the time.

June 29: Meet at 2pm. Tubing trip on the Green River.