by Stacey Hilliard | Feb 4, 2022 | Conversations
“Isn’t it strange that sometimes it’s easier to be busy than to be still and breathe? (Or is that just me…?)”
Joseph Woo, “Breathing In God”
During coffee hour following a recent worship service that featured a 30-minute musical mediation lead by Santiago Barragan Noguera, we discussed meditation in general, and the impact of intentional breathing on our minds, spirits, and bodies. Here are some resources that attendees shared that day and in the days that followed.
- Morning Moment, a conscious breathing exercise, available any time you need it, led by Christina Sooji, executive coach to feminine leaders
- 20 days of “live” meditation with Jay Shetty, bestselling author, podcast host, former monk, and purpose coach
- Free online breathe class, Thursdays at 1:00 p.m. ET, offered by Soul Dimension, an online resource for spiritual and physical health through yoga and breath work
- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, a book by James Nestor
by Stacey Hilliard | Dec 6, 2021 | Conversations
This is an excerpt from the Blessing of the Greens service conducted by Rev. Anne Robertson at Crawford Memorial UMC on Sunday, December 5, 2021. You can read more of the history she shared about the origins of our Christmas decorations, here.
The most popular flower of the Advent-Christmas season is the bright red poinsettia. First introduced to the United States in 1828 by Dr. Joel Robert Poinsett–our first foreign minister to Mexico–this brilliant tropical plant is called by the people of Mexico and Central America, the Flower of the Holy Night.
A charming Mexican legend explains its origin. Having finished running his daily errands, an orphan boy named Pedro sadly counted his centavos. There were hardly enough of them to buy his evening meal. “Come with us to the cathedral,” urged his friends. “No,” answered Pedro, “I have no money to buy a gift.”
“Take this,” suggested one of his practical friends, pointing to a weed by the side of the road. Hesitantly Pedro picked the stringy weed, climbed the steep hill to the church, and slowly made his way to the altar with its Mexican manger scene. Kneeling, he reverently laid his gift in front of the figure of the Christ Child. He soon became aware of the murmuring crowd. In wide-eyed amazement, he saw a dazzling and beautiful scarlet flower where only dried leaves had existed a moment before. His humble offering had been miraculously transformed.
The poinsettia has also been used to symbolize the more tragic side of Jesus’ coming. It reminds us of the blood of the male infants killed by Roman soldiers as King Herod sought to find the child that would threaten his throne. It also symbolizes the blood that Jesus would shed on the Cross.
by Crawford UMC | Jun 24, 2021 | Conversations
There is a siege (yes, look it up) of herons that hangs out around the waterfall near the Converse Bridge on Main Street, part of the pond where Sandy’s Island is located, I think it’s called Mill Pond. There are often herons there. Last week, for about 20 minutes, I watched three of them standing on a rock and some branches. Finally, the one on the rock dipped into the water and came up with a fish, about 5 or so inches long, maneuvered it in its beak so that it could be swallowed and down the gullet it went…patience rewarded. Satisfied, this heron flew off…having filled its need. One of the herons on a branch then went over and stood on the rock, figuring that must be the place to be, waiting its turn…patiently. The first heron rested in a nearby tree, content to share the best fishing spot.
And when it started to rain, the herons had enough common sense to seek shelter under the bridge…while I stood there watching…in the rain…getting wet.
We are supposed to be the most intelligent form of life God created…but we have a lot to learn from the so-called less intelligent ones…like patience…and sharing…and being happy satisfying our “needs” instead of our “wants”…and seeking God’s shelter in the storms of life.
– Brian Rogers
Watch and Listen
by Crawford UMC | Jun 18, 2021 | Conversations
Nature is important to me and I believe that we are all part of nature and you can see God and talk with God in the natural world. I’ve written about this before.
As I think about my father with Father’s Day approaching, I can picture walking in the woods with him when I was young and him pointing out all there was to be taken in…the singing birds, scurrying squirrels, blossoming flowers, majestic trees…each intricate leaf and even the dirt under our feet. We would walk in silence after a while, then he would sing this song…more say it than sing it. He sang like I do, best suited for solitude in the woods and not within hearing distance of other people. But he “sang” anyway. As I got older I didn’t walk in the woods so much and the words of the song faded but, thanks to him, I never lost my appreciation for nature, for God’s world and our place in it.
The natural world is an overwhelming gift if you just stop to think about it…and appreciate it…and be a part of it. God gave it to all of us. It’s our job to take care of it.
As I was thinking about my dad, this song from so long ago popped into my mind and jogged my memory of those walks in the woods. I didn’t remember the words but now I “sing” a line or two as I walk, again not so anyone can hear and I promise I won’t sing it to you…but I do want to share it with you.
– Brian Rogers
Watch and Listen
by Crawford UMC | Jun 4, 2021 | Conversations, Music Meditations
This week’s Musical Meditation will be the final installment before taking a break for the summer. With late, warm evenings upon us, I’m thinking of Sure On This Shining Night by the quintessential and vastly underrated American composer, Samuel Barber.
The text, by James Agee, invites us to turn our gaze upward and reflect on what we have endured. It is my sincere prayer that these long, warm summer evenings find you with the late year behind you, healed and in good health.
– Logan Henke, Music Minister
Watch and Listen
by Crawford UMC | Apr 9, 2021 | Conversations
by Lauren Gilstrap Milley
Christians spend a lot of time at Easter focusing on Jesus rising from dead. While that’s important, it tends to overshadow the first part of the story. Jesus was – executed. Executed as a criminal. Why? Well, that’s the part of Easter that I think far too many of us “good church going Christians” conveniently overlook. Ironically, it’s exactly the part of Easter that makes it a story for absolutely everyone.
If Jesus had just been some nice guy walking around telling people to love their neighbor and turn the other cheek, would the Romans have really cared? Probably not. Instead, he was executed by the state because his message was much more dangerous.
His message was that things don’t have to be this way. There is a better way and it’s all of our responsibility to make it better. His message wasn’t about how to live in a racist world – his message was how to stand against racism and forge a new world without it. His message wasn’t just about how to forgive unfair police brutality – his message was stand with the persecuted, overturn the tables and rebuild a better system, one that’s fair for everyone. Jesus wasn’t a pacifist. Pacifists don’t get executed by the state.
So what makes Easter everyone’s story? Easter is the story of God (however you define that) saying “yes” to Jesus’ message of compassion and justice and “no” to the greedy, self-serving powers of the status quo.
Whether you believe in a bodily resurrection or not, because of Easter, Jesus’s message of a better, more fair, more just world has outlived the Empire that killed him by centuries. Because of Easter, we all should stand with those society marginalizes, speak up for the voiceless, put our pocketbooks and our pride on the line for what we know to be right.
The social expression of love is justice. That is what Jesus taught and that is what he gave his life for. Easter is God saying “no matter what they do to you, I got your back, keep going, keep fighting – light will always outshine the darkness.” And that makes it a story for everyone – everyone and anyone who wants to make the world better.
Happy Easter, Happy Spring and here’s to keeping the faith, fighting the good fight, getting in good, necessary trouble and leaving this world just a little better than we found it.
