January 27, 2006

Dear family of WCPC:

I was ready to get in the car and leave for my study at church this morning and couldn’t find my keys. I looked everywhere. Finally I went to the clothes basket and sure enough, in my pullover jacket pocket, the one I wore yesterday, I found my keys.  Jullie always enjoys it when I race around the house trying to find my keys or something else I misplaced. I’m actually pretty good at staying focused and organized, but every now and then, I fall back into old habits.

Most of us have them. Some habits we pick up growing up. Other habits we develop as adults. Habits in general provide a sense of order to our lives, at least the good ones do. We get up at a certain hour. We go to bed at a certain hour. We like certain foods, others we avoid. We drive a certain way to church, to work. We read the paper in a particular chair. All of us have them.

I am firmly convinced that habits of the heart are essential in our growth as disciples.  I’ve always appreciated Mark’s description early in his gospel of Jesus rising early, before dawn, and going off to a lonely place to pray. That was His habit. It was part of how He ordered His life. 

I’m reading a rather curious book entitled, The Presbyterian Handbook. It’s patterned after The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbooks. To give you a feel for the book, one of the sections is entitled, “How To Respond When Someone Sits in Your Pew.”  (Not that we have that problem at WCPC.) The portion of the book I most enjoyed is devoted to personal spiritual formation. In that section the authors discuss “Three Essential Personal Spiritual Practices.” The three they commend are: Morning Devotions, Mealtime Grace, and Evening Prayer. These three disciples, practices or habits, help to structure the day. 

I want to encourage each of you, if you haven’t done so already, develop daily habits that will help you in your growth as a disciple. I love what we do on Sunday mornings.  Worship and study, fellowship and service every Sunday with other disciples is vital to our spiritual health, but so are the times we spend daily growing spiritually through Bible study and prayer.

If you would like some help in fleshing out how you might develop these habits or practices, I would love for us to talk. I can offer some practical suggestions and provide some helpful tools.

This Sunday we will continue our series “Defeating the Giants in Our Lives.” Our focus will be on “Resentment.” In my experience the stuff we hold on to from the past, the hurt caused by others, can get in the way of our happiness now. Appropriately enough both services will conclude with communion. Come ready to let go of the past and embrace God’s future.

Please remember Gene Price in your prayers. Gene is such a great pastor to this congregation. She needs us now as she grieves her brother’s death. 

See you on Sunday!

David Jones