Just A Closer Walk

Saturdays are for sleeping in and lazy mornings! Well, not today. Since I did have to wake up early, I can hardly think of a better way to spend the morning than supporting future leaders! Marlon, my husband, and I attended Saint Mark LA’s 28th annual scholarship fundraiser prayer breakfast. The guest speaker was dynamic and inspiring. The testimony from the college graduate who had received a scholarship in the past was heartwarming and a prayer stations were perfect. The food was awesome, but what else can you expect! The black church always could do food!

One of the activities they encouraged at this breakfast was to write notes on index cards, which would be sent to scholarship recipients away at college. You know how homesickness works. So the index cards were on the table and we could write messages. This is crucial considering how many of our young people go away to college and how few of them return to our or even other churches. Remember to let your 20 somethings young Adults and your teams know they are not alone and wherever they go or however far they travel, God is with them and so are we.

And this reminded me of a quote I read yesterday in Max Lakato Be Anxious for Nothing:

“What you have in Christ is greater than anything you don’t have in life.” (Max Lucado AFN Ch. 7)

let us remember as we journey through light so that we can remind our children, youth and young adults, that no matter how challenging and rocky life gets, life with God is better than life or death without God. Let us be that presence of Christ in a broken and hurting world today and every day. Amen!

A Prayer

Holy Spirit, breathe in me new life,

Wisdom, courage &

A stronger unity with God.

Write through me on this journey.

Heal Your children through me.

Grant Me Your forgiveness

As I kneel, confess & repent.

You seek mercy over sacrifice.

I am a living sacrifice.

Now, I rest secure in You.

Protect me even as

I seek to protect others.

With love, praise,

Trust & thanksgiving,

I humbly pray in Jesus’ Name,

AhMen!

– I pray this prayer resonates with you. –

Journeying With My Son

Thursday, March 7! Today was a productive and blessed day. I mostly worked on preparations for Sunday school. My students are mostly middle school! I created a bingo game for the students for the sermon. I hand these out to students of all ages and their generated bingo cards have words that I expect to be in the sermon so the students can listen out for those and try to get bingo! So, of course, we Collett Bible bingo! They seem to enjoy it so I hope they enjoy it this week. I also created a play based on the sermon text, which will be Numbers 10:29–36. My class will enact this play during the Sunday school hour. I think this is a fun way for them to engage the scripture and work off some of that energy that middle schoolers always have! Help us!

When I get home, the last thing I wanted to do is deal with middle school or’s! Imagine, a gym full of middle school students and their parents and teachers. Well, today was my sons spring recital so of course I went, and of course I’m glad I went. As working mothers and fathers, ministers and teachers, lawyers and doctors, we often forget that we are called to parenthood. Adolescents are really good at communicating that they don’t need us, but nothing could be further from the truth. I know in my heart he will remember perhaps not the specific times I was there, but he will remember that I was there. More wrenchingly, he’d remember if I were not there. So, as we journey to the cross with our children and families, let us be present.

LENTEN REPENTANCE

1. Failure to be be present.
2. Being impatient.
3. Criticizing too much.

ENJOY THE JOURNEY!

Because Jesus bought our freedom on the cross, every day, by grace, I have a new opportunities to be a better mom, better wife, better sister and daughter, better minister and teacher. Today, repenting of the above listed shortcomings, I was able to do better. We’re now, that is good enough. I am enough. Good night and God bless!

Let Go, Pick Up & Move Forward

Ash Wednesday is about repenting and humbling self to the creator.  God created us from dust, and when our time here on earth is over, to dust we shall return.  Thanks to Jesus Christ, that is not the end for believers.  When we accept God’s grace and salvation through Christ, we rise up once out time here is over.  We go, as Christ did, to be with the Father in paradise.  Let us, therefore, take up our crosses and follow Christ to the Cross and into Glory.  

• What do you need to let go, put down and surrender to God?  What do you need to pick up, hold on to and dedicate to God? 

Let Go, Put Down and Surrender!

• Lazy and weary! I get up late, lay around listening to books about the fictional lives of others, put off reading and creating for work, because I am weary, anxious and depressed.  Why doesn’t it all matter enough for me to do more; for me to be more? I repent for I have devalued myself and given you and your children less that I am able.  Lord, forgive me, purify me and restore my energy, hope, joy and conference.  I have not loved you as you have loved me.  I have not treated others as you would, and I have not loved my neighbor as I should love myself.  I repent. Let me lay this down and march on to victory. 
• Anger and Wrath! I yell at my husband and son far more than necessary.  I am angry if they talk, when they don’t talk.  I want them to enjoy life, but get upset when they roughhouse, tell jokes I don’t understand and snap when they distract me, even if it is from listening to or reading a book I have reread and reread again.  I am angry and impatient.  I have no self-discipline or self-control at these times, and I repent. I lay this down and ask you to purify me, and give me a heart of joy, patience, engagement and love.  I love my family and may the words of my mouth and the deeds I perform let them know this every day.  Amen!
• Procrastination! I am always afraid that what I do will not be enough, so I do nothing think that once I start a project, it will take too long, and I don’t want to take the time.  There are so many messages I tell myself and some message I have not consciously identified. Whatever my rationale, I procrastinate and do not get things done.  Please release me of this burden.  I lay my procrastination down and pray I will never pick it up again.  I need you so much on this one!  

Pick-Up, Hold On To and Dedicate to God!

• Lord, my poor eyesight, inadequate transportation situation and a mission field with few willing laborers make my job challenging.  This is my cross to bear.  Help me take up these burdens, use them to your Glory, and make lemoniid out of lemons.  Lord, you put me here—this church, this ministry, this neighborhood, this time—for good reasons.  Please let me see your plan so that I can more gladly take up these crosses and inspire others to follow. 
• Hold on! I need to cling closer to my Call and Your Word.  Lately though, I have been hardhearted and not being fed by the words I read in Scripture. Help me hold on to You. 
• My work, my family and my life are dedicated to You.  Help me be worthy.  May my sacrifices of obedience, loyalty, contrite spirit and prayer be acceptable in Your sight; my rock and my redeemer

MY PRAYER

Holy Spirit, meet us in our Ash Wednesday worship tonight.  We are dust and ashes whom You have redeemed and made holy by the blood of the lamb and through the endowment of the Holy spirit.  God, I Adore, and I LOVE You! Thank you that Joy comes in the morning. AhMen!

Blogging to Easter: My intro to Blogging

I am, as you are, part of God’s great story. Writing is my way of putting voice to the chapters of my story. I wrote my first little story in Braille in elementary and have loved writing poetry, articles, short stories and even newsletters ever since. I have always had the feeling I should write a book, but no idea has quite solidified yet. Should I write an autobiography, creative nonfiction, the first Systematic Theology Text by a Black female Methodist? What?? Time to try my hand at blogging!

So, as you know by now, my name is Christy! I am a mother to Shaun, who is 11. I am married to my high school sweetheart and we have a Terrior Puppy! All of us are life-long Californians!

Vocationallly, I am Minister Of Children, Youth & Young Families with Saint Mar, Los Angeles. Concurrently, I am working toward ordination in the United Methodist Church as an Ordained Deacon, called to word, service, justice and compassion ministries. As our children, youth and families grow in faith and receive the vital nurture they need to thrive, they will take their stories out into the street and be the bridge to Christ for a broken world who so strongly needs hope, love and healing. My Master’s In Divinity (M.Div.) from Fuller Theological Seminary (2015) and B.A. in Collaborative Health, Human Services and Public Policy/Social Work reflect my conviction that the Child Welfare System and policies of our nation must be overhauled and our children must be protected and defended and the church has a key role in making sure this work is done.

Much of my childhood was spent in foster care, and so I am dedicated to being the light especially for at-risk youth and young adult populations, but also for all of those whom God sends my way. In 1985 at the age of three, I lost my vision and I’m to this day partially sighted, so I also have a special need to serve as a light for those with physical disabilities who the world often pities and/or shuns. We give lip service to justice for all, including children, the disabled, people o( all sexual orientations and races, but this is not the reality in many cases. So, the fight is going strong for social, political economic and all other forms of justice in the world.

For this, my first blogging attempt, I will journey through Lent with you. Starting Wednesday, which is Ash Wednesday, and leading up to Easter, which falls on April 21 this year, I will post daily on my journey to the cross with Christ and you all. I post pretty regularly on Facebook and Instagram anyway and figure it is time to try my hand at blogging. This is also a spiritual discipline and a way to hold myself accountable to daily reflection on journeying with Christ. My goal is to provide you with solidarity, resources, which will help you along your journey and have a lot of fun in the process. I hope to hear from you as to what you think, what would be more helpful for you, and any prayer requests you may have. May God bless you today and always. Shalom!

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton