Hey, please pray for me and our pastoral staff today. We’re hosting a Province wide Pastors and Spouses Retreat in Canmore, Alberta this Sunday through Tuesday noon. We’re totally blessed to be in a position where we can build a little encouragement into the lives of these men and women of God who influence so many. I’m especially blessed that this year, our church is not in a position of dire need, but actually a God-given strength that we can pass on to others. Thank you, Jesus.
The prayer comes into play because we can only offer our loaves and fish. Jesus must be the one to do the miracle. It’s also crucial because we’re coming off a busy week and we’re tired already. I know God will give us strength, but Sunday afternoons I usually crash and today I can’t get that. I’m gearing up instead, wanting to be a vessel for God to move through. I’ll need to crash later this week, when I don’t really have time for it. Again, I need to trust Jesus with that.
Something else to pray about, if you get this in time: Today I’m going to lead all the Pastor’s and Spouses in dying practice.
You heard right. Dying practice. I got the idea from Mario Bergner, who’s mother came to faith late in life. On her deathbed (final weeks of life) she found herself afraid of death and dying. Mario realized it was because her heart hadn’t been filled up with the imagery of heaven. So he collected a bunch of scriptures that spoke of dying and going to heaven, and he and his mom practiced dying. Her heart found the peace she was looking for.
But why wait until our deathbeds? Why not fill our souls with the beauty of the Beyond now, so it can charge our living with a heavenly joy and focus? So that’s what I’m doing with the pastors. Beginning the retreat with dying practice. We’re going to heaven and back before we do anything else.
BTW, if you’re interested, I can email you the “Dying Practice” document. You’ll love it.