You know, sometimes things just don’t go as planned. Remember on the Sunday of Labour Day I asked everyone to bring their garden produce so we could “Celebrate the Garden” at the end of summer? The response was minimal: some kale, a few peppers and tomatoes, and flowers: not nearly as much as I had anticipated! These things happen, sometimes inexplicably.

But before I could become too disappointed, someone shared a wonderful story

with me that week about the varieties of hot peppers he had brought that morning, on behalf of a friend. Here’s the story, in his words:

“My friend (who wishes to remain anonymous) has gone through many struggles over the last number of years and he has recently been able to get through it all by gardening. My friend and I have been working on growing hot peppers for the last 10 months, with purchasing seed last November, planting seed in January, tending to them inside until the spring, then we built garden boxes in the spring and tenderly watered them all summer to finally get some hot peppers we could pick by the end of August. When I told my friend about the 'Celebrate the Garden' he was so excited to share as many peppers as he could and to attend church for the first time since Covid started. He faces many barriers in getting to church so he had been planning for about a month to attend last Sunday. He and I were crushed when he called me at 7am on Sunday to let me know that he may not be able to attend, but he sent me to church with his peppers. I was able to take some tomatoes back to him after church, which he was very grateful for. He is very hopeful that someone was able to try his peppers and wanted to know if anyone wanted any more.”

I’m so grateful that God works through our worship participation, even and especially in ways we could not have foreseen. I was the one who took home some of the hot peppers and I enjoyed experimenting with them in my cooking; made more meaningful by this story of gardening.

More Gratitude: After quite a few weeks of advertising and emailing and texting (coaxing and cajoling often) I have all of the actors I need for the Christmas play! Thank you, thank you, thank you for your responses. Some of these folks are a bit nervous and wondering what they have agreed to! I promised them that the process of practicing, and the end-presentation product will be worth it. Please be sure to attend on Sunday, December 4 for the play “Born for You and Me.”

And finally, I’m grateful for writers gifting me with just the right words, at the right time.

You know, I encourage worshipers (including myself) to engage fully in our weekly worship: body, soul, mind, spirit: all of ourselves! Worship is not only a brain activity, it also engages our emotions. It is meant to nourish our whole selves too. It is not meant to be a meaningless ritual! But what happens when you aren’t “feeling” it or you aren’t even wanting to feel anything because life is hard; the world is hard; worshiping is hard. Do we give up? Stay home?

A wonderfully wise preacher, Laura de Jong wrote these words in the Reformed Journal last week and it resonated with me; maybe with you too:

“Worship can certainly become a rote act, something we do without thinking. In general it’s probably best if we bring our whole selves into worship and ponder and treasure the great truths we speak. …. But sometimes I need worship to be a rote act. Because sometimes the truths we speak don’t quite match the emotions I’m feeling. …I think, the liturgy – the words, the hymns [the songs], the prayers, the movements – is simply there, sometimes, to bear us up when we cannot believe, when we wish not to believe, when we cannot comprehend. The great truths we utter do not always elicit corresponding emotions, particularly when our faith feels fraught. …. the liturgy holds us up, and carries us forward, awkward step by awkward step, into a place of trusting rest.”

I like this idea: that worship can carry us forward into a place of trusting rest EVEN IF we find it hard to engage, or our emotions just don’t match what’s happening. Maybe having others sing for us or pray for us (when we can’t sing or pray) can give us a sense of God and community still. We are “borne up” on the steady (habitual) worship practices, even when our faith feels weak and doubting. A gift I am grateful for in this season of Thanksgiving.

Ruth Ann

Gratitude - October 3, 2022