Written by P. Marie Wedderburn – February 6, 2025
January 26th saw 24 people join Julia for worship. She read the scriptures Matthew 4:18-22 and Luke 6:12-16 which tell of the calling of the disciples who were friends of Jesus. Her message was entitled “Strong Back, Soft Front, Wild Heart.” She asked how do we make friends? And making friends takes time as we help to bear each other’s burdens. We must put ourselves out there and be vulnerable as making friends takes risks and time. In today’s world our attention span is lessened. Jesus’ friends gave him strength and encouragement which was reciprocated by Jesus. Friendship ties the heart of all the world.
Following the service, we gathered for our potluck lunch downstairs. Thanks to all who brought food for this delicious lunch. After Julia returned from the Okotoks service, eighteen people gathered once again in the sanctuary for our Annual General Meeting.
With the temperature being -25 and the wind chill being -34 at 7:35 a.m. on Sunday, February 2nd, I decided not to venture out. The following paragraph is thanks to the notes Mark took and sent to me. Thanks Mark.
Sixteen people attended worship. Julia entitled her message “It’s Groundhog Day!” and Vivianne Grue read the scripture Romans 7:14-25. Julia asked, “Do we do things we don’t like but don’t get around to changing?” The movie Groundhog Day sees the main character, Phil, repeating February 2nd every day. Since there are no repercussions, he starts doing bad things. Eventually he decides to be good by helping others and his life gets better, and others notice his improvement as he becomes a better person. We keep doing things that are bad for us, and we also do things that are good for us. Paul calls it ‘the law of sin’ _which can also be called the law of habit. Too many bad habits can cause our lives to derail, but the good news is that our brains can change – neuroplasticity. On the average it takes 66 days to change a habit to create a new habit to replace the bad one. So let us get rid of the cues that trigger our bad habits and replace these cues with ones that trigger our good habits. For Christ within us wants us to be better. Mark’s concluding note spoke of prayer which is conversation with God. It does not inform God who already knows what we want. Prayer informs and changes us. Prayer is about God intervening with us not God intervening in the situation.