In the newsletter, you will be reading the Sunset Prayer column. This post is not it. However, I am calling you to prayer. Starting now, I am asking you to pray every day for Vacation Bible School. Pray for the kids who are coming, the parents who will organize to get them here, the teachers and leaders who are already hard at work putting it all together. Pray that the Holy Spirit moves in our midst and reveals truths to our young as the Holy Spirit does to us. May they know how deeply they are loved by God and how to share that love with others.
At the end of every day during the four days of VBS (which is August 9th – 12th), there is a recommended responsive closing prayer. One of the recommended responsive prayers goes like this:
God is caring, God is kind.
God is caring, God is kind.
Giving love and peace of mind.
Giving love and peace of mind.
We can follow God’s own way.
We can follow God’s own way.
By sharing, caring every day.
By sharing, caring every day.
Sound off.
Amen.
Sound off.
Amen.
Bring it on down.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen!
Now I want you to reread that prayer with a bit of a cadence that is familiar to an army march. It really is a lot of fun! Why is it that we only reserve the fun side of Christianity for the kids? When is the last time you played a fun game testing your Bible knowledge, or you sang your prayer to the tune of an army march? Maybe that is what is missing! A wise man (cough, cough, Barry Lewis) said to me the other day that Christians laugh. We laugh. When life is tough, we laugh. When we are full of sorrow, we laugh. Don’t get me wrong, we cry too, and we anger too, but we laugh, because we know our lives are in the care of God Almighty.
There we find comfort and peace and joy and laughter. As the summer months come to an end, as the vacations slow down and your own life begins to take on the cadence that those school months bring, don’t forget to include a little laughter in your day. Life has serious moments, but in the arms of Christ, there is joy forever more. Though you are an adult, may you always have the heart of a child.
From one light to another,
Pastor Hannah Loughman, laughing
Photo by Marc Kjerland