A Place of Grace
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Ministry Offerings
    • Audiendo Divina
    • Card Party Fundraisers
    • Discipleship Training
    • Faith and Family Retreats
    • Faithbooking
    • Healing and Wholeness
    • Mission Madness
    • Prayer Art
    • Reiki Retreats
    • Selah Retreat
  • Upcoming Events
  • Point of Contact
  • Reiki for Everyone
  • My Reiki Story
  • Sharing Stories
  • Forms
  • Artwork
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Ministry Offerings
    • Audiendo Divina
    • Card Party Fundraisers
    • Discipleship Training
    • Faith and Family Retreats
    • Faithbooking
    • Healing and Wholeness
    • Mission Madness
    • Prayer Art
    • Reiki Retreats
    • Selah Retreat
  • Upcoming Events
  • Point of Contact
  • Reiki for Everyone
  • My Reiki Story
  • Sharing Stories
  • Forms
  • Artwork
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Point of Contact
Where Life and Worship Intersect

6/24/2021 0 Comments

Spiritual Practice: Obedience, Pt. 3

Picture
Normally, I would tie the spiritual practice of the month to the focus passage for the week, and in some ways, what I'm about to share does tie in in that the people in the gospel story for this week showed up with an expectation, with a hope, with faith. But today's sharing is much more personal. Today, I'm headed out for two retreats: the first is a Mission Madness Workshop at Belk Park in Wood River. For three years, we worked side by side with local agencies at least twice a month to support their work in the community and to offer our embodied prayer through mission work. We have continued that work in the last year remotely, working in our homes, checking in via Zoom, and it has been good, but we long to be back together in person and to work alongside those agencies again. It is hard, with varying policies in place during the transition and folks in different places with comfort levels around vaccinations for various reasons. We are excited to be able to work together outdoors to keep our commitments to those working diligently in our community for those who are in need. Showing up in whatever way one can to do what God has called us to do is obedience.  

The second retreat is a Prayer Art Retreat at Von Dell Gallery & Studios, also in Wood River. I have one person registered. One. It takes me back to five years ago ... four years ago ... even three years ago when I was working hard to get A Place of Grace off the ground. I can't count the hours I spent alone waiting for someone to come or the number of retreats I led with one participant. After a year of COVID, it feels like I'm starting all over when I had literally just gotten this thing off the ground. I'm not the only one. Small business owners/ministry leaders such as myself all over the world are struggling with the same challenges: How do we welcome with hospitality those who are feeling anxious about being out and in group settings? How do we combat Zoom-fatigue, particularly in weather that lures people into their yards vs their dining room tables or offices? I don't have the answers to those questions. Like everyone else, I'm trying my best to figure it out. But obedience to this call, obedience to the One who has remained faithful through this challenging time, requires that I show up.

It would have been easy to stay home today, to decide it wasn't worth loading my van to the gills to move from one thing to the other and unload and reload multiple times. So easy. But obedience is not about taking the easy path. Obedience is about showing up. Obedience is about loving our neighbors and doing our best to provide safe spaces for them to share in community. Obedience is about proclamation of the Word and the shelter and nurture of humankind. So today, I'm showing up, and like the father of the dying girl and the woman who has been bleeding for years, I am trusting God will be present ... that God will provide ... that God will heal what is broken. Where is obedience calling you to show up this week?
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Julie served as a Commissioned Ruling Elder in a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation for thirteen years. She now absolutely delights in filling the pulpit for colleagues upon request, and looks forward to opportunities to do so. Her reformed perspective is sprinkled with humor and presented with authenticity, and she is open to creatively deconstructing worship as a means to helping congregants explore worship in transformational ways.

    Julie and her husband, Ray, are parents of three adult children, and grandparents of four energetic and imaginative little people. She is an introverted-with-enough-extrovert-balance-to-keep-her-social, perfectionistic-with-hopper-tendencies, time and goal-oriented, kaleidoscopic, and insatiably curious child of God.

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017

    Categories

    All Prayer Of Confession

    RSS Feed

Picture
Julie participated in the 25th Seminar for Certified Zentangle(R) Teacher Training in June, 2019, trained by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. In addition to creating art as a personal spiritual practice, Julie also incorporates the Zentangle(R) method in Prayer Art Retreats in a variety of contexts, including church groups, friend gatherings, and at a local art gallery. Check out the Upcoming Events page for a calendar of events, or use the Contact Us page to inquire about scheduling an event with your group!
Proudly powered by Weebly