As I was volunteering at the Board of Elections for early voting this week, I noticed a bit of commotion as someone was trying to pull a big, old car into a parking spot where it couldn’t really fit. We waved the driver over to a larger parking spot and helped him park. It turns out that it was a 76 old man who was coming to vote for the first time. He had come with his daughter who had encouraged him that it was never too late to do something so important. We all clapped for him, and he just beamed. As he was leaving, he assured us that we would see him again at the next election.

The day before this, I returned from spending the weekend with 15 of our Jr. High youth at our fall retreat. We have several new 6th graders that had taken a big step to be there. Our theme was discipleship. Some youth were new to this idea and others were living it out through their actions but not really understanding the deeper meaning.

We explored Luke 14:25-33 and Matthew 10:34-39. These passages show that the idea of discipleship is a difficult one. Jesus tells his believers that they must hate their fathers and mothers to be his disciples, and they must pick up and carry His cross. He says he does not come to bring peace but a sword. Ouch, those seem like big, scary undertakings.

Thankfully, being a follower of Jesus, does not mean “hating” your mother and father, but it is more than saying you are a follower of Jesus. We find peace in our relationship with Jesus but it may cause conflict in other areas of our lives when we proclaim that we are a follower.

Jesus asks that we put our love for Him above worldly things and put that faith into action. We can tell our story of faith, we can serve, and we can stand for justice and mercy. Jesus has chosen us to be His disciples. Jesus believes that we have it within us to do His work through our hands. And if Jesus believes in us, we can believe in ourselves. Jesus trusts us to be a disciple in the best way we can. Jesus didn't choose people who were already perfect and had their lives together. He chose people who struggled and sinned, like you and me.

I am thankful that the youth had the courage to come this past weekend to begin their journey of discipleship. However, if they get lost along the way, or take a detour, or wait to really dig in until they are 76, they are always welcome.

Where are you as a follower of Jesus? Are you taking risks to learn, evaluate priorities, share your story, or act in His love? Are you on a quieter, reflective, prayerful journey? Do you need to take the first step? Pick up a devotion book at church, join a Bible study, serve, or give to hurricane relief; there are many baby steps.

No matter where you are or what you are doing, God can use you to spread His life changing message of love and hope. We all need it.

Following Jesus with you,
Angie Seiller, Director of Faith Formation

I was a quiet kid and do not remember voicing a lot of my questions out loud because I was too shy to do so. When I started working at a Bible camp, I was reminded just how many questions kids ask. They are not afraid to think about God and the world around them, like “Why is the sky blue? How did God make all of us so unique? What does God look like? How did Jesus heal and help people?”

Witnessing this as an adult reminded me to not be afraid to ask about those complicated questions that I keep to myself. “How do we include all people in the church? Why do we worship the way we do? How can God be everywhere?”

One of my favorite hymns called “Ask the Complicated Questions” from the All Creation Sings hymn book has a verse that goes as follows:

“Ask the complicated questions.
Do not fear to be found out;
for our God makes strong our weakness,
forging faith in fires of doubt.”

This verse is a reminder that God is among us amid all the complicated questions. The psalms are filled with lament, praise, and thanksgiving, but are also filled with the Psalmists asking God a lot of hard questions, wrestling, and wondering. Psalm 13:1 says, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”

The gospels are filled with the disciples asking Jesus lots of questions, wrestling, and wondering too. Matthew 24:3 says, “What will be the sign of your coming and the end of age?” Peter asks Jesus in Matthew 19:27, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Often, Jesus does not give a straightforward answer. However, the disciples are never discouraged nor do they stop asking Jesus lots of questions.

You may have been taught that questions, especially about our faith and God, are bad. When we ask questions, it is not about having all the correct answers. Scripture reminds us that our questions are encouraged. Asking questions about our journey of faith means we are thinking deeply about the world around us and want to continue to learn. God can handle all our questions, even the hard ones.

As you continue to wrestle, I encourage you not to be afraid of those hard questions and to be comforted that even amid your questioning God is present.

Faithfully questioning,
Pastor Nicole

You’ve heard the phrase before. This three-word admonition is shared as soothing balm following a tense or difficult moment, but often has the opposite effect. Rather than offering comfort, it stirs up irritation. When my car runs out of gas, when I have bounced a check, or missed an important appointment, please don’t demean me by suggesting that out of the trials of unpredictable or irresponsible living there may come a nugget of wisdom. “Live and learn” often lands on our ears as a reprimand of sorts with a silver lining.

But what if we hear it as something else? What if we embrace living and learning as a declaration of a vibrant Christian life? It isn’t an admonition, but a sustained promise of who and how we hope to be.

We live and learn when we pause to listen to the joys and sorrows of a child.
We live and learn when we look for the lonely and isolated.
We live and learn when we engage in Bible reading and study with others.
We live and learn when we meet one another in worship moments.
We live and learn when we serve our neighbors in need.
We live and learn when we wrestle with complicated issues of race and culture.
We live and learn when we engage in hard conversations to understand one another.
We live and learn when we respond with gratitude.

We can’t help but live and learn as people of faith. It is who we were created to be.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9

From the earliest pages of Scripture, God’s people were instructed to put their faith into action, as a way of sharing God’s goodness with the world. “Listen, obey, talk, and write. At home and beyond, love God with your whole being.” Ours is not a stagnant faith, but one that is always growing as we live and learn the ways of Christ.

Lord of Life takes this command seriously by making life-long learning a priority. That’s right. Preschool kids, children, youth, teenagers, college students, newlyweds, mid-lifers, retired folks, and centenarians are all active learners at Lord of Life.

As you continue to fill your calendar with autumn activities, I encourage you to make room to continue living and learning in the faith. Spend time reading the Bible. Sign up for a daily email devotion. Consider stepping into a teaching role with Sunday School. Be a mentor with our teens. Plug into a Bible study. Read a book and wonder how it stretches your journey of faith. Pray for all in need. Commit to being generous with your finances. Step up to serving. Show up for worship. Jesus will meet you here.

Living and learning in hope,
Pastor Lowell

Several years ago I drove to Chillicothe, Ohio to meet my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law (Brian’s mom and grandma) at a funeral home. No one had died. In fact, everyone was in perfect health and as far as we knew, there was nothing for us to be worried about. We sat with a funeral director and pre-planned everything from caskets to flower arrangements, and later, without the funeral director, I talked them through scripture passages and music.

What a gift it was a few years later when Brian’s grandma passed away and the difficult work of planning the service was already done. There were no difficult conversations about whether she would prefer this or that service that the funeral home provides. Those questions were all answered. No one had to pick from a list of sad hymns that might be appropriate or say, “what was that song she always used to sing to us at bedtime?” We had it all written down.

Most funeral homes are willing to pre-plan the funeral home parts of a funeral with you, and I encourage anyone to do that. But that’s not the part of the process that sits on my mind most days. What I would really love for everyone to do is make an appointment with Pastor Lowell or myself to sit down with planning resources and plan the liturgy for your Celebration of Life.

We have lists of scriptures and hymns that are traditional for memorials, and we love to discuss other readings and songs that are meaningful for you. Do you want to celebrate Holy Communion? Are there any other special things that you want to have happen during your celebration? The more you share about what those parts of worship mean for you, the more we can create a cohesive and memorable service.

Sometimes you’ll stop me after worship and say “I want that song for my funeral …” I really want to remember that for you. If you’re telling me on Sunday morning, though, there is a good chance that the next day I’ll remember you told me there was a song you liked, and I won’t remember which one. This is a great start, but having everything on paper is better.

When the day finally comes and your family is sitting with us to put everything together, their grief makes it difficult to make decisions. The thing is, we’re grieving, too, and we’re doing everything we can to stay strong for you because we love you and want to celebrate you in the most beautiful way we can. It would be amazing if you can help us do that for you.

Loving you on the journey,
John

<a href="https://www.vecteezy.com/free-photos/flower">Flower Stock photos by Vecteezy</a>

A couple weeks ago, I was doing laundry when I opened up the laundry door and my prayer beads fell out. I thought I had lost my prayer beads months ago between one of my moves.

I was given these prayer beads in the summer of 2023 during Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). CPE is an intensive program where you spend time in a long term care facility or hospital as a chaplain providing care to other people. When you are not providing care to other people you are spending time with a cohort of people learning and debriefing what you are experiencing. I had never received such a special and meaningful gift like this before. I was excited that I found my prayer beads again.

What I find most fascinating about the prayer beads is that there is not one way to use or understand them. In researching to find out more about these prayer beads I found out there are many ways one can use this in their own life. Some people use them for meditation, to focus their mind, and to pray. Some people have very specific prayers they use for each one of the beads. These include prayers of praise, thankfulness, and forgiveness. I do not have specific prayers with my beads, but I am comforted by knowing that I can use them in so many different ways. I often carry them in my bag with me so that way I can hold them in my hands as a way to remind me of God’s love.

In scripture, Jesus prays for his disciples, after healing people, in front of others, and even alone. Prayer was a crucial part of the life of Jesus. The example of Jesus is an invitation to all of us to think about the different ways we can pray and connect with God in our own lives. You might best connect to God by going on a walk, listening to music in your car, having quiet time in the mornings, or dancing. I constantly pray for the ministry here at Lord of Life Lutheran Church and pray for all of you on your journey of prayer.

What ways do you connect with God in your prayer life? How does that bring you comfort and reassurance in your own life? Do you have any physical items as a part of your journey?

However and wherever you pray, may you continue to feel the presence of God.

Always praying,
Pastor Nicole

I have a stack of books by my favorite chair in our home. I’m reading all of them at once—sort of. The pages are filled with poetry, music history, fictional characters and stories, theology, leadership, magazines, journals, and whatever else lands on the pile. I dip in a little here and there, depending on my mood and attention span. It is a delight to be able to slide back into a story with characters I already know or dive into new material that expands my mind.

I also have a stack on my desk at church, too, well…maybe several stacks. There are books I’m using for preparing book and Bible studies, commentaries for sermon reflection, biographies and memoirs, graphic novels, as well as authors writing about leadership, discipleship, best ministry practices, stewardship, and more. 

I haven’t read all of these volumes and may not ever get to some of them, but it is the possibility of encountering people, places, and stories in these pages that brings me joy. It is comforting to have my tsundoku—a Japanese word for a stack of books that you have purchased but not yet read—close at hand.

Kevin Mims, writing about this unread heap, offers, “A person’s library is often a symbolic representation of his or her mind…The [person] with an ever-expanding library understands the importance of remaining curious, open to new ideas, and voices” (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/books/review/personal-libraries.html).

One of my goals for our seminary interns is to encourage them to be lifelong learners. Even though their divinity school coursework might be wrapping up, that doesn’t mean that their learning is complete—quite the opposite! A steady diet of both fiction and nonfiction are essential in helping one grow in knowledge and understanding, while also stretching one’s ability to think, dream, and grow a vocabulary.

This applies to our journey with Jesus, too. We should be curious disciples, eager to spend a lifetime stockpiling language and stories that lead us deeper into loving relationships with God and those around us. Our faith journey doesn’t end with singing “Jesus Loves Me” in Sunday School, reciting a few Bible verses, and memorizing the Lord’s Prayer. While these are good to have in your spiritual library, God offers so much more material to help us grow in faith, hope, and love. 

This year, we are going to sink deeply into these three words: faith, hope, and love. We’ll wrestle with how they’ve been used to manipulate and control, and celebrate the ways they have offered liberation and freedom. We’ll place them front and center as we strive to live, share and celebrate with all people, God’s love in Jesus Christ. Faith, hope, and love will anchor our times together in worship, learning, serving, prayer, and discernment.

Sometimes, we become so accustomed to hearing, saying, and using these churchy words, we forget the transformational, otherworldly power that they hold. Collectively, these three building blocks of a Christian life show up more than one thousand times in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us that all kinds of things come and go throughout our lives, but when everything else fades away, “faith, hope, and love remain” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

So let’s pull these off of the shelf and explore where God might be leading us. Join me in savoring the incredible story of a love that will not let us go. Let’s see how faith, hope, and love might direct our days and deeds as we follow Jesus into the great unknown. Hopefully, we’ll learn something new about ourselves, our neighbors, God, and the world at every turn.

Learning and loving,
Pastor Lowell Michelson