There was a period of about 18 months when I didn't wear a seatbelt. I was out on my own, teaching about 2000 miles from where I grew up and when I bought my car, I just didn't put on the seatbelt when I got in to go anywhere. Over Christmas break about a year and a half later, I thought to myself, This is really silly! Maybe I need to express my independence, but surely I can come up with a better way than this.So my New Year's Resolution (one of the few I have ever even made) was to buckle-up. And I did. The next December I was returning home after visiting a friend in Montana and I rolled the car. I don't know how I missed the trees as the car rolled once and then again down the embankment and into the edge of the Gallatan River, but I walked away from that totaled car with only sore muscles and a couple small cuts on my temple where my cross-country skis hit me as they flew around the car.

From time to time in my life, I have gotten away from praying, too. Not for 18 months, but sometimes, it just seems futile, or I'm busy, or I'm tired (or lazy?) or I'm just not sure what to pray or how to pray, but then I miss it. I miss the time I spend in God's presence, often saying very little and hearing less, but just sharing my present space with the One who fills me up. The Maker of the Cosmos rejuvenates me, calms me and helps me to remember which things matter (and by extension, which don't). I am refreshed and then, I wonder why I ever stopped.

Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens.

This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 The Message)

Jayneann

June 2012 letter to members and friends of the United Methodist Church