Sermon notes on Sunday is a regular habit of mine. I used to share them here every week. I don’t know why I got out of the habit. Time to start doing that again. I hope you find them enlightening and inspiring.
Sermon by Brian Conklin at Madison Valley Presbyterian Church
Great is Thy Faithfulness
Lamentations is a beautiful book Each of the five chapters is a poem It’s a reflection of encouragement and hope Written out of the pain of total loss
Rubble, grief, and despair are the topics But in the middle of the book is a word of hope The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases Great is Thy faithfulness; it is new every morning
But we can feel letdown in the midst of hope And God would rather have our honest tears Than fake smiles. We live in times of pain… The things we see in the news weighs us down.
We’re allowed to walk through pain and share We can walk with empathy and compassion See the loss and pain in others and empathize Acknowledge your own – and remember God’s promises.
God is consistent and unchanging. He said His mercies are new every morning, and so We have fresh grace again and again and again All I have needed Thy hand hath provided.
This week, keep track; look for moments When you can see God’s grace at work. Praise God! Thank God! Accept your inheritance. The Lord is my portion. Take hope. Have faith.
Amen?
Lotsa Love, JanBeek
Here’s Brian, the dear interim pastor who delivered the message today.
I have had a break from my blog for awhile. Why? Spending time with visiting friends and family this summer and early autumn has taken precedence. Also, for the last 300+ consecutive days I have been doing a daily French lesson on Duolingo. Can I speak French now? No… But I can read and understand some. Time to move on. So, I’m exchanging that focus for now. I’m returning to my daily blog posts. I hope you’ll join me.
Today, I reread a response from a friend who wrote to me back in 2021 with this comment:
“You lit a candle in my mind and heart this morning when I read your blog post … Thank you for spreading love, joy, peace, faith & unity through your blog…”
I kept a copy of that blog response in my journal titled, “I Can and I Will, Watch Me!” The entry that day in 2021 was, “I CAN Be an Inspiration.” That is my mission… and I have been neglecting it here on WordPress. But, I’m back!
My journal has 124 entries, each starting with “I Can…” As the “Inspirational Leader” I read one a month last year to my friends at Madison Valley Women’s Club. They responded very favorably to the inspirations. For the next few months, let me share one a day with you, okay? Hopefully you will follow along, and “I Will” be an inspiration to you, too. “Watch Me!”
I CAN Inspire!
I’m not in retirement I’m in re-inspirement Each day a new opportunity To inspire and To be an inspiration grabs me!
What is the secret to being an inspiration?
Love people and Try to understand them.
Reach out in love today.
Sincerely tell at least three people today, “I Love You.”
Inspired by today’s sermon by Brian Conklin at our Madison Valley Presbyterian Church in Ennis, Montana
Come and have a drink with me The water’s fresh and the drink is free. No, huh? Water from a broken cistern Doesn’t quite look like something you yearn?
Well, Jeremiah recognized the problem, too. He spoke to the children of Israel and to you About the broken cistern and polluted water. He told ’em about a better source – come and listen, daughter.
Drink from this pure, flowing, everlasting spring. Let go of the water that’s full of things to which you cling. You think refreshment comes from money or possessions. You trade pure water for power and other obsessions.
Come and have a drink with me The water’s fresh and the drink is free. If you hope to satisfy your heart’s desires, Tune in to the Living Waters, not the liars!
God is the source of all Living Water for us. He wants to refresh us purely without much fuss. He says “Drink with me; fulfill your needs. Grow in love and faith; let’s remove the weeds.”
Isaiah speaks in Jeremiah 2:1-13 clearly About God’s grief as people turn away and nearly Break His heart as they rely on themselves with greed, Trying to go through life alone satisfying every need.
It’s not possible… we fool ourselves when we take control. Accept God’s invitation, refresh in Him. Make that your goal! Carve out time each day to drink deeply; refresh with Him From His Living Water – fill your cup to the brim!
Today’s Prompt was: What positive emotion do you feel most often?
My Response: Gratitude
I’m grateful for the neighbors who came immediately last night when I called them. I was frantic! Kenny, our pup, was crying. We could hear his barks and his whining, but we couldn’t find him. It sounded like it was coming from under the house. Maybe he went under the deck and got stuck on something. Maybe a rattlesnake bit him (years ago we had that happen to our Boston named Angela). We searched high and low for Kenny. No luck!
We were frantic! So we called our friends. They came. Four of them! We all searched. Still no luck.
So, we went into the house (we’d already searched there thoroughly).
When we walked in through the back door, there was a black and white nose sticking out from under Bob’s chair!! Kenny had squeezed under to fetch a toy – and he got stuck!! Whew!!!😥 We lifted the chair to release him. Gratitude? Ah yes!! 👏🏽
Thank You, Jesus!
Thank You, God, Thank You, Jesus! Thank You for neighbors, for answered prayers, for the safety of our pup! Whew!!
Remember that first picture up there of Kenny lying on a quilt? I’m grateful for it, too. Do you have a memory quilt?
I love mine! And no, Kenny doesn’t usually get to lie on it! It was a retirement gift from my teaching colleagues when I retired back in 1999. The sentiments on it and the remembrances are so precious!
Marta Garcia did the stitching and each of my colleagues at school added a piece with their name and sometimes a sentiment. “Stitched with dreams of traveling forever,” Marta wrote.
If you live in Ennis, Montana with the Madison River running through it and the spectacular Rocky Mountains as your backdrop, and people from all over the world coming here to fish and to just relax and enjoy the peace, the open spaces, the wild animals, and the proximity to Yellowstone, then you live daily with an attitude of gratitude, and guess what? Traveling forever is not a daily prayer. We are grateful that you come to us! Keep doing it!
“Take genuine interest in other people… turn to the person next to you in the grocery store and ask what the highlight of their day has been… Your question … will probably be the highlight of their day.”
That quote is from Bob Goff’s Catching Whimsy, 365 Days of Possibility.
He challenges us with today’s action step:
“Engage the people around you with love and inexplicable curiosity today.”
Time with Saskia & Laszlo is so precious!
I need to be sure and practice “With-ness” with them. God sent them to us so we could really BE with one another.
Who are you going to really be with today? Bob Goff uses Galatians 6:10 to remind us of Jesus’ words to the people: “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone.”
Let them know you are 100% with them … and curious about how life is going with them.
How is life going with you!?
My life is quite lovely. Kenny’s is, too. I hope yours is, also.
A friend forwarded this to me. She said it was too good not to pass on. I agree👍🏽 So, I’m passing it on, too. It’s from Butler Bass from The Cottage<dianabutlerbass@substack.com>
It’s long and it’s political. I don’t usually post political viewpoints on my blog. But, I’m feeling the pain of what’s happening in the USA right now. And I feel like I need to do something. At least speak out. So here it is:
Everything is worse than expected. Hearts are breaking; many are confused and afraid. A late night reflection.
I hope you didn’t watch the news today.
Because today is one of those sorts of Trumpy Fridays — tariff insanity, stock market decline, a dismal jobs report, firing the director of the bureau who produced honest unemployment numbers, moving a convicted human trafficker to a cushy prison (most likely to pardon her), continuing crisis around the Epstein scandal, threatening Russia with nuclear submarines, $10 a pound ground beef, the dismantling of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, altering history, extortion of universities, and innocent people arrested and detained for no reason at all (except that they speak Spanish).
Welcome to America.
Here in the United States, we’ve just passed through the first six months of the second Trump term. If you are a reader who lives in a different nation, it is probably difficult to understand how difficult it has become here.
In May and June, I spent nearly a month in Europe. It was lovely being in places where people were laughing in the streets, who enjoyed being together and were not consumed with politics. Speech wasn’t guarded; no one cast furtive glances to see if ICE might suddenly appear.
When I returned home, it felt as if I’d been dropped off in a toxic waste dump. The air itself seemed poisoned in comparison to the month I’d just experienced. I couldn’t sleep. I was shaking. It was hard being here.
Shortly after my return, I was out to lunch with a friend. With her eyes downcast, she told me that she was having terrible nightmares, felt overwhelmed with sadness, and struggling with intense grief. “I can’t stand it anymore,” she confided. “Every story about immigrants being snatched by ICE, the cruelty of it all….” Her voice trailed off. “Am I going crazy?”
“I don’t know about that,” I replied. “Not sleeping, crying over the suffering of others? That seems pretty normal in these abnormal circumstances. You’ve got a soul.”
She lifted her gaze. “I’m serious,” I said, “if you weren’t sleepless and depressed, I’d think something was really wrong with you. All you’ve described only proves you are a moral human being.”
“But I can’t live this way,” she protested. I nodded, “I know. I feel the same way.” Then she asked, “What should I do? I can’t do anything. I don’t know what to do.” She seemed a bit lost, maybe somewhat guilty or perhaps even shamed by not knowing.
Although I didn’t say this to her, I remembered that before Trump was elected, one of the authors of Project 2025 bragged about how, if Trump won, their initial goal was to put Americans into trauma. He gleefully talked about wanting to traumatize federal workers and their families. But, even then, it seemed obvious that there were even more human targets for purposeful trauma. Millions of traumatized Americans, unable to function or respond in any meaningful way, would give them a clear pathway to execute their plans.
There are many ways to traumatize others — violence, abuse, witnessing or participating in harm to others, psychological manipulation. We’ve seen them all in these six months. These days, I’m less focused on those enacting all this evil than I am on the rest of us.
The victims of such behavior often suffer moral injury, a real condition, often associated with PTSD. The Veteran’s Affairs department defines moral injury: “In traumatic or unusually stressful circumstances, people may perpetrate, fail to prevent, or witness events that contradict deeply held moral beliefs and expectations.”
Moral injury is just that — trauma that violates one’s core ethical beliefs.
And that’s what we’ve been suffering for the last half year. A government that is purposefully, cruelly, and maliciously creating trauma to make millions of us transgress or shift our own moral boundaries — to inure us to their destruction of democracy and the harm being done to our neighbors.
If you feel bad, it means you haven’t yet been broken. It means you still have a soul. Your moral core has not been breached.
Six months of Trumpism and you have a beating heart. It is, however, probably suffering from moral injury. But you are still the beautiful, compassionate, empathetic human being you have been.
I didn’t say all of that to my friend. I may recognize the outlines of this mass trauma event and the impact it is having on all of us. But I’m not a therapist — and I certainly can’t help others process this moral heartbreak in any kind of professional way.
Instead, I shared a simple practice that is helping me right now.
“Do you know the Serenity Prayer?” I asked her.
“The AA prayer? That’s your suggestion?”
“Yes,” I replied, laughing a little, “I’m not in AA! But it is a really good prayer: ‘God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’”
She looked at me quizzically. I explained, “I think I’m a bit ‘addicted’ to fixing things. But it is too much, too fast, too overwhelming. I can’t fix it. I can’t fix anything. These are powerful people and they are purposefully destroying things — including our hope. The first part reminds me that I can’t fix the economy, starvation in Gaza, all the lying and chaos, the blatant racism and misogyny…the list is long. I can’t send Trump or Stephen Miller or Russell Vought or Hegseth to therapy — or jail. I can’t remove any of them from office. I can’t change these things.”
I took a breath. “Accepting the things I cannot change doesn’t mean being passive or complicit. It means recognizing that I’m not God, I’m not that powerful, I’m just one limited human being.”
“I get that,” she said.
“But,” I continued, “there are things I can change. Those things that I am called to do, relationships in my part of the world. I can give, volunteer, write, be generous and kind, stay informed, tend to my soul and my own fears and griefs. I can even take some risks. I can still vote. I can speak out. I can do my work well. I can love. I can do good, even when it seems too little. I can’t change everything. I can change some things. And that’s where wisdom comes in.”
She said, “I hadn’t thought about that prayer as a guide for now. Yeah, I can’t do everything. But I can do those things right in front of me.”
I like the Serenity Prayer. But I also think it should be called the Serenity-Courage-Wisdom Prayer, because it doesn’t ask for one thing. It asks for three! The trio of dispositions work in concert to shift our own perspectives and attitudes. It isn’t about fixing anything. Instead, it opens a path of resilience and appropriate action that we may be transformed.
The prayer is attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, the great twentieth century American theologian. Niebuhr’s theology, richly imbued with irony and humility, emphasized the tensions and contradictions of human sinfulness and the necessity of social justice, communal ethics, and the practice of love. You sense that in this prayer — the recognition of our limits and the summons to genuine courage. But the paradox of serenity and courage must work tandem with wisdom, the ability to both accept and act in difficult and emotionally trying circumstances.
Niebuhr’s daughter thought that her father’s 1943 version of the prayer was his best — and is closest to his intention. It is notable that this version is a communal invocation, not an individual petition:
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
And that’s what I’m wondering. Of course, the prayer is a good guide for these hard days. It helps me. I think it is helping my friend.
But what of us? Can we pray the prayer together? In community, sharing our restless fear and relentless sorrow?
Give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed. Like there’s no real going back. We can’t live in some nostalgic America. We’re going to have technology and AI. We’re going to be living with the consequences of climate change. We can’t change the past mistakes and sins of our ancestors. We need an honest assessment of reality. We will shed many more tears over what cannot be changed.
What must we learn to accept?
Give us courage to change the things that should be changed. Not what we can change. But what should be changed. We might feel we can’t do big things. But there is so much that should be changed — for future generations to thrive, for the planet to flourish, for humanity to live justly and in peace. What should be changed? Do we even have the courage to ask the question?
What should be changed?
Give us wisdom to distinguish what cannot be changed from what should be changed. Only in that tension, the deep irony of the human condition, between the realism of what is and the dream of what should be, will our nightmares cease and our love increase. Wisdom, oh wisdom, we need you.
How would knowing the difference shift our lives and communities?
If enough of us embrace serenity, courage, and wisdom, things will change. But not because a some Golden Age is dawning or a political savior will save us. There’s only the long, hard work of being human — of striving toward love and justice, accompanied by the tender compassion of grace.
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.
― Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History
INSPIRATION
If you are one who has practice meeting the pain of the world, we need you. Right now we need you to teach us it is possible to swallow what is weighty and still be able to rise. We need you to remind us we can be furious and scared and near feral over injustice and still thrill at the taste of a strawberry, ripe and sweet, can still meet a stranger and shake their hand, believing in their humanness. We need you to show us how we, too, can fall into the darkest, unplumbed pit and learn there a courage and beauty we could never learn from the light. If you have drowned in sorrow and still have somehow found a way to breathe, please, lead us. You are the one with the crumbs we need, the ones we will use to find our way back to the home of our hearts. — Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, “Please”
1 Cor. 12:7 “Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.“
What were you given? Wouldn’t it be fun to have your family and friends tell you what gifts they see working in you? I had that unique experience yesterday at a meeting of our church’s elder board (The Session).
The “gift” I most align myself with is: “Intercessor.” My daily prayer time and the lists of people I pray for daily are an integral part of my life. I am grateful God gave me the gift of praying for others.
In today’s devotional by Bob Goff, he dealt with this subject. Quoting 1Cor. 12:7, he went on to say,
” God has created us ro come together and form a beautiful community that highlights what we each have been given and can contribute.”
Using the familiar story of Stone Soup, Bob Goff wrote, “You know where this story ends already: the soup becomes a delicious simmering pot made up of everyone’s contributions… We all need to throw in what we’ve got and it will be enough.”
What other gift attributes did my friends identify for me? writing bedrock firecracker cooking music (and as mentioned:) prayer warrior
Of course, the one that surprised me the most was “Firecracker.” Is that a gift? Should I associate that with being explosive or being a sparkler? There are many ways to define our gifts, aren’t there? What’s yours? Ask a friend. Bob Goff ended his devotional in “Catching Whimsy” with this faith step:
Ask the people around you. “What are you good at? What lights you up and makes you spring out of bed?”
Here are the gifts my friends identified in each of my fellow church elders’ lives. For privacy’s sake, I will identify them only by their initials
PC patience, music, steadiness, kindness, calmness, humor
CD steadfastness, empathy, compassion, devotion, humor, determination
SH faithfulness, dependability, devotion. willingness, generosity, commitment, obedience
We began our Session meeting in prayer with this scripture as our guiding principle: 1 Cor. 12:1 paraphrased “Don’t be ignorant friends. A variety of gifts are given- We all are made to drink in One Spirit.”
We can (or can we?) control how others see us. Would I have liked others to see in me dependability, thoughtfulness, initiative, wisdom? Of course! Those weren’t mentioned. What can I do about it?
Live mindfully. Love outlandishly. Purpose my life to “Show who God is.”
Are you with me? Throw your gifts in the pot, and let’s make Stone Soup into God’s Love Soup.
Sometimes we are so busy with our “To Do” lists that we forget to take a break. And when we do heed the nudgings and step away from all those tasks for a day or two, the rewards are so great that we wonder, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?”
Our interim pastor, Brian Conklin, did just that this week. The results of his “break” was a beautiful article for our July newsletter. I am delighted to share that article with you here. Enjoy!
Reflections on Psalm 8:3–5
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?”
—Psalm 8:3–4
I spent the first day of July winding my way up Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park—awestruck by the mountains, shaped by glaciers over hundreds of thousands of years. Honestly, the only reason I made the trip was because friends were visiting from out of state. Like many of us, I had a full list of things keeping me tethered to home in Ennis: dogs to feed, a lawn to mow, a garden to water, an overdue article to write, and a Sunday service to prepare for. A trip to Glacier felt impractical—out of the question, really.
Once again, I had placed myself at the center of my universe, absorbed in my own schedule and priorities. But I had made a promise—and so, I went.
It took less than five minutes inside the park for everything to shift. My eyes lifted from my to-do list to the towering peaks above me. With every mile we climbed, my world grew smaller. The grandeur of creation was overwhelming—humbling in the best way.
At Logan Pass, we hiked through lingering fields of snow toward Hidden Lake Overlook. Along the way, we passed a herd of bighorn sheep, spotted a grizzly below, and watched in amazement as a mother mountain goat and her newborn walked straight down the trail toward us—so close I could’ve reached out and touched them. I stood frozen, breathless with wonder.
That hike filled me with awe and clarity. It made me stop and remember the words of the psalmist:
“What is man, that you are mindful of him?”
To stand surrounded by so much beauty, so much power—wild, ancient, and untouched—and to believe that the Creator of all this is also mindful of me? It’s almost too much to comprehend. I felt small, yes—but also cherished. Insignificant and yet beloved.
My priorities? My worries? They suddenly seemed like paper boats in a vast ocean.
It’s sobering to think it takes this much grandeur to lift my head. How easily I become consumed with my own concerns and forget that the world does not revolve around me. How easily I forget who I belong to.
I’m grateful for the reminders—whether from mountain peaks or quiet whispers—that the God who shaped the stars also holds us close to His heart. When we lose sight of that, our days fill with noise and urgency. But when we remember, everything shifts into perspective.
Henri Nouwen once wrote:
“You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests…
That truth will set you free to receive the beauty of nature and culture in gratitude, as a sign of your Belovedness…
But that truth will also allow you to let go of what distracts you, confuses you and puts in jeopardy the life of the Spirit within you.”
So let us lift our eyes. Let us marvel at the works of His hands. And let us walk through this life—humbled by the majesty around us, but confident in the love that holds us fast.
Regards, Brian Conklin
Thank you, Brian, for taking a break, and for sharing those lovely insights with us! I’m so glad you and your wife, Dawn, are a part of our church family! What a blessing!!
My WordPress friends, what “break” have you taken lately? And how did it affect you?
I took my sermon notes as a series of Haiku today in church. Let me share those notes with you. It was a wonderful message delivered by our interim pastor, Brian Conklin.
Live in unity Choose love over labeling Walk in the spirit
Be a peacemaker Listen to one another Hear others’ stories
Share humanity See Christ’s imprint in others Exhibit goodness
Show agape love It’s the highest form of love Unity and grace
Two hundred forty Plus nine years ago there was Freedom declared here
Our nation declared One land – indivisible But, we divided
We let politics Rule over our heart, soul and Our identity
We need freedom TO Exercise our highest good Not just freedom FROM
We need open hearts Hearts that seek to heal others Not drive them apart
Stop all the fighting Show love, not hated discord Celebrate freedom
Hear one another Just lift one another up Be calming healers
Unoffendable Means listening openly Try understanding
Openly share faith Faith in each others’ goodness Hope for our future
Live in hope and peace Just be unoffendable Wear love on your sleeve!
