Tracy's Blog

Yes, I did remember that it was Pentecost this week. I had been preparing for it by reflecting on the work of the Holy Spirit as our Advocate/Counselor/Helper/Comforter ( John 15:26 ) throughout the week. I hope you were able to celebrate the Church's birthday with others. I enjoyed singing “Happy Birthday to the Church” with the children (age 4 and under) in St. Margaret's nursery. That was fun! My reflection for today is brief. It comes from Acts 2:1-4 “ When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Two points: “ ...tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them .” The Holy Spirit comes upon indi...

It was my teenage son, Noah, who made me aware of the fact that I had completely missing Ascension Day last Thursday (May 17). He came out of his youth group on Friday evening and told me about the passage they had studied – Acts 1:1-11. “Yikes!” I thought, “I missed celebrating the Ascension!” Now is this really a big deal? On a personal note, it showed me that all the calendars I've been using this year are completely secular. They have no religious holidays on them. So, I need to depend on my church community to track with religious events. This is normally fine except that 1) I had been in the nursery at St. Margaret's for the whole service the week before and hadn't read the bulletin and 2) we decided to go to St. Clement's church in Selkirk on Sunday which had already had a special service for Ascension on Thursday and instead was having a Rogation Sunday (a day to ask for God's mercy and blessing on the seeds that were soon to be planted). Less...

“Ouch!” Pain seared through my left knee as I knelt down and I thought to myself, “How am I suppose to get to my goal of getting in better physical shape this spring with all my aches and pains?” I immediately felt discouraged, wondering if my hopes were being dashed. But then another thought hit me, a much more significant one. I started to think about the importance of not tying my ultimate life goals to things that are temporal and unreliable (like knee joints). Although getting in better shape is a good goal and being a good steward of my physical body is a godly goal, it can't be what I am founding my life on. The achievement of it is too precarious. There are so many things that can impede it. “So,” I asked myself, “where should my focus be?” Here is what I've come up with: I believe that there is a direction for our lives that is an unstoppable road. Call it what you will – the spiritual journey of sanctification, walking with God, the path to eternal life...