Greetings,

Its that time of year... vacation time! We’re off to the lake, off to camp, off to visit family, etc. What are your plans?

I’m looking forward to unplugging in July. Although I love leading our staff, writing and giving sermons, and doing the other things I do, I need to gear down and move from “break-neck” to “snail-like” speed.

For those of you who don’t have the time or the money for a summer getaway, I have a different kind of holiday in mind. It’s summed up in this quote by Simon Tugwell on prayer: "God invites us to take a holiday, to stop being God for a while and let him be God...We can stop doing all those important things we have to do in our capacity as God and leave it to him to be God."

I like Tugwell’s point. Prayer is like a holiday. It's me stopping long enough to remind myself that I'm not God. That the weight of the world is not on my shoulders. Prayer is me turning over to God the things that I cannot handle or change.

What are you carrying on your shoulders right now that you cannot handle or change? What burden? What heavy load?

I don’t know what you’re up to in this moment, but I invite you to pause (yeah, now) and take a holiday...pray! Burden God with what’s burdening you. Allow God to do what HE does best (be God).

Enjoy…and send me a postcard!

Speaking of prayer, we’re going to look at the model prayer that Jesus gave his disciples this weekend. We call it “The Lord’s Prayer”. Joining me will be our brand-new Director of Children’s Ministry, Josh Miller. Come out and see the guy with the best head of hair on staff (he speaks well too)!!

Pastor Phil