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I never really know how much of my own faith journey I should share.  I am not sure how 
much of it is just “out there” for all to see.  But if we are going to talk about Jesus being 
a person, both human and God, then it seems unavoidable to talk of our own encounters with Jesus.
We encounter Christ in our devotional life through prayer, study of Scriptures, worship and 
service.  
Christ invites us to draw closer, offering himself to each of us.  We respond to this offer by 
giving ourselves and all we are to Christ.  I hope and pray that you have experienced this union..  
This is the central point of spiritual formation. We are shaped, changed, and formed by Christ’s 
love working in us and our response to Christ.
But for both those new to the journey with Jesus and those who have been at it for some time, 
there are a couple of hindrances that may arise as Jesus connects with us and we with Jesus.  
The first block is the idea that all past encounters with Jesus were a failure, inadequate, 
incomplete, and worse not real.  I am not sure where this feeling comes from, but left 
unchecked and unrefuted it causes discouragement and becomes a distraction.  We can only move 
so quickly.  Our faith life is a journey, on a path, with a companion, and with an end.  It can 
only be accomplished one step, one day at a time.  No runner who completes a marathon looks back 
and says that strides 153 to 225 were failures.  They could only be failures if the runner failed 
to take stride number 226.  Because they were a part of a continuous running that led to the 
completion of the race all strides were vital.  The same is true for our spiritual formation.  
What has taken place before is not failure, because it has led us to where we are today.  
We are still on the road, taking the trip, moving to the end.
The opposite is also true.  We can be hindered in our spiritual growth if we believe, prematurely 
that we have arrived.  What has happened to date has been so life changing and earth-shattering 
that we could not possibly do more than what has already been done.  And so we set aside our 
devotional practices that have mediated Christ to us and us to Christ and begin to live as if 
Christ no longer has work for us to do.  We begin to live out of our own strength and will.  Since 
we believe we are as close to perfection as can be achieved we think more highly of ourselves and 
less highly of those who cannot match our lofty status.  Such superiority is not of Christ and 
sooner or later, we begin to feel we have not come so far and we must begin again.  Thank goodness!
Where ever you are in your journey, I recommend that you look and see where things are going.  
Have you stopped growing in Christ, either because you think there is no more that can change 
and grow, or and more likely, you think that there is no hope for change and growth?  Either 
thought stalls movement toward the goal.  But neither need be a permanent condition.  Failure 
in the life with Jesus only comes when the journey is forsaken and there is no opportunity to 
begin again.  Since there is an opportunity to begin for every person (GOD has NOT FORECLOSED! 
Salvation is still available) each of you may reliably assume that you are successfully 
journeying with Jesus and that whether you feel as if you are stopping for a rest, restarting, 
or have been going for awhile, you are on the way and will reach the goal.

In Christ, 
Pastor Tony

I have often stressed the importance of using Scripture in our study and our devotional 
life.  But each of these approaches is a little different, though related.
When we study the Bible in general, or a book of the Bible or a theme, we do so with some 
objectivity and using questions.  We take the time to read carefully, understand the context 
of the original writer and hearers, and check the meaning of words that seem important.  We 
try to discern what God is communicating in the passage and what it means for us today.  And 
often, we will also encounter God in a spiritually deep and intimate moment that feeds the 
very depths of our being, giving us strength and hope for living our day.
But since the ancient church there has been a practice of encountering Scripture called 
“lectio divina” or “holy reading.”  This is a different approach to reading Scripture that 
begins with our heart rather than our mind.  You may have heard of it before and even learned 
this skill and used it.  Great!  I hope you use it still.  Basically this approach asks us to 
be still, quiet, attentive and open to God.  As we pray for God’s presence and guidance we 
read a small portion of Scripture, slowly and with the intention of stopping when and where 
a word or though seems to lift itself up to us and seem important.  This word or thought then 
becomes what we consider and meditate upon, letting our minds receive what God wants us to 
know and understand.  After this we then offer prayers of thanksgiving, confession, or 
petition as seems appropriate to the moment.
Here is an example. One day, many years ago I was reading Psalm 18.  The first line is, 
“I love you, O LORD, my strength.”  Well the “I love you Lord” stopped me immediately.  
Questions came in torrent.  Do I love you Lord?  What do I do to show that love?  How does 
God know?  How does anyone know?  It might seem like a scary thing, and in it ways it is.  
I had to confess that sometimes I did not love God, but I also was assured by the Spirit 
that most of time I did.  And in the midst of this conversation with God I was forgiven, 
encouraged, and lifted up for the day.  And the encounter, though long past, and often 
repeated since, still sticks with me today.
In study we bring our questions to Scripture and we seek answers.  In “lectio divina” we 
open our whole being for God to bring questions to us.  If we are to be spiritually alive 
we must do both.  The wonderful thing about seeking God is we will also encounter God seeking 
us.
In this Easter Season my prayer is that you will continue to seek God and that every day you 
will experience God’s presence in your life.  If you need help, or want instruction in the 
practice of “lectio divina” and other spiritual disciplines, let me know and I will be glad 
to help.

In Christ, 
Pastor Tony

Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other 
secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward. 		
Thomas Merton

Love is love's reward.
John Dryden

God in His wisdom has decided that He will reward no works but His own.
Johannes Tauler

Love is life's end, but never ending. Love is life's wealth, never spent, but ever 
spending. Love's life's reward, rewarded in rewarding.
Herbert Spencer

The above quotes are a result of a search I was making for a quote by Saint Augustine.  
The gist of Augustine’s quote was that if we had God then we would want no more.  All of 
these quotes and the idea behind them make me a little uneasy.  I would like to say, 
“All I need is God and that God has given God’s self to me!”  I believe that God has 
indeed given all of God’s self to me, and to you, and to anyone else we care to think of.  
The gift is given, has, is, and will be, given for all.  There is no fault in the 
Giver or what was given.  If I am uneasy it is because I, who receive this gift, think 
God’s Gift is not enough.

There is a raging war within me.  The aggressor is my ego that demands that I receive 
consideration, fairness and recognition, among other things.  The aggressor claims that 
these are needs that must be met if God is to have any real and legitimate role (rule?) 
in my life. So the battle continues.

The Gift was given and though poorly received and poorly treated by that within me that 
rails against God, the Gift remains and shelters that which in gratitude and humility 
knows that God does provide all that I need.  Experience tells me that the selfish part 
of me is losing ground and is destined for destruction.  Scriptures reminds me that 
I must die so that Christ may live.  John the Baptist says of Jesus, “I must decrease 
so that He may increase.”  Paul knew this tension in his life and I suspect I am not 
the only other one.  What is at war within you?  Does God provide for you all you need?  
Do you find yourself dissatisfied with what God has given you?

Lent and Easter is the time to hear, remember and acknowledge our rebellious nature and its 
presence in our lives.  It is a time to face our selfishness and our dissatisfaction with what 
God has given and what it might cost us to really receive that Gift.  It is also a time to 
reaffirm our belief that God is within us as Christ in our life and that we have committed 
ourselves to Christ and God will not and does not forsake us, but loves us to the end.  
The deepest and best that I am, finds its greatest affirmation as a person, when in love, 
humility and gratitude, I take refuge in Christ.  I pray the same is true for you. 

In Christ’s Love, Pastor Tony

As I sit here at my computer I have a cd playing by a church musician from Richmond who does some 
neat things with some of the old hymns.  These jazzy reinterpretations remind me of how important our 
hymns are to us and to me personally for my devotional life.  For instance I use the two following 
verses of well known hymns as daily prayers.

The first is one I pray several times each day:
Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

This is a family favorite and we all know and sing it often, but they are also what turn to in order to 
remember God and His love for you and me. 

The other verse is one I use when I need to remember to work a little harder and with more intention 
and enthusiasm.

How firm a foundation, 
ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled? 

In fact the 3rd verse of this same hymn is another favorite prayer:
Fear not, I am with thee, 
O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee,and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

If you struggle to pray or if you want to enliven already settled prayer practices using the hymns of 
the church is a great way to do so.  Reciting the verses as poetry, singing them with their familiar 
tunes, or putting them with a new tune are great ways to pray and let God’s Spirit enter in.  These 
above are mine; they need not be yours.  I hope you have a hymn book with your Bible and that you will 
read the hymns, pick ones that speak a Godly word to you and maybe memorize a verse or two to take with 
you wherever you go.
In Christ’s Love, Pastor Tony

REMEMBER!  Lent starts Wednesday, February 6.  Ash Wednesday services will be held that evening at 7:30.

Dear All, 
This guest column truly conveys the clear messages of the Season.  
I could not have said it better myself.
Pastor Tony


It’s probably just my abundant and sheer perversity.  Heaven knows, there’s plenty of that to go 
around.  Maybe it’s my Eastern Shore roots, where, in winter, the landscape is stark and grey-brown 
and the Northwest wind chills to the bone.  Wherever it comes from, I  have a Lent and Advent soul.   
I love the penitential seasons, when  the saints through history have beaten their breasts and 
cried Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy!  I love the inward turn of the scriptures 
and the prayers, calling us to confess and repent.  Or maybe it’s just the color of the paraments 
in church:  in first grade, I loved purple so much the teacher finally forbade me to draw one more 
purple house, cow, person, or (mostly) airplane.

We’re not a penitential culture, especially at this time of year.  We go straight to Christmas, 
earlier and earlier every year (why don’t the stores just leave the Christmas decorations up all 
year?).  Don’t worry, be happy, and no matter what, buy!  Advent, like Lent, is supposed to be a 
season of silence, confession, and cleaning out the spiritual rubbish in our lives.  It seems to 
me that the frenzy of all-Christmas-all-the-time between Thanksgiving and December 25 is a dark 
plot to keep our Inns too full for baby Jesus to be born in us.

So in this season of chaos, I encourage you to step out back some cold and starlit night.  Go visit 
your barn – the place where you keep the forgotten debris of your life.  Far away from the lights 
and the music and the presents and the endless rounds of parties, out in the silence of the barn, 
among the simple creatures of the earth who can hear heavenly music when we can’t, you just might 
hear a baby cry.  If the cry sounds familiar, it may be because it’s the child in you, asking to 
be fed, to be cuddled, to be rocked to sleep, to be sung to by One who loves you more than life.

If you can hear the baby cry, then Advent will have happened despite all the forces arrayed 
against it.  We worship a persistent and sneaky God, who shows up despite our best efforts to 
keep him out.   
Thank God.

Listening for the cries,

Brooke

The Rev. J. Brooke Willson, Pastor
Shady Grove United Methodist Church
Mechanicsville, Virginia

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