#52 Devotions Challenge 2020 Advent One

#52 Devotions Challenge 2020 Advent One

Written 1 December 2019

Practice the Presence of God

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Forde

What is your need for this day? What are you struggling with today? What difficulty do you face this moment? I invite you to pray - to be present to the love of God. 

Abba, Papa, Here I am standing with you., Here I am … in my littleness, trusting you to deliver me from my sinfulness, forgiving me as I forgive others, when I need food, or water that gives eternal life, clothing, or protection from all evil, here I am! Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Here I am with you!!! I put all my trust in you because you care for me. 

Amen, We let it be done. 

The Hebrew Amen means truly, it is true. “Amen!” More than a word, it is an all-embracing attitude: ‘to stay, to support, to be firm, true, faithful. It is like coming home and sinking down into your favorite easy chair… letting go completely. 

And a miracle happens as you practice the presence of God - God transforms the remnants of your life to wholeness. Because “Someone” happens to you.  

#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 45 - Thanksgiving

#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 49- Thanksgiving 

 30 Days of Thanksgiving and Praise

The past month, I have been focused on gratitude!  I have posted a Facebook essay on most days.  You are lucky, I didn’t post 28 of them, but I will post this one.  Today, I am thankful for my family, Ron’s brother, sisters and nephews and nephew's family, and aunt Margaret Rambo.  

Ron and I are thankful for the warm presence of Rambo family as we gathered to celebrate the life of uncle Lawrence Rambo.  It was quite wonderful to discover Lawrence and Margaret’s contributions to St. Louis and their ministry at Concordia Lutheran.  I was greatly impressed to learn of his music and work with the Stephens ministry.  

Ron and I also celebrate eleven grandchildren (Ron's by marriage to me), four great-grandchildren, and a new baby girl anticipated in March.   Granddaughter, Lauren Forde, just announced her engagement to Tyler Goff.    Lauren is a therapist with a mental health clinic.   Granddaughter Samantha Rose Forde married Adam Matthew Foulkrod in a magnificent ceremony on this glorious day.  Samantha is a vice-principal and therapist at a school for autistic children.  Both girls were bridesmaids in our wedding.  

This past week, “Allt för Sverige” 2019, the number one Emmy winning TV show, was on in Sweden.  This season featured Robert K. Rambo who learned all about his Swedish ancestry, everything Ron wrote!!!!! I loved watching the show and hearing the words, “Peter Gunnarson Rambo was the father of New Sweden.”  Now Ron didn’t write those words!  But it was so very thrilling.  I hope you google the YouTube series and watch episodes 1-5.  Episode five is the big Rambo one.  The historicity is marvelous.   There are eight episodes; I haven’t watched the last three episodes.   

I am ever so grateful for Ron in my life.  He quite amazes me as he takes the extreme challenge of having to totally change his lifestyle, “do this or die”, and he embraces it with humor and discipline, inviting others to get well, too.  Get well physically, but especially spiritually, “go to church, go to any church, until you find the support you need.”   This is his mission and ministry.  

#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 44 - Rich Man

#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 47 We Are Rich with Love!

"I Want You, I Need You, I Love You"

[Ira Kosloff, Maurice Mysels]

Hold me close, hold me tight
Make me thrill with delight
Let me know where I stand from the start
I want you, I need you, I love you
With all my heart

Ev'ry time that you're near
All my cares disappear
Darling, you're all that I'm living for
I want you, I need you, I love you
More and more

I thought I could live without romance
Until you came to me
But now I know that
I will go on loving you eternally

#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 43 – Traveling to Be Blessed

#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 43 – Traveling to Be Blessed

Being Blessed

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Forde

I am thankful for my five children, my “olive shoots.” The Psalmist writes, “your children will be like olive shoots around your table,” promising that children will be a blessing for those who fear the Lord. (RSV 128:1-4). My children are indeed a blessing; they became healthy, contributing adults, who raised their own olive shoots, who are now raising more olive shoots, blessing their lives and mine! 

Recently, after lunch with a granddaughter and her two daughters, ages five, and two and one-half, the girls wanted to sing a song. I was very surprised when the five-year-old opened a hymnal to the index, found therein the hymn she wanted to sing, noted the page number, and with a little coaching from her mother, located the correct page for her hymn of choice, Holy, Holy, Holy. And their sweet voices sang the hymn, blessing me with the oil of gladness pouring out of these young olive shoots. Blessed? Yes! I could not hold back the tears. Not only was I blessed, but it was indeed like being anointed. 

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning, our song shall rise to Thee.
Holy, Holy, Holy merciful and mighty
God in three persons blessed Trinity

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God almighty
All thy works shall praise Thy name in earth sky and sea.
Holy, Holy, Holy merciful and mighty
God in three persons blessed Trinity

#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 42 – The Adventure of Affirmations

#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 42 – The Adventure of Affirmations

The Adventure of Affirmations

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Forde

Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert Future, wrote about the power of affirmations. He described writing “I want to be a great writer” fifteen times a day for six months. At the end of the six months, he realized that he still wanted to be a great writer. So, he changed his affirmation to something that had a measurable goal, “My next book will be a best seller.” And, despite the odds, his next book became a best seller. 

After reading The Dilbert Future, a very, very, very dear friend of mine (very close to me, indeed) wanted to try out this cool affirmation idea – but as a bachelor, his life was absolutely perfect, and he had nothing practical to desire. After some consideration, he decided that he might benefit from a stronger belief in God. His first several days of writing “I believe in God” had the same issue that Scott’s first affirmations had: no way to gauge success or failure. He corrected that by writing, “I believe in God to my great benefit.” Faithfully, fifteen times a day he wrote his affirmation. After several months, he met someone and fell in love, Now, he tells people, “I don’t know who, what, how, where, when or why God is; that’s not my job. My job is to thank God. I go straight to the Old Testament, and it says, praise God, thank God. When I look at the New Testament, I know if there is a heaven, I will only get there by the grace of God.” 

Thank God! Thank God! Thank God! When I pray, even during the darkest times, I praise and thank God as though my request is an accomplished fact. The Power of Affirmation is believing your prayers are already answered. 

Scott Adams said on his blog, “Here’s a good test of your personality. If all of your friends told you that they win money on the slot machines whenever they stick their fingers in their own ears, would you try it? Or would you assume that since there is no obvious reason it could work, it’s not worth the effort? “

Mark 11:22-24 Revised Standard Version (RSV)

22 “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

#52 Ancestor Challenge, 2019, Week 41, Context- Big Birthday

#52 Ancestor Challenge, 2019, Week 41, Context- Big Birthday

I Love My Life

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Forde

My family celebrated my really BIG birthday in July; I did not like becoming OLD, any more than I like green eggs and ham. But they treated me so royally, enlisting family and friends to send marvelous greetings turned into a treasured video, I recognized this is really the best time of my life. Right now, I love my life more than I ever have. 

Judith Viorst, the author of iconic children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, agrees with me; she has never loved her life more than she does now. She's also almost 90. Judith said, “It seems I have no wish to turn back the clock to 30 or 40 or 50 years ago. I prefer to press “hold” on the life that I currently live.  That’s true in spite of the fact that I am indisputably old—not older, not elderly, just…old. And the fact that so many people I’ve loved are dead. And the fact that my upper arms are in no condition to ever again be seen in public. And the fact that, as some late-night comic once said, my back is going out more often than I am.”

“It’s not that the days themselves now are so fabulous. My hair is thinning. My body is not. I can’t find my glasses or keys. And I spend so much time seeing specialists that, if they gave doctorates for going to doctors, I’d easily have earned a Ph.D. But still, I don’t hesitate. The best is not ahead or behind. It’s now.”

Like Judith Viorst, despite having gone through loss, grief, cancer, and many failings, I consider myself lucky that worse things did not happen to me. Judith said it best, “Gratitude does indeed bring comfort. Cultivating gratitude makes us happier people, more tolerant, less judgmental, more forgiving of family or friends when they annoy or neglect us, hurt our feelings or let us down.” 

Bless the Lord, O my soul;
and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the Pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good as long as you live
so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

Psalm 103 (RSV)

#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 40, “Harvest” Rambo Apple

#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 40, “Harvest” Rambo Apple

Harvest Time

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Forde

In memory of beloved uncle Lawrence Vale Rambo, a poem by James Whitcomb Riley about the Rambo Apple that our ancestor, Peter Gunnarson Rambo, brought from Sweden in 1640.  Seeds from the Rambo Apple were supposedly carried by Johnny Appleseed, according to Rambo history. 

THE RAMBO-TREE 

When Autumn shakes the Rambo-tree—

It's a long, sweet way across the orchard!—

The bird sings low as the bumble-bee—

It's a long, sweet way across the orchard!—

The poor shote-pig he says, says he:

"When Autumn shakes the Rambo-tree

There's enough for you and enough for me."—

It's a long, sweet way across the orchard.

For just two truant lads like we,

When Autumn shakes the Rambo-tree

There's enough for you and enough for me—

It's a long, sweet way across the orchard.

When Autumn shakes the Rambo-tree—

It's a long, sweet way across the orchard!—

The mole digs out to peep and see—

It's a long, sweet way across the orchard!—

The dusk sags down, and the moon swings free,

There's a far, lorn call, "Pig-gee! 'Pig-gee!"

And two boys—glad enough for three.—

It's a long, sweet way across the orchard.

For just two truant lads like we,

When Autumn shakes the Rambo-tree

There's enough for you and enough for me—

It's a long, sweet way across the orchard.

Source: The Book of Joyous Children by James Whitcomb Riley, Illustration "Across the Orchard"

The Rambo Apple

.   Long live the memory of Lawrence Vale Rambo, cartographer, Stephen Minister, singer and a 37-year member of Concordia Lutheran Church, St. Louis, Missouri. Lawrence is survived by his beautiful widow, Margaret, and 15 nieces and nephews.