We are one month away from Water and the Word! The Saturday workshop lineup for Water and the Word brings twelve expert-led panels and intensives focused on spiritual disciplines, partnering with the community, lessons in experimentation, managing change, building community, storytelling, and more. See the full schedule at https://www.waterandtheword.org/retreat. You can read more about the workshops at https://www.waterandtheword.org/workshops. The conference is filling up with limited semi-private accommodations and commuter registrations left. Private accommodations are filled. Register today to attend Water and the Word.

The resurrection of Jesus is not just a happy ending of an otherwise tragic story. The resurrection of Jesus is a new beginning, the inauguration of God’s new creation… The resurrection of Jesus is God’s future breaking into our present.

Jesus often uses the image of a seed when he is teaching about the kingdom of God. This past Sunday, he said that "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." If you think about it, it takes a lot of trust to plant a seed. We have to trust that new life will emerge; we have to trust that in God’s time, something new will come forth out of the darkness. We have to trust that in God’s time, that seed will bear fruit.

John 3:16 is arguably one of the most well-known verses in the entire Bible. But before John 3:16 is John 3:14 where Jesus says, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must be the son of man be lifted up. ” A call back to a rather bizarre story about a time when God’s people were being attacked by fiery serpents, and in the chaos of this moment, Moses lifted a pole and told everyone to look up - revealing a bronze serpent that healed them. Their source of pain becomes their source of healing.

Did you know your brain makes about 35,000 decisions every day? Many of these are almost imperceptible, and yet, they make a difference in terms of what captures your attention, how you feel, and how you spend your time. Then there are a handful of decisions that have the capacity to change your life. Decisions about your career, your family, and your relationships. But as followers of Jesus, we believe the most important decisions are those concerning our relationship with God.

In the Wilderness, a Lenten Mediation with Bishop Doug Scharf. One of the apps I have been using a lot this past year is my map app. In fact, during my first six months as your Bishop, I drove more than 17,000 miles and it was my map app that got me safely to most of those destinations. On my travels, one of the things I found most handy was if I made a wrong turn, it recalculated where I needed to go. In times of confusion, recalculating meant I had to be willing to move in a new and different direction to get me safely back on course.

"Today, on Ash Wednesday, I find myself reflecting on the image of wilderness. And in particular, the fact that God's people spend a lot of time in the wilderness. For our forebears, the wilderness was a real and physical place, but for us, the wilderness can be part of our spiritual condition. Join me for the next six weeks as we journey through our wilderness to discover who God is calling us to be." Watch every Wednesday in Lent, and together let us pioneer our path In The Wilderness. https://www.waterandtheword.org/

The Lord be with you. In this week’s #LentenReflection, we invite you to join in prayer with Bishop Doug Scharf. May God bless you always.