Lenten Devotional

Day 29 – April 7, 2025 “The Dark Night of the Soul” is something we all are likely to experience at some point in life, as did a sixteenth-century poet named Saint John of the Cross, who created the term while referring to what he felt was an “absence of God’s presence.”  He was a “Converso”, a descendant of “New Christians” who were Iberian Jewish converts to Roman Catholicism. Our Lord understands the Dark Night, for He experienced it during his forty days in the wilderness after his baptism. Even though God was seemingly absent, Jesus never lost faith.   Our longtime minister at Huntsville First United Methodist Church during the 1970s, the Reverend Doctor Bill Curl, often referred to books by the Scottish

April 6 (5th Sunday in Lent) Isaiah 43:16 – 21; John 12:1-8 Our day-to-day living is filled with highs and lows, mountains and valleys.  And some days represent an ongoing “mountain phase” in our lives when wonderful things are happening: the birth of a child in our family, a new job, a wedding or tenth or thirtieth or eightieth birthday celebration. And some days represent an ongoing “valley phase” when hard things are happening:  the death of a loved one, a serious illness, or the loss of a job or home.   The longer term phases sometimes might define our initial definition of wilderness.  But we perhaps can say that in our own lives, we may find ourselves alternating, on a

Day 28- April 5, 2025 We were married in June of 1992.  For years we watched all our friends that were married at the same time as us start their families.  During this time, we lived in Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina.   We enjoyed playing with our nieces and nephews but were sad we were not able to start our own family.  We sought help for our infertility for several years with no success.  Then I met a woman playing tennis that was cute, energetic, stylish and fun.  We hit it off immediately and she brought me into her circle of friends.   She had a baby girl that was around 6 months old.  As our friendship grew, I shared

Day 27 – April 4, 2025     When the theme of “Out of the Wilderness and Into New Life” came up, I couldn’t help but think of my biggest challenge yet: becoming a mom. Becoming a parent is an incredible journey, filled with both joy and anxiety. It’s a time of change, uncertainty, and exhaustion, and for some, these feelings can spiral into a form of anxiety that’s overwhelming. If you are in this place today, know you are not alone. God sees you, and He is with you every step of the way.          Isaiah 41:10 says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I

Day 26 – April 3, 2025 Joe Vonderheide and Jaz Pylant work with the youth of the church and had a discussion on “wilderness” with them.  Wilderness means so many different things, as we are seeing from our daily devotionals, that we felt it important to remember what that type of wilderness might mean to our students – and, how they respond to that isolation with faith.  Here are some of the statements the Student Ministry Team shared with our Lenten Devotionals crew: Wilderness often happens during times of change.  How can we face that wilderness and get through it? Conviction – trusting in God’s plan instead of trying to be in control all the time. Hope – hoping for

Day 25 – April 2, 2025 “I have commanded you to be brave and strong, haven’t I?  Do not be alarmed or terrified because the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:9 I teach kindergarten in Limestone County at Creekside Primary School. Each classroom has a Safe Defend box that is opened by the teacher’s fingerprint in case there is an intruder. The Safe Defend company comes twice a year for us to have an intruder drill to make sure all of the safety systems in place are working. There are a lot of things we do during an “intruder drill” that can be very scary to my 5 and 6-year-olds. It takes lots of reassurance