Reflections for June 28

The sermon last week had to do with the Power of Companionship, forgiveness and self-worth, God’s presence and guidance, and building relationships as we live with God. The scripture from Ecclesiastes had the theme “two are better than one”. It is important to have teamwork, reliable friends, and being part of a community of faith. We are here for each other. The scripture from Psalms emphasized that God forgives our sins, and we don’t need to hold onto them. Some people at the end of their life worry about their sins and hang onto that. We are encouraged to embrace the idea that God is there for us, and we have worth with Him. We are safe with God. Another key point was how God speaks to us through sermons. It is the voice of God, not Geoff. God knows what we need. We can listen to others since they give us feedback. We need to get other people’s feedback sometimes as we are sorting through what to do or how to do it. When I was teaching Economics and Statistics at the University of San Diego, I was fortunate to have class sizes of 30 to 40 students. I would lecture on some topics and then have the students work in groups to discuss the topics. They would apply the concepts to real life examples. This helped them hear from others or question what they didn’t understand. Students would post answers for their group on the white boards so everyone could see the answers. Then I would work through the posted answers and talk about their examples. It really helped them to hear from others and work through how the ideas could be put into practice. I thought of this as Geoff was preaching since it brought together teamwork, applying a variety of ideas (some of which we had not thought about before), and being part of a community working and learning together. Again, we are here for each other. Reflections from Deborah Kelly. Share your reflections with deborah@rbcommunity.org and let me know your thoughts.