I’ve got a bone to pick with you, Annie. Of course I love Annie. Who wouldn’t love her frizzy-red hair, shining eyes, and her sunny optimism in the face of her life’s cruel disappointments? Even a hardened millionaire and the President of the United States joined her for the moving anthem, “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow.” There was not a dry eye in the Oval Office. There is one problem, Annie: you’re fictional. And your advice doesn’t always hold.

Have you ever made a jigsaw puzzle? When you first start out, you’re wondering how in the world all of these pieces will fit together to look like the picture on the box. And be honest, don’t you secretly worry until you place the last piece that one might be missing, that somehow someone left out the last piece or someone lost it? As you come down to the finale placements, you’re trying to visualize just how the last ones fit together, to see if the picture before you will actually match the one advertised. Do you find yourself distracted as your attention drifts from the task at hand? Maybe a piece doesn’t fit just as you thought it would, or a piece that you were sure would fit in the corner suddenly proves to be vital for another area of the puzzle.

Seems to me, we somehow think the box, which is quite real, i.e. the one with only X number of breaths for any of us, is really real, will last forever, but another part of us, somewhere deep down, knows it won’t. Yet we paint it, decorate it, treat it, as if it will, with our cheers or tears for ourselves, others, and the world. And well we should on the one hand, but there is the other hand.

Prayer is foundational to our life with God. Talking to God about our world, our friends, families and ourselves begins the conversation. Listening to God about our world, our friends, families and ourselves moves the conversation forward. Whether you have prayed for a lifetime or only occasionally, we hope you will join us this Fall for our church-wide study. The only thing Jesus' friends ever asked him to teach them was how to pray.

Believe it: There once was a day when breaths were not numbered. When there was no lid on the box, or even four walls for that matter. So where did the box come from you ask, and our X number of inhales and exhales originate? Listen and look.

Part One: "I don't get it." What I don’t get is why people--other people of course-- don’t get it. Think about it. It’s as if each of us lives inside a box. A big box for sure; some bigger, I suppose, some smaller, some taller and some shorter, but a box with a lid, and thus a limited amount of air. And so we only have so many breaths.

Circumstances change from time to time. In fact, our situation and circumstances seem to change all the time. Some changes are big, some more modest. Your toothpaste, your address, your insurance company, your hairstyle, your last name, your favorite tv show, your surprising job assignment, your child’s least favorite school subject, your newest passion, your latest disappointment. The list goes on and on because life goes on and on.

Dear Friends at New Covenant, Sometimes a song says it all, sometimes not. I was recently listening to Dionne Warwick sing the 1966 hit, “What’s it all about Alfie?”

Be careful, then, how you live-- not as unwise but as wise... Ephesians 5:15 Earlier, in the verses from Sunday’s epistle, St. Paul gives us some advice on how to live: “… put off falsehood and speak truthfully … Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice … Be kind and compassionate, forgiving each other…Be imitators of God, … and live a life of love …” Does it matter? Does it really make a difference how we live? And if so, to what does it matter? I mean, what’s at stake? And what about when we miss the mark? What then?

Should that title have a question mark after it, or will you allow me to assume that sometimes God will intentionally allow us to fail in order for us to realize our dependence on Him, to show us we are creatures and He is creator? This week, several of the glass balls that I try to keep spinning have dropped to the floor.