Buckets of Faith

Guiding Prayer For Our Season of Fasting: 

Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom,the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Myself in Truth

Holy God help me to want less and experience you more.  Amen.

Nurtured and Nurturing 

Jesus grant our families peace and patience with one another so that your holy spirit might feel welcomed in our homes and lives. Amen

The Gathered

Holy, Holy, Holy God, may we see the holiness of you in one another today. Amen

Challenge

Today your challenge is to take time to love others as Christ has loved you so that the sacred and the everyday might meet in our lives.

17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” 18 He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19 See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:17-20

Every night before bedtime, Jozie asks for the bucket book.  It's actually called " Have You Filled a Bucket Today" by Carol Mcloed. Most people have heard of it, and even at Boone Trail School, they have signs in the halls asking children "Have you filled a bucket today?".  

A bucket filler is a person who, through acts of loving kindness, creates positivity and happiness in the lives of others.  By filling other people's invisible buckets with joy, you are also filling your own bucket with goodness and love. But sometimes people try to fill their bucket by dipping from others buckets. They dip by making fun of others, bullying and gossip.  This never works.  It just leaves two people with empty buckets and bad feelings.

As I am reading this to Jozie last night, I asked her "Jozie who would want you to be a bucket filler?"  "Mimi!" (my mother) she said. "Yes, Mimi would! And who else would want you to fill buckets?" I asked.  "Jesus!" Jozie replied. That's right!  Why does Jesus want us to fill buckets? I asked.  "Because God loved us and sent his Son" said Jozie quoting one of her Cubbies verses from Awana.  I thought about that.  Not the answer I was expecting. Did it fit the scenario?  I guess it did.  God loved us and sent his son and we are called to show his love to others out of gratitude for the saving love we have been shown.  Jozie probably wasn't thinking about it that deeply.  Her answer was probably more of a "Hail Mary" so I'd stop asking questions, but the truth remains: God loved us and calls us to love one another. 

Even before the "Hail Mary", what was taking place between Jozie and I was a sacred moment. A time when we were focused on one another and completely still.  There was no rushing, just she and I and this sweet book...and the Holy Spirit showed up.

Sacred moments don't have to revolve around scripture. They happen all the time if we pay attention. They happen in the moments when we live out scripture with one another by slowing down enough to engage positively in one another's lives.  Every bucket filling moment is a sacred one.

When the disciples returned to Jesus after being sent out, they were bubbling with excitement over the miracles that they had performed in the name of Jesus.  They had experienced encounters with people where they had been able to heal and even cast out demons in Jesus' name. They didn't do it to fill an  imaginary bucket, but simply did what Christ had told them to.  If bucket imagery helps you then go for it, but basically, when we recognize the good in others, and attempt good things in God's name we are getting closer to what the Kingdom of God is all about.  

Christ rejoiced with them and he will rejoice with us when we allow room for the Holy Spirit to join us, as together the sacred and everyday life meet.