Tag Archive | Nashville Rescue Mission

Chaplain’s Corner – Loving God

Feb21

“Love the Lord With All Your Heart, Soul, and Mind.”  I don’t know about you, but I struggle a bit with this, the first and greatest commandment according to Jesus (Matthew 22:36-38).  I want to love God, I say I love God, but am I really loving God the way He wants me to?

Among all the attributes we know about God, one is that He is a God of emotion.  God he delights, and he grieves.  For example, Jeremiah says this of God in Jeremiah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”  And Psalm 78 is a description of what God has done for us in spite of our disobedience.  Verse 40 reads: “How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland!”

We are made in the image of God, and that is also why we have emotions.  We delight and we grieve.  For example, I have seven grandchildren, and I dearly love them all.  Among those grandchildren are two sets of sisters.  One set of sisters absolutely adores each other.  They look out for each other, they run to each other’s aid, they are very affectionate with each other.  To witness this makes me very happy. The other set of sisters fight like cats and dogs. They are sometimes hurtful to each other and complain about the other endlessly.  This makes me so sad to see and hear.

Consider this:  As an imperfect human, if I can love my grandchildren as much as I do, how much more does my heavenly father love them?  And even though I love them, if their actions can either delight or sadden me to such a great degree, how much more so will our heavenly father be delighted or saddened to see them act like they do?  What is the application for us?

I challenge you, during this season of Lent and forever after, to put into practice an effort to make all your actions (thoughts, words, deeds) delight God and to eliminate all actions (thoughts, words, deeds) that would make God sad. This is one important way that you and I will demonstrate that we love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, and minds.

Blessings,

Judy

Chaplain’s Corner – Lent

Feb14

Today is the beginning of Lent which represents 46 days before Easter, not counting Sundays, when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Some denominations formally observe Lent; however, most Protestant denominations do not.  We often hear people say with satisfaction, “I’m giving up thus and so for Lent.”  While fasting is a recommended spiritual discipline, Jesus says that we should fast in private: “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward<https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-Lent.html> in full.  But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen” (Matthew 6:16-18<https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Matt%206.16-18>).

The key to observing Lent is to focus on repenting of sin and consecrating oneself to God. Lent should not be a time of boasting of one’s sacrifice or trying to earn God’s favor or increasing His love. God’s love for us could not be any greater than it already is.

So should we observe Lent?  Personally, I recommend observing the Lenten season as a way to increase our focus on our daily walk with God.  But rather than eagerly waiting for Lent to be over so that we can resume our “normal” ways, hopefully during our Lenten observance we will grow to a “new normal” resulting in a stronger walk with God for the remainder of our lives.

For the last few years, and for this year once again, I will read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.  It has 40 chapters, and I read one chapter per day which takes me through most of Lent and for me is a wonderful guide, along with God’s Word, for my personal spiritual journey.

Blessings,

Judy

Chaplain’s Corner – Introduction

Feb7

After thirty plus years in the private sector, I joined Nashville Rescue Mission as their first Senior Director of Human Resources in October, 2012.  I had just turned 60 when I took the job, and planned to retire from the Mission at an appropriate age.  That appropriate age occurred this past January, but our CEO approached me with the idea of working part-time in a newly-created position of Staff Chaplain, effective January 1, 2018.  This position has been such a blessing to me; I can hardly believe my good fortune.

In February, I began writing a weekly column for the Mission, called Chaplain’s Corner, since my office at the Mission is in a tiny corner office.  This is the first one–an introduction:

I am so pleased and honored to be serving as your Chaplain. I am out of town this week, but I want you to know that I am praying for you every day. I am praying for you all generally, and I am praying for each one of you specifically if you have given me a prayer request.  Let me know how I can pray for you.

One of my “go to” verses is from Isaiah 41:10.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

This is such a personal verse. It’s like God is speaking to me. This is a verse that gives me comfort and encouragement, and I pray that this verse will comfort and encourage you.

Blessings,

Judy

Teacher’s Pet

Jan10

Good day at work.  Our “Choice” teams met in Franklin at Scarlett Leadership Center for some goal setting.  Then Norman, Glenn, and I met with the Board HR Committee Chair to review a full slate of Benefits Recommendations, in preparation for a full HR Committee Meeting on Monday.  Both events went well.  In earlier similar meetings, Glenn would brag on me and Carolyn to the rest of the assembly, kind of the halo effect–newest kids on the block, about how lucky the Mission is to have us, etc.  It’s been over a year now, and he continues to do this.  I’m so pleased that he feels this way, but it reminds me of high school when my teachers would commend me to the class and it made me wonder if the rest of the class would resent me.  In truth, I do a good job there, and I have a lot of great experience and knowledge and wisdom to offer.  However, I am indeed the lucky one to be working around so many selfless saints.  I am only being obedient and taking advantage of a God-sent opportunity.  Perhaps they are as well, but they have devoted their lives to this work to the detriment of their own physical and financial well-being, and I am just a relative new-comer.  I can’t brag on my co-workers enough.  Thank you Jesus for making the way.

Arctic Blast

Jan6

Wore long underwear today.  Took coats that a friend from church brought for the Mission.  Let a man into the shelter to wait–wasn’t supposed to let him into that particular area, but I didn’t care.  He needed to be inside, not outside, the shelter.  We fed people stranded at the bus station–another good work that NRM does when needed.  I’m finding out neat things all the time.  Nashville Rescue Mission is on the news every night because our staff and volunteers go out and try to get people to come in off the park bench and doorway to get a warm bed and hot meal.

I meant to follow up with another friend whose son is in jail for a DUI, but forgot because I called Dad first, only to find that their furnace is going out–on a night when it’s supposed to drop to zero!  I went over there, thinking that I would take them home with me, but Mom was already in bed and Dad had heaters going and was manually keeping the furnace going so it was actually in the mid-60’s.  He didn’t want to move her.  Then the next door neighbor came over to check on them which also made me feel better.

So I went home and worked on a Bible Study for tomorrow, using content from the sermon on Sunday.  I also worked on my annual jig saw puzzle.