Reminders

After my old one quit working, a week or so ago Fed Ex delivered my new Fitbit. Not only does it tell time and remind me of the date. It also displays my pulse rate and tracks how many steps I take each day and how many calories I burn and how much I exercise. Whether it has to do with my compulsive behavior or my competitiveness or some combination of both, I like it. I find it a helpful tool to remind me to exercise and to walk my 10,000 steps each day. But my new Fitbit has one other feature which my old Fitbit did not. Each hour it reminds me to get up and to walk at least 250 steps. When I have sat for too long, my Fitbit vibrates and a little figure appears on the screen asking me to take it for a walk. I appreciate the reminder because without it I would too easily forget. Or become distracted. Or sometimes just get lazy.

In whatever way you do…
Fitbit.
Lists.
Pictures.
Scrapbooks.
Momentos.
We build reminders into our lives to keep us in touch with what is important.
The question for this morning is what are those reminders you build into your day and into your week and into homes to remind you of or to reconnect you to God?

A couple years ago, a young man who grew up in this congregation and who now works in underdeveloped and developing countries around the world through an international economic development organization sent me an email from Somaliland where he was working for several months. The community in which he was living and working was predominantly Muslim. He wrote to tell me about his experience with the Muslim practice of praying five times a day. When the call to prayer sounded from the mosque, no matter what they were in the middle of, all work would stop and his Muslim colleagues would gather, turn towards Mecca and join in the obligatory prayer. Rather than being put off by the fact that what they were talking about or working on came to a screeching halt, he found those moments renewing. While he did not join in the Muslim prayers, he grew to appreciate the reminder to pause and to take those few minutes to meditate and to pray and to pay attention to that inner part of his life.

The scripture reading for this morning from Deuteronomy tells of a similar reminder.
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.”
This verse…
This affirmation of faith…
Stands at the very center of the Jewish faith.
For many Jews, this verse is written on a piece of paper, rolled up and place in a mezuzah and attached to the door or the gate or strapped to an arm. A concrete reminder of who they were and how they were called to live which they would see each time they entered or left their homes or each time they touched their arm.

Which brings me back to you and me.
While it was never really enough, because we were Christian and Christian in this country and because most of the culture around us called itself Christian, the assumption became that attending worship once a week or once a month or, for some, once or twice a year was enough.
Cultural Christianity may work that way and get by with that, but…
If you believe faith calls you to something more…
If you believe that a relationship with the Holy goes deeper than that…
If you believe things like gratitude and seeing others as neighbor need nurtured and supported and practiced…
Then, how do you do that?
What are those reminders you structure into your life which, if even for a moment, pull you…
Out of the routine of the day,
Out of the tasks that just have to be done,
Out of the tension of the situation in which you find yourself
And open your eyes and mind and heart to that Something Else? That Something More?
Open your eyes and your mind and your heart to who you are and how you are called to live?

What about something like this?

Maybe before you check your email or check in on Facebook or read the morning paper you read a verse from the Bible and take a moment to be quiet or read some type of devotional guide which helps you orient or reorient your life and your day.

Or, maybe you begin your lunch break or begin dinner by taking a few moments to remember the gift of food and those who do not have enough.

Or, maybe you sent the alarm on your phone to vibrate two or three times a day and when it does for you to stop what you are doing and to say thank you for two or three things.

Or, maybe you try to learn to pray constantly (see 1 Thessalonians 5).
Pick a Bible verse – “God’s steadfast love endures forever…” or “Remember, I am with you always…” Or a simple phrase like – “Be with me God.” And, practice saying it over and over again until it is just there in every moment of your day.

Or, maybe each day you take a moment and sit with your children and each of you write down two things you were thankful for that day. Put the scraps of paper in a jar on the table where you eat meals together. Then sometime during the week you take turns pulling out what was written and reading it to each other.

Maybe when you go grocery shopping or buy school supplies or buy new clothes you purposefully buy something for someone else. Those who don’t have enough food. Or don’t have a notebook for school. Or seldom, if ever, get new clothes. And, don’t just do it, but remind each other why you do it.

So, what do you do…
What reminders do you or will you put in place…
So your days look different?
So your home looks different?
So your eyes see new things?
What will you do so your hearts take a new shape
Each day closer to the image of the heart of God?