Rules for Life

Reflections from Bro. Rudy –

Rules for Life

Kenny Baskins is the pastor at Arab First United Methodist
Church. In his January Newsletter he
shared an article that had been written by Lowell Grisham about a Rule for
Life. Grisham wrote:

One of the church’s ancient traditions
is a Rule for Life. A Rule for Life is
the spiritual counterpoint to a physical exercise plan created by a personal
fitness trainer. Many people will go to
a Spiritual Director for some help in devising a Rule of Life. Most just make some resolutions and promises
to themselves and start trying to live into their better intentions.

At our church we invite everyone to
live in a five-part corporate Rule of Life: Worship Weekly, Pray Daily, Learn
Constantly, Serve Joyfully, and Live Generously.

Their five-part Rule of Life sounds a lot like the vows we
made when we joined the church. We made
a promise to be loyal to the church and uphold it with our prayers, presences,
gifts, service and witness.

Kenny Baskin’s offered this five-part corporate Rule of Life
worthy resolution to help believers live a more balanced and meaningful
life. He then offered a short reflection
on each of the five parts:

Worship Weekly. Making
regular time to feed your soul, for it is critical to our emotional
balance.

Pray Daily. Some form of
daily recollection is incredibly valuable.
It is good to begin the day with some intention that reminds you of your
deepest values, your identity and calling.
It is helpful to reflect on the past day and to honor it with
thanksgiving and with intentions to make amends tomorrow wherever you can. In a real sense, to pray is to remember.

Learn Constantly. Education
is life long. It’s great to have a book
in progress and a subscription to some interesting magazine. (And I would add, to have a Bible Study
plan.)

Serve Joyfully. We all need
to have an outlet for offering ourselves to something beyond jour
self-interest. Researchers have found a
remarkable correlation between happiness and lives of service. It is deeply satisfying to find some need
that moves your heart, and then to discover a way to do something to contribute
to that need.

Live Generously. The old
words, “the best way to gain your life is to lost it,” is still true
today. Generosity is the antidote to the
soul-shrinking temptation of self-centeredness and greed.

Those five practices will provide us a good base for growing
“in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter
3:18; NRSV)

Tonight begins our winter session of Wednesday Grow. There are many opportunities to help us “Learn Constantly.” If you have not signed up for a Grow Class, come and find a place.
Children’s Choir and Youth Worship also begin anew tonight.

First Connection
Training is this Sunday. All Church
Leaders are encouraged to come and learn how this Body of Christ seeks to
connect persons to Jesus Christ and His Body and grow disciples to serve like
Jesus. Don’t forget to make your meal
and child-care reservations. You can
email Rachel Hodges to make your reservations:
rhodges@gmvumc.org

I have begun a four week look at The Lord’s Prayer on Sunday
night. Come and join us for worship at
6:30.

As always, your responses to these
Reflections are welcome. You can
email me at rguess@gmvumc.org.