{"id":101365,"date":"2024-04-28T07:44:33","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T11:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?p=101365"},"modified":"2024-04-28T07:44:33","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T11:44:33","slug":"a-pastors-thoughts-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/28\/a-pastors-thoughts-10\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pastor\u2019s Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">By Rev. Nancy Adams, Owego United Methodist Church &#8212;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Here is an excerpt from a story called \u201cThe City of Everywhere\u201d by Hugh Price Hughes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">He arrived in that city one cold morning. As he got off the train, the station was like any other station with the crowds except that everybody was barefooted. They wore no shoes. He noticed the cab driver was barefooted. \u201cPardon me,\u201d he asked the driver, \u201cI was just wondering why you don\u2019t wear shoes. Don\u2019t you believe in shoes?\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cSure we do,\u201d said the driver. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you wear them,\u201d asked the man. The driver replied, \u201cAh, that\u2019s the question. Why don\u2019t we wear shoes? Why don\u2019t we?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">At the hotel it was the same. The clerk, [bellhops], everybody was barefooted. In the coffee shop he noticed a man at a table opposite him who also was barefooted. He said, \u201cI notice you aren\u2019t wearing shoes. I wonder why. Don\u2019t you know about shoes?\u201d the man replied, \u201cOf course I know about shoes.\u201d \u201cThen why don\u2019t you wear them?\u201d \u201cAh, that\u2019s the question,\u201d said the man, \u201cwhy don\u2019t we?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">After breakfast the man walked out on the street in the snow, but every person he saw was barefooted. He asked another man about it and&nbsp;pointed out how shoes protect feet from the cold. The man said, \u201cWe know about shoes.\u201d \u201cSee that building over there? That is a shoe manufacturing plant and every week we gather there to hear the man in charge tell us about shoes and how wonderful they are.\u201d \u201cThen why don\u2019t you wear shoes?\u201d The man replied, \u201cAh, that is the question.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Relaying this story in his book, \u201cWhat\u2019s it all About\u201d, Dr. Robert Goodrich, Jr.,&nbsp;adds, \u201cDon\u2019t we believe in prayer? Don\u2019t we know what it could mean to our lives?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cOf course we do; we know about prayer. Then why don\u2019t we pray? Ah, that\u2019s the question. Why don\u2019t we pray? Why don\u2019t we?\u201d (Charles Allen quoted all of the above in his book, \u201cAll Things Are Possible Through Prayer\u201d.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Sometimes our tendency might be to pray when things go wrong, and sometimes we pray by rote. Every week during worship we pray the Lord\u2019s Prayer. Do we mean those words, or are we just on \u201cautomatic pilot,\u201d not really thinking about what we are praying?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Prayer is conversation: 2-way communication with god. Listening to God is the often-overlooked aspect of prayer. How do we hear what God is saying to us?&nbsp;&nbsp;Sometimes it\u2019s a new insight that comes directly from listening in prayer. Or sometimes God will speak through a passage of scripture, or through the words of a Christian song, or through the counsel of a trusted friend. How is it for you?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Marvin Hinten wrote a book called \u201cGod is not a Vending Machine.\u201d \u201cOkay God, I want this, this, this, and this. Amen.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">No. God is not a divine Santa Claus, there to give us whatever we want. I don\u2019t know how it is for you, but all too often I forget to say, \u201cOh, by the way, God, what can I do for you,\u201d and then stick around to listen to his response.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">God loves us and wants the best for us, but that doesn\u2019t mean we will receive everything we ask for. Do things happen that I don\u2019t understand? You better believe it. Why? I don\u2019t know. Is everything that happens God\u2019s will? No. No. No. God gets blamed for a lot of stuff God doesn\u2019t do.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Prayer is not just telling God what\u2019s on our minds. The goal is intimate union with the mind, heart, and will of God. Frederick Buechner wrote this about prayer in his book, \u201cWishful Thinking\u201d.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWe should keep on beating a path to God\u2019s door because one thing you can be sure of is that down the path you beat with even your most half-cocked and halting prayer, the God you call upon will finally come, and even if he does not bring you the answer you want, he will bring you himself, and maybe at the secret heart of all our prayers, that is what we are really praying for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Rev. Nancy Adams, Owego United Methodist Church &#8212; Here is an excerpt from a story called \u201cThe City of Everywhere\u201d by Hugh Price Hughes&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":101366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Pastor\u2019s Thoughts - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/28\/a-pastors-thoughts-10\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Pastor\u2019s Thoughts - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Rev. 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