Good Morning!

Thanksgiving is over – the last of the pumpkin pie is gone and Christmas wreaths are replacing the pumpkins and mums on our porches. The church is beautifully decorated and we are quickly getting in the Christmas spirit. But like everything else, the Christmas spirit can be deceiving. So we all need to be cautious of how we spend it.

We could spend our time and energy on buying and impressing and working overtime in the kitchen. We could accept every invitation and exhaust ourselves with an overbooked calendar. We could fill every day with activities and cooking and wrapping gifts. Those are all good things. But, have you noticed that too much of a good thing turns out to take your joy away rather than add to it?

And joy is the goal of Christmas……. not to miss one tiny second of the miracle of the birth of Christ is the goal. And a beautiful goal it is!

More →

Good Morning!

When I was a kid I never liked it when at Thanksgiving, before we got to dig into the cornbread dressing and the sweet potato casserole and the turkey and cranberry sauce, we had to take a minute to go around the family circle and say what we were thankful for. It took some thinking on your feet, especially when they said, “now, don’t just say my family. Or my friends. Or my dog.” I must admit that those, along with my latest doll or stuffed animal were my standbys. Thinking any more deeply about my level of gratitude was always a challenge.

If I could go back now, and stand around that table, I know what I would say. I would say,  “I am grateful for my mother’s blue eyes that look at me and teach me what love is. I am grateful for this little house that keeps me safe and warm on a cold winter night. I am grateful for my friend the crow that wakes me up every morning and reminds me that his too is the voice of God.  I am thankful for all the scary times in life when I must pull up all my courage so that I can learn what it means to be fully me. I am thankful for each tomorrow because I know that God is there waiting.”

More →

Hello Whitesburg UMC,

I hope everyone is well and enjoying this beautiful fall week. This is such a wonderful time of year. Fall marks the beginning of something…… A new crispness to the air. A new feeling in our hearts. Even as the leaves fall off the trees faster than we can count (or rake), we can also be sure that in a few short months, God’s miracle will come and the leaves will renew themselves once again.

Has it ever been any different? Need we worry?

Of course we needn’t worry. Jesus told us that long ago: Don’t be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor your body or what you shall put on.  Don’t be anxious for tomorrow. It won’t add a single hour to your life.    Instead, Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose help is in the Lord.

More →

Hello Everyone!

I know it is only Tuesday and already I’m talking about Sunday….. but it is coming. Jim and I are leaving tomorrow for an annual mountain trip with some friends. We won’t be back until Saturday, and I wanted you to hear from me before that.

Today is election day. And we are all at different states of unease. Every now and then I go upstairs and look out the kitchen window at the library (which is a voting place). The cars have been trickling in and out all day. I am so thankful for those volunteers over there and the volunteers at thousands of other voting places around the country.

I think we are all looking forward to it being over! And it will. We will soon be able to breathe. We will soon know who our next president will be. But it’s hard. The waiting is hard. Because we are a pretty divided nation about this one. We’re a little touchy about this one. We just aren’t sure. We are saying things like – “I’ve done all I can do –  now it’s all up to Jesus!!!”

More →

Hey Everyone!

Hope y’all survived All Hallow’s Eve yesterday………. and are basking in the light of All Saints Day today! They say Halloween is the most popular holiday after Christmas – that every year, even more money is spent on costumes and decorations and candy and horror movies and parties and booze. We like scary things. We like to wonder about things we cannot know, places we cannot go. We like to stick our toe over the line……………..  but not too far. When I was a kid in Bowdon, there was this empty space underneath the bleachers in the gym. That was where the haunted house was set up every year for the Halloween carnival. I remember it to this day – they told me I was going to feel someone’s brains. It was dark. I was already completely unhinged. And now my hand was in someone’s smashed open head. Some part of me said, “wait a minute…….brains don’t feel like spaghetti!” But that thought left in a hurry – and so did I! The light had never been so beautiful!

More →

Good Morning, Church!

Hope you are all well and have plans for a wonderful day! I imagine all of us are thinking about the upcoming Presidential election that will take place in just a few days. It will be a relief when it is over and all those terrible ads are off the air! Good grief! They are a mess!

Jim and I voted this last week – and it was wonderful to see so many people there. And, while I would never tell you who to vote for, I do want to encourage you to vote. It is our greatest privilege as citizens of our country. If you are one of those people who are saying – I don’t like him – I don’t like her, so I’m just not gonna’ vote for either of them…. If you are one of those people, I want to encourage you to reconsider. Think of it this way – you will not be voting for a person. You will be voting for your beliefs about our country. More →

Good Afternoon!

Last Sunday was Pastor Appreciation Sunday at Whitesburg….. and I want to say THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! It touched Jim and me so deeply to see your love displayed there on the altar. Each gift represented in its own unique way the sweet journey that God has provided for us. And how lucky we are that he has allowed us to walk this part of it together! It is a real joy for us to be at Whitesburg. And we are grateful for you and your love.  Thank you for your patience and your humor and your acceptance and your understanding and your forgiveness and your willingness to take a chance on an old lady preacher! I am blessed!

This Sunday is Stewardship Sunday, and we will have the chance to offer our thanksgiving to God for all he has given. And, Lord knows, he has blessed us in so many ways. But here is something to remember about that: in the blessing comes call. As he blesses us, he calls us. Our scripture for Sunday concludes with this: “….whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give his life a ransom for many.”

More →

Good Friday Evening!

Jim and I have been home for a few days now, and I want you to know that I am ready to see you all!!  We had a great time – it was one of those vacations when we did exactly what we wanted – which day by day seemed to be a little more of nothing……. And it was wonderful! But this afternoon…………. when Jim and I were sitting in 5:00 PM traffic on the downtown connector, we both wished it were still vacation time! But all is well……….. and Sunday is comin’!

The scripture lesson is Mark 9:38-50, full of that delightfully confusing Jesus talk that Mark loves to share. Beth Destasio will be reading it for us, and I will be trying to glean some little bits of truth and wisdom that might help us through the week. Hope you will be there! The music will be great! And the fellowship in worship even better.

More →

Hello Church!

Tucked into the section of the United Methodist Hymnal called Strength in Tribulation, between page 511 (Am I a Soldier of the Cross) and page 513 (Soldiers of Christ, Arise) is what has become one of my favorite hymns, Stand By Me, written in 1906 by Charles Albert Tindley. It’s based on those gospel stories about Jesus calming the wind and walking on the water.

When the storms of life are raging, stand by me (stand by me).

When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea,

Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me.

  More →

Good Saturday Morning!

Early this morning (a little after 7) over 100 people were running down the street past our house. Jim and I knew they were coming. We were sitting on the porch waiting for them. We waved. But they didn’t stop in for coffee. They just kept on running. It was a half marathon that the city had been planning for weeks. A half marathon is a 13.1-mile race. People sign up months in advance to be a part. It was fun to watch them. There were some kids in wheelchairs being pushed by their parents. There were some who would walk and little and run a little. There were some who just walked. And of course, there were the competitors, the ones who were aiming to be first, the ones who were “in it to win it”. Some were laughing and talking with others. Some were determined, looking straight ahead, preserving their energy.  Some had faces filled with confidence; some not so much!

More →

Good Thursday afternoon!

Hope you are well on this rainy day! I know the grass is – and the trees and the flowers and the birds and insects and the animals – and us too! Our prayers are with all those who are experiencing flooding and storms…… but, at the same time, what a nice thing to hear the rain on the roof!

So, Sunday IS comin’. But Saturday comes first. And I am so excited about our planning retreat. As you know, it is from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM at Jim and my house.

More →

A good Friday afternoon to everyone!

It’s a beautiful day – cool and overcast and breezy. It’s almost a perfect day…… I’m still praying it’s going to rain!  That would make it perfect!

Perfect as far as the weather goes. I don’t think any of us have felt this week that anything is perfect. When I heard about the school shooting in Winder I immediately thought of a couple in my church in Pine Mountain. About three years before Jim and I got there, they lost their son to a school shooting. Jamie was a professor at Virginia Tech – a brilliant, kind, funny, sweet boy who grew into a wonderful man who was there one day and gone the next. His parents were devastated. And every time they hear about yet another life lost to gun violence, their grief is multiplied over and over. There have been 416 school shootings since Columbine. The shooting at Apalachee in Winder was the 23^rd in 2024.

More →

Hello Everyone!

It’s Friday….. but Sunday’s comin’!! And this Sunday is our “get back to normal Sunday”. It’s been a great, great summer, a fun and spiritual campmeeting summer. A Pentecost summer! Now with September comes our (little bit) more formal service. We will be visiting the book of Mark this fall, learning what Mark must teach us about the life and teachings of Jesus. And we will challenge ourselves to keep on growing toward Christ, in all we do and all we say – even in all we think! It’s gonna’ be a great fall!

More →

Good Friday Afternoon!

Well, we have officially made it through our Campmeeting Summer!   I have loved it! I hope you have too!  Great gospel music from The Walkers, the informal services, the music, the Bingo and cornhole, the patriotic Sunday, the guest speakers, the WACUM Sunday, the movie night, the walk through the first part of Acts as we looked at the early church. It was all great! And I think we enjoyed each other’s company and that we honored God in some exciting ways.

But wait, there is more! (Sounds like an infomercial, doesn’t it?)  

More →

Happy Friday!

Didn’t we have a great Homecoming Sunday last week…. that August rite of passage in the church! 

But before we can turn around, it’s going to be September! Little bits of crisp air and apples and new school clothes….. and FOOTBALL!!!  I love fall, always have. It is the season when I was born into this world. It always brings back wonderful childhood memories. And I still love it……….. even though around the church it means meetings and paperwork and reports that must get done.

More →

Good Morning

Hope everyone is well and having a wonderful Wednesday! I heard somewhere that we are as happy as we allow ourselves to be! Here’s an example.  Jim left this morning before daylight to go to Montgomery. He called me at 7 to share with me that he had seen the most amazing sunrise in his rear view mirror. He said the sun was RED! And it made him realize that no matter what……. This is a beautiful world! And all is well!  He made me smile!!  Like I said, we are about as happy as we allow ourselves to be!

Love you all!

Rev. Martha