Seminar Next Saturday
“You know that the antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest? … The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness.“
– David Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity
Join us next Saturday at The Impact Guild for a chance to practice wholeheartedness, which as it turns out, is deeply connected to one of The Park’s core values: Presence. Presence with God, presence to yourself, and presence with one another. Join in on a conversation around how we can maintain a constant connection to God’s presence in the ordinary, mundane tasks of our every day life. During our time together, you will be given the opportunity to practice centering prayer with God and savor some time with Him. We will also give you some tools to cultivate a life that is conducive to walking closely with God. Whether you’re feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, or if your life just feels busy, boring, or fast-paced, come collect some tools to prevent disconnect and burn out. Breakfast and coffee will be served at 8:30 AM and our conversation will begin at 9:00 AM. Come soak up all that God has to give to you on this beautiful, ordinary Saturday morning. We look forward to our time together! Click here to register.
If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer…
If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire (says the Lord)
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!
Poem by Shel Silverstein
WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL: I AM
Who is this I Am? The Bible has given us many ideas about who God is. For example, He is called, I am the Lord, I am God Almighty, I am the God of your Fathers, I am the bread of life, the light of the world, the gate, the good shepherd, the true vine and I am the way and the truth and the life. Yet here we are 2000 years later still asking the question….Who is this God Almighty? Perhaps that is why He called himself the I AM leaving the door open for us to discover Him for ourselves and the only way to do that is to truly spend time in His presence and let Him show you who He is. Scripture tells us that we are His image bearers.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. ~Genesis 1:27
But even this is confusing when you look around and see so many different people.
I have a friend who decided a few years ago that she would take a year and study the character of God, the Father, by scripture reading, prayer and then by quietly sitting at His feet daily waiting for Him to speak. She would then journal what He revealed to her. When the year was up, she moved on to Jesus, the son, and the year after that the Holy Spirit (Spiritus). She did not rush the journey. She allowed it to progress as God directed. What she found was that she had always kept the Trinity at arms-length. She gradually learned to relax in the presence of the I AM and learned how deeply she was loved and could then turn and freely love others. She also learned how to be fully present in her earthly life just as God is. She now understands completely what Psalm 84:10 means, better is one day in your courts that a thousand elsewhere. She learned that that “court” can be found anywhere if we just focus on being fully present to our Creator. If we wait on Him, He will always come and meet with us.
Prayer
Great I AM, help us to get to know you better. We long to feel your presence in our everyday life. Forgive us that we have perhaps pursued the easy route in getting to know you. We allowed others to tell us who you are. Teach us to sit fully present and your feet and wait for you to speak. Help us not to be easily discouraged in this process for we know you are our everything and that you have things you need us to do. Here we are Abba, patiently waiting on you.
Amen
Upcoming February Events
15th // Practicing Presence Seminar
26th // Ash Wednesday
28th-29th // IF: Women’s Conference
IF: Women’s Simulcast Conference
At the IF: Women’s Conference, we will gather on the evening of Friday February 28 and Saturday morning and afternoon on the 29th at Alamo Heights Baptist Church. Registration is $50, which includes dinner on Friday, a light breakfast and lunch on Saturday and snacks throughout! We will watch a simulcast of IF speakers, worship together, and enjoy yummy meals with one another! If you register by this Sunday, you’ll receive a T-shirt! Feel free to contact Terri at terri@theparksa.org if you have any questions. To sign up you can click here.
Missional Partner Highlight: Foster & Adopt Ministry
The month of February is the “Month of Love.” As such, we’re inviting you to volunteer to send “love” notes of prayer and encouragement to foster families in San Antonio. We had an incredible response last year, so we are looking forward to doing so again. You can sign up to send a note by clicking here. You can email the Foster/Adopt Ministry team at fosteradopt@theparksa.org with any questions or for other volunteer opportunities.
Men’s Monthly Prayer Nights
The men’s prayer group for Midtown meets on the third Thursday of the month and the Mac Terrace group meets on the third Friday of the month. These are parish specific prayer meetings. To receive more information from a parish pastor, you can click here.