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First United Methodist Church |
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Open Hearts * Open Minds * Open Doors |
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First UMC
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Visitation Pastor News!! Something To Chew On.............. from Pastor Shari My
mother loves to try new recipes – it was evident when she moved from her house
to “The Cedars.” Much of her
packing time was spent going through her recipe drawers – yes,
drawers. On Sunday she invited us over to try a new salad which
contained all sorts of wild things; wheat
berries, apricots, cranberries, ginger ale…. The first bite
was “interesting.” My sister and I looked at each other as we chewed
and chewed and chewed. We knew something wasn’t quite right. After
looking at the recipe, we learned that it called for pumpkin kernels rather than
the entire pumpkin seed. After
separating the seeds from the salad, it was very tasty. I
have been reading “Listening & Caring Skills” by John Savage, United
Methodist minister. In this book, he writes about the necessity of chewing
things over. When listening to one another, it is
important to remember that words represent 7% of the communication, tone of voice represents 38% of the communication, and body language 55% of the total communication process. Too
often we only hear the words that are being said. Just think about the
miscommunication possibilities when a sentence begins “She said….or He
said.” In second hand conversations, we
completely miss the tone and the body language – misunderstandings
happen – hearts are broken. This
is also important to remember when we are reading Scripture. Throughout
generations, the words of Scripture have brought healing and hope – and the
words of Scripture have brought destruction
and darkness. For example, Scripture where Jesus speaks of separating the
wheat from the chaff or the sheep from the goats – hope or darkness?
What is the tone of Jesus’ voice? What is the body language of Jesus as
he is teaching? We need to chew on that. For
me, I hear the tone of compassion and I see the body language of Jesus on his
knees carefully removing the chaff and the goats within me – correcting the
recipe of my heart. Throughout
our lives, there are times we forget to follow the recipe – or we don’t even
look at the recipe. We talk when we should listen. We choose revenge
over forgiveness; hate over kindness. We chew on this life for a while and
we know something isn’t right – something is missing. We chew and chew
and chew, and then we remember God. We pause, we pray, we go back to the
recipe of healing, hope, forgiveness, kindness - and once again, life is tasty. Blessings on the journey, Pastor Shari
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