Sunday, March 8th

The following is another selection from the HRC:

Rivers of Living Water

Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water – John 7:38

“We all live in a watershed.”

This sentence on the riverwalk plaque caught my attention. More than tourist information, it is spiritual wisdom to ponder.

We are indeed bound together in the flowing river of God’s creativity, love and purpose.

Rivers are alive and interconnected with the natural world through which they move, collecting water from higher elevations and rising tides. If one portion is tamed a bit by dams or levees, chaos is created in other portions of river country. Every part is inextricably connected with the whole.

So it is in our shared life in the human family. We are called to a posture of wonder and care, of love and mercy. It is the divine intent that graceful living water flows through all people and all creation.

This morning prayer catches the rhythm of God’s flowing purpose: New every day is your love, Great God of Light, and all day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up in us desire to serve you, to live peacefully with our neighbors and all creation, and to devote this day to your service. Amen.

In this season of Lent, we open our hearts and lives and our churches and spaces to every person. We lay down the lessons of exclusion, rejection and judgment taught by our culture. We live differently, called to trust the power of mercy, grace and justice. We affirm the goodness of God’s creative intent and embrace LGBTQIA+ persons as our brothers and sisters, wonderfully made by God. We work for a world free of discrimination. We marvel and engage the flowing river of God’s compassionate purpose.

May our faith and hope increase, flowing in the power of living water, God’s good gift.

Hope Morgan Ward
Bishop, North Carolina Conference
United Methodist Church