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United Methodists are responding to Kairos Palestine: A Moment of Truth ,a statement of faith and urgent call to action from Christians in Palestine. UMKR seeks, through nonviolent means and in partnership with Palestinian Christians, freedom, justice and equality for all Palestinians and Israelis.
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• PRAYERS
The difficulties are real. You are not alone!
Lenora Rousseau • Florida Conference, UMC
"Give your entire attention to what
God is doing right now, and don't get
worked up about what may or may not
happen tomorrow. God will help you
deal with whatever hard things
come up when the time comes."
(Matthew 6:34, The Message)
As many of us are isolated from family and friends during the COVID-19 pandemic, the difficulties of tending to our well-being are real. If you are struggling to find a sustainable rhythm or sense of balance, know that you are not alone.
Nothing is normal now. That includes buying groceries, finding toilet paper, working (or not working), educating our children, gathering in our faith communities online, and tending to our self-care. It is perfectly human and normal to sense the strain.
One of the best ways to navigate these turbulent times with compassion and grace for ourselves and others is to allow our expectations to become more fluid.
.................
One of the best ways we can develop more fluid expectations is through the practice of mindfulness. Taking just a few minutes a day to be mindful of your breath or any other focal point can dramatically increase your capacity to be awake and present to the other moments of your day.
Your capacity to perceive and respond
positively to God expands. Here are just a
few ideas for how you might consider cultivating mindfulness:
READ MORE
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Self-Care and Boundaries During These Times
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (GCSRW), United Methodist Church
None of us were prepared for a worldwide pandemic.
Our lives are different in many ways. Our workplace, whether inside or outside the home, has changed. The uncertainty of the COVID-19 virus and subsequent loss of life may have invited you to pause, reflect, and look life in the eye. In doing so, perhaps you understand better who and what are important to you.
The answers in this reflection will probably reveal much to you regarding your heart and meaning in life, and those two things can certainly shine light on your principles for work and personal relationships. It would be interesting to reflect further on how your past experiences, especially related to your response to stress, helped form who you are. We are shaped by those experiences. You are encouraged to write about your reflections. Putting our words on paper helps to give them meaning.
In our boundaries and self-care training, we talk often of the reality for pastors to juggle the many roles they fill in ministry. We acknowledge the direct correlation between self-care and the ability to establish healthy boundaries in relationships. Put another way, if you are not doing your work around good self-care, you are not practicing healthy boundaries.
READ MORE; see Reflection Questions and Resources
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Facing Fear with Faith: Get Your Spirit in Shape
UMC.ORG Podcasts
"Every person wrestles with fear on some level," teaches the Rev. Adam Hamilton, United Methodist pastor and author of Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times. For the most part, that's good. Fear keeps us from stepping out in front of cars and getting too close to the edge of a cliff. But sometimes, our fear sensors misfire and create worries that can keep us up at night and steal the joy from our days.
In this episode, we're talking with Adam Hamilton about facing our worry and fear with courage and faith!
Listen to this podcast; see related resources
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That Discomfort You're Feeling is Grief
Scott Berinato • Harvard Business Review
If we can name it, perhaps we can manage it. We turned to David Kessler for ideas on how to do that. Kessler is the world’s foremost expert on grief. He co-wrote with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the Five Stages of Loss. His new book adds another stage to the process, Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. Kessler also has worked for a decade in a three-hospital system in Los Angeles. He served on their biohazards team. His volunteer work includes being an LAPD Specialist Reserve for traumatic events as well as having served on the Red Cross’s disaster services team. He is
the founder of www.grief.com, which has over 5 million visits yearly from 167 countries.
Kessler shared his thoughts on why it’s important to acknowledge the grief you may be feeling, how to manage it, and how he believes we will find meaning in it.
HBR: People are feeling any number of things right now. Is it right to call some of what they’re feeling grief?
Kessler: Yes, and we’re feeling a number of different griefs. We feel the world has changed, and it has. We know this is temporary, but it doesn’t feel that way, and we realize things will be different. Just as going to the airport is forever different from how it was before 9/11, things will change and this is the point at which they changed. The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and we’re grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air.
Read more
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