May Newsletter 2022
Dear Family and Friends of Trinity,
There is an old joke that goes, “If April showers bring May flowers, what do Mayflowers bring?” and of course the ridiculous answer is “Pilgrims”.
If you look at the calendar, the month of May brings many activities and special events our way:
May 1 is “May Day” and is a traditional day for celebrating the end of winter and the true beginning of spring; for many it was a day for hanging “May Baskets”. May 4 is Star Wars Day. May 5 Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican Army’s defeat of France- 1862; May 5 is also National Day of Prayer. May 8 is Mother’s Day and May 14 is the official opening of fishing season in Minnesota. May 21 is Armed Forces Day while May 30 is Memorial Day. On the church calendar May 26 is Ascension Day.
Beyond those special days that are standard on the May calendar, May is the month when churches traditionally held “Mother-Daughter” banquets, or “Teas”; many schools have graduations in May, and of course, there is prom.
I remember two things about prom: 1). Proms were not all they were cracked up to be! And 2). My mom
took a special picture of me in my prom dress. Growing in our yard were some beautiful, old lilac bushes.
In the spring of 1964, the deep purple blossoms on the lilacs were especially gorgeous. My junior prom dress was yellow, and Mom decided that those lilac blossoms would make a terrific background for a picture of me in my yellow dress. (For those of you who know me well it will not surprise you to know I still have my prom dresses~) I got all dressed up in the formal with the yellow matching shoes (it was ‘64~(, did my hair in a “French roll” (it was ’64!) and went out and posed in front of the lilac bushes. This was a very difficult thing for me to do because I have always hated to have my picture taken, and have often refused to do so…but it was prom, it was Mom, and I was an obedient daughter. It was 1964, which meant that we had to wait until the roll of film was used up, and then had to wait again to send it in and get it back, but back the pictures came. There were lovely pictures of the lilac bushes; they were, indeed, spectacular but there wasn’t a yellow dress to be seen in any of them! Mom had missed me totally, which was hard to do because I have never been tiny and therefore always been a little hard to miss!
Whenever I think of that picture taking fiasco, it makes me ask the question. “I wonder how many wonderful activities or truths of God we miss every day because we get distracted by the events and noise of the world?”
We do tend, don’t we, to look for the negatives instead of the positives. We see the faults in people instead of their more sterling qualities. Most newspaper people will tell you, “We print the bad news because good news doesn’t sell”. We take someone’s kindness for granted but can dwell on something we perceived as a slight for a long time.
It happens in the church too. We can have a beautiful worship service, filled with joy and celebration and Biblical truth and instead of letting that fill our souls, we notice that a banner was hanging crooked. Someone can deliver a very special program and instead of learning from it, we find fault with what they were wearing.
Concerns, real or imagined, expressed at the wrong time, place, and way can undo someone’s spirit. The list goes on.
In the realm of the Spirit, God is love; we tend to hold on to ill will. God speaks of forgiveness; we hold on to grudges; God offers healing; we hold on to hurts. God offers grace; we prefer grievances. God speaks of mercy, we demand justice. God offers new life; we cling to old traditions. One author put it this way, “Christians miss so much of what God would give because they tend to focus on the problem, instead of on the solution which is Jesus Christ.”
That day, long ago, Mom missed the prom dress, focused instead on the lilacs. May we not make a similar mistake by focusing on what’s wrong instead of what’s right and more important still by focusing on the ways and values of the world instead of on the ways and will of God. Have a great May! pjr
