I didn't attend a Maundy Thursday service last night. I wanted to. I wanted to take the communion elements with other Christians. But a man was coming around six to determine how much pine straw we would need for the islands in our yard and how much it would cost and I had to wait for him. Also, the church we have been attending since I stopped playing for the Methodists does not offer a Maundy Thursday service.
I will not be attending Good Friday services today. I wanted to. But Mrs. RWP has an appointment at three to get her hair done and I am now the only driver in the house since she decided not to renew her driver's license a couple of years ago. And our church does not offer Good Friday services either.
Something my mother used to say flits across the back of my mind: "The road to hell," she would say, "is paved with good intentions."
When I was young the schools were closed on both Good Friday and Easter Monday, and I spent three hours on Good Fridays, from noon to 3 p.m., at our church in Mansfield, Texas, listening to music, meditating, hearing seven short devotional talks on the seven last words of Christ.
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing"
"Today you will be with me in paradise"
"Behold your son...behold your mother"
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
"I thirst"
"It is finished"
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit"
Someday I hope to hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of the Lord.” But we also can find the words “wicked and slothful servant” in the New Testament. I don’t want to hear those.
Sloth just might be the other side of the coin called good intentions. You remember sloth. It’s one of the seven deadly sins.
In the meantime, the aforementioned road, the one that leads to you know where, goes on forever.
I grew up with that phrase too.
ReplyDeleteHave a blessed weekend with Mrs RWP.
Elephant's Child, it's amazing how childhood tapes keep playing in one's head all these years later.
DeleteI attended a Good Friday service and then went to the markets to buy fruit and veg. I usually refrain from shopping on Good Friday but we were out of food and the regular shops charge twice as much.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow I'll attend my church in the am and a baptism in the pm.
After all that I have to be heading to heaven, right?
kylie, in a word, no (but you knew that), although I do hope you are heading to heaven. I'm sure you agree that one cannot earn one's way in through one's own efforts.
DeleteGod doesn't usually deal with new recruits to The Kingdom of Heaven. He leaves all that to his right-hand man - St Peter. At The Pearly Gates, St Peter waves some folk straight through but others have to wait in the lobby, pending appeals. I suspect that you will be in the former group.
ReplyDeleteYorkshire Pudding, I thought I responded to this comment earlier, but apparently I had not. I am a bit surprised to learn of your intimate knowledge of the way God deals (or rather doesn't deal) with "new recruits" but I regret to inform you that you are most likely wrong. The popular image of St. Peter manning the pearly gates, derived from the passage in Matthew chapter 16 where Jesus gave him "the keys of the kingdom", is cute but probably not what Jesus meant.
ReplyDelete