Not My Own

Not My Own

A Covenant Renewal for a Post-Christian World
January 4, 2026

Luke 9:23-27

Jesus said to everyone, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me.  All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will save them.

~ Luke 9:23-24

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 Grace is free, but it will cost you everything.

This is the paradox of Christian discipleship.  Jesus calls us as we are.  We don’t earn God’s favor.  We don’t deserve to be called disciples.  Like the original twelve, we are simply not qualified for the task at hand.  And yet Jesus still says, “Come, follow me.”  This is grace.

But grace is never cheap.  Bonhoeffer reminds us, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die” (Cost of Discipleship).  The same Jesus who freely invites us into abundant life tells us to take up our cross, and to lose our life to find it.  In Luke 14, he even asks, “Who would begin anything without first counting the cost.”

In many ways, that’s exactly what a Covenant Renewal service helps us do.  Wesley adapted the covenant prayer from his parent’s Puritan tradition and encouraged the people called Methodists to pray it at the start of each new year as a way of remembering and renewing their baptismal covenant (umcdiscipleship.org).  It is a prayer of surrender like Jesus describes in Luke 9:23. In baptism, we renounce evil, repent of our sin, die to ourselves, and as Paul says, rise to walk in newness of life.  The Covenant Prayer simply names this truth again: our lives are not our own, we belong to Christ. 

At the same time, the original form of the prayer reflects Wesley’s own era and theological upbringing.  As UMC pastor Rev. Jeremy Smith notes, some lines lean toward a kind of determinism, as if God actively causes our suffering (i.e. “Put me to suffering”).  It becomes difficult to reconcile the God who heals with a God who first inflicts the disease.  Even worse, the idea that God caused the drunk driver or the school shooter to kill an innocent person out of some mysterious Divine plan would make God the author not only of suffering and evil, but of sin itself.  This cannot be.   

Yes, we surrender to God’s will for our lives, but that does not mean everything that happens is God’s will.  Sin and suffering are real.  God works to bring good out of even the worst situations, but I do not believe God causes our pain and suffering.  So, today we’ll pray Rev. Smith’s revised version of the covenant prayer.  He preserves the heart of self-surrender and submission, while rejecting the idea that suffering originates in God.  (You’ll find both the original and revised Covenant Prayer below).

One final word of caution: the covenant we renew today is not just another New Year’s resolution.  Resolutions depend on self-improvement and sheer determination.  Our covenant with God depends entirely on grace.  The Spirit actively produces good fruit in us.  We choose to take up our cross daily, but we depend entirely on God’s strength to live out this promise.

•  Where might God be asking you to surrender control this year so something new can take root?

• As you pray the covenant prayer, what feeing is stirring in you: resistance, hope, longing, fear, freedom… something else?

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Covenant Prayer (Original) *
John Wesley

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

* https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/blog/the-wesley-covenant-prayer-and-the-baptismal-covenant

Covenant Prayer (Paraphrase) *
Rev. Jeremy Smith

I am not my own self-made, self-reliant human being.
In truth, O God, I am Yours.
Make me into what You will.
Make me a neighbor with those whom You will.
Guide me on the easy path for You.
Guide me on the rocky road for You.
Whether I am to step up for You or step aside for You;
Whether I am to be lifted high for You or brought low for You;
Whether I become full or empty, with all things or with nothing;
I give all that I have and all that I am for You.
So be it.
And may I always remember that you, O God, and I belong to each other. Amen.

* https://hackingchristianity.net/2016/12/wesleys-covenant-prayer-in-a-post-christian-context.html

A Dragon for Christmas

A Dragon for Christmas

Christmas Letters: Part 5
December 28, 2025

Revelation 12:1-5

Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.  She was pregnant, and she cried out because she was in labor, in pain from giving birth.  Then another sign appeared in heaven: it was a great fiery red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven royal crowns on his heads.  His tail swept down a third of heaven’s stars and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that when she gave birth, he might devour her child.  She gave birth to a son, a male child who is to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was snatched up to God and his throne.  Then the woman fled into the desert, where God has prepared a place for her. There she will be taken care of for one thousand two hundred sixty days.

~ Revelation 12:1-6

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Revelation is probably the last place we’d look for a Christmas story, but the truth is that Christmas, Easter, and the entire story of Creation is all wrapped up in this mysterious vision.  John wasn’t predicting future events.  He was encouraging a persecuted church and proclaiming the gospel in language that Rome would not understand.  That’s why he uses images, symbols and metaphors that would have been recognized by his Jewish audience.

For example, the woman in Revelation 12 is clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and crowned with 12 stars.  Let’s break that down.

• The sun’s brightness points to God..

• Israel’s worship calendar is based on the lunar cycle, so this woman is at the center of Israel’s worship.

• The 12 stars call back to the 12 tribes of Israel, just like in Joseph’s dream in Genesis. 

John is describing God in feminine terms because the focus is on God giving birth – to creation, to Israel, to Jesus, and to the church.  (For more feminine images of God in scripture, check out Hosea 11:3-4, 13:8, Deuteronomy 32:11-12, 18, Isaiah 66:13, Matthew 23:37, Luke 13:34, to name a few).    

The dragon represents Satan, seeking to undermine God’s redemptive work in the world.  That’s why he waits to devour the Christ child.  Think about this in the context of Jesus’ life.  Herod seeks to kill the child before he can become a threat.  Satan tempts Jesus in the wilderness to derail his ministry before it begins.  And in the end, Jesus is defeated by death on the cross.  The dragon has won.

But John tells us that the child was taken up to God in heaven.  Sound familiar?  Resurrection and ascension.  Death was not the end.  And so, the dragon continues to seek out God’s children wherever they may be found, attacking the church to this day. 

In Revelation, John declares to the church that God has taken up residence in Satan’s domain, here in our fallen world, and that no matter how bad things get, God will always have the final victory. 

We may not have wanted a dragon for Christmas, but do not fear.  Christ has already won.

Where do you see signs of victory breaking through the darkness in your life or in our world today?

Fully Divine: Peace Through Christ

Fully Divine: Peace Through Christ

Christmas Letters: Part 4
December 21, 2025

Colossians 1:15-20, Psalm 96

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the one who is first over all creation, because all things were created by him: both in the heavens and on the earth, the things that are visible and the things that are invisible…

… He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the one who is firstborn from among the dead so that he might occupy the first place in everything.

~ Colossians 1:15-16a, 18

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 Excerpts adapted from The Christmas Letters, by Magrey R. DeVega.

Throughout the Old Testament, God was revealed to the Israelites in visible ways.  God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve.  God spoke to Moses through a burning bush and led the people of Israel through the wilderness in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night.  But in this hymn, Paul takes God’s self-revelation to a whole new level.  Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  Everything we need to know about God can be seen most directly in this singular human life. 

The letters we have looked at this Advent were written before the gospel accounts, and Mark, the earliest gospel, does not include a nativity story.  When the author of Matthew adapts his own telling, and later the writers of Luke and John, they connect Jesus’ birth to the signs of divinity recognized by the ancient world.  Whereas the mother of Alexander the Great was presumably impregnated by Zeus, so Mary conceived by Divine action alone.  Just as a bright star shown to mark the birth of Augustus Caesar, we get a star and a shy full of shining angels at Jesus’ birth.  And everyone who encounters the Christ child is transformed by his presence, from hopelessness into hope, from fear into courage, and from darkness into light. 

The Christmas story is not just about the physical birth of a baby in Bethlehem.  It is about the first over all creation entering into creation to establish God’s reign over every other ruler on earth.  No matter what changes and challenges came their way, this Christmas message assures them of God’s faithfulness. 

How is this message transforming you?

Fully Human: Joy in Humility

Fully Human: Joy in Humility

Christmas Letters: Part 3
December 14, 2025

Phillipians 2:1-11

Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus: Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.  But he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and by becoming like human beings.  When he found himself in the form of a human, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

~Philippians 2:6-8

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Excerpts adapted from The Christmas Letters, by Magrey R. DeVega.

In a world that defines greatness as a steady climb upward, with more power, fame, and possessions, this early hymn of the church declares the opposite.  Christ’s greatness is shown through servanthood and humility, the qualities our culture tells us are signs of weakness. 

The God of all creation chose to take on human flesh, to breathe the same air and walk the same ground as us.  If Jesus reveals the very nature of God, the incarnation tells us that God is inherently self-giving.  He existed from the very beginning.  He emptied himself.  He humbled himself.  Therefore, God highly honored him and gave him the name above all names. 

But Paul does not sing this hymn simply as a description of God’s self-giving love.  He introduces is it by saying that we should have the same love that is in Christ.  Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves.  Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others.  Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:4-5).

Paul does not specify any specific issues that may have divided the church at Philippi, like he does in other letters, but he does plead with them to be united by the love of Christ no matter their differences.  For Paul, his joy is made complete when a diversity of people come together with common love and common purpose, rather than letting any other filter tear them apart. 

How might you cultivate a spirit of humility, curiosity, and empathy, especially toward those who are the most difficult to love?

Love Incarnate: The Word of Life Revealed

Love Incarnate: The Word of Life Revealed

Christmas Letters: Part 2
December 7, 2025

1 John 1:3-4

We announce to you what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen, and our hands handled, about the word of life.  The life was revealed, and we have seen, and we testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.

~ 1 John 1:1-2

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Excerpts adapted from The Christmas Letters, by Magrey R. DeVega.

Like the gospel of John, 1 John begins not with the birth of Jesus, but with the birth of all creation.  Genesis, John, and 1 John open with parallel structures that move us toward the revelation of God to humanity. 

1. In the beginning (Genesis 1:1-2, John 1:1-3, 1 John 1:1)

2. God is Light (Genesis 1:3-5, John 1:3b-4, 1 John 1:5b, 7)

3.  God Reigns (Genesis 1:9-11, John 1:5, 10-13, 1 John 2:1-2)

4.  God Enters the Human Story (Genesis 1:26-27, John 1:14, 1 John 5:6-8) 

In these echoes, the New Testament writer is declaring that Jesus is God, that Jesus is the light, that Jesus overcomes the darkness of sin, and that Jesus lives and dwells among us.  Bottom line: God loves you.

But 1 John takes the incarnation a step further, calling us to be conduits of God’s love with one another.  The incarnation that we anticipate at Advent is not just in the arrival of Jesus in our lives.  It is in the expectation that we will take the presence of Jesus and become agents of love and healing in our relationships with one another. 

John announces these things so that we might have fellowship with one another and with the Father and the Son, so that our joy may be complete (1 John 1:3-4).

How does Genesis 1 deepen your own appreciation of the incarnation? 

In what ways are you experiencing a darkness that can be overcome by the light of Christ?

Good News: Looking Back to Look Ahead

Good News: Looking Back to Look Ahead

Christmas Letters: Part 1
November 30, 2025

Romans 1:1-7

God promised this good news about his Son ahead of time through his prophets in the holy scriptures. His Son was descended from David.  He was publicly identified as God’s Son with power through his resurrection from the dead, which was based on the Spirit of holiness. This Son is Jesus Christ our Lord.

~ Romans 1:2-4

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Advent Reflections based on The Christmas Letters, by Magrey R. DeVega.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul begins by grounding the identity of Jesus in the prophetic tradition.  He will quote or paraphrase the prophets over twenty times throughout this letter, with particular emphasis on Isaiah.  He wanted this new fledgling church in Rome to know that the coming of Christ, their Messiah, was not a spontaneous, surprising event, but one that had been anticipated for generations. 

While Isaiah and the other prophets were specifically writing about the exile of God’s people to Assyria and Babylon, Paul understands the cyclical nature of history and prophecy and identifies his present audience as those who are also longing for deliverance and liberation, just as their ancestors had.  In the same way, this prophetic tradition speaks to our own desire for deliverance from sin, injustice, and other forms of oppression in our world.

The words of the prophets call us to acknowledge the depths of our own spiritual hunger and longing.  They invite us to give ourselves to others in acts of love and peace.  As Paul did for his own time, we must also receive the words of scripture and make them our own.

Take some time to meditate on the following passages from Isaiah most often quoted during this season:

Isaiah 2:4

4 He shall judge between the nations
    and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
    neither shall they learn war any more.

Isaiah 11:1

11 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
    and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

Isaiah 11:5-6

5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist
    and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

6 The wolf shall live with the lamb;
    the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the lion will feed together,
    and a little child shall lead them.

Isaiah 35:3-4

3 Strengthen the weak hands
    and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
    “Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
    He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
    He will come and save you.”

Isaiah 7:14

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.

Isaiah 64:1-2

64 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
    so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
2 as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    so that the nations might tremble at your presence!

Isaiah 40:1-5

40 Comfort, O comfort my people,
    says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and cry to her
that she has served her term,
    that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.

3 A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain.
5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Isaiah 61:1-2

61 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me
    because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
    to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and release to the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
    to comfort all who mourn,

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What impact do the prophet’s words about the Messiah have on your own life, especially as you prepare for a fresh arrival of Jesus this Advent?

What Do I Know About Peace?

What Do I Know About Peace?

What Do I Know?: Part 4
November 23, 2025

Psalm 131, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-24

Live in peace with each other.  Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are disorderly. Comfort the discouraged. Help the weak. Be patient with everyone.  Make sure no one repays a wrong with a wrong, but always pursue the good for each other and everyone else.  Rejoice always.  Pray continually.  Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  Don’t suppress the Spirit.  Don’t brush off Spirit-inspired messages, but examine everything carefully and hang on to what is good.  Avoid every kind of evil.

~ 1 Thessalonians 5:13b-22

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As I read Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians, it sounds like simple common sense for how to live well together.  Yet these same principles seem almost opposite to the behavior encouraged by many of our political and even religious leaders today.  As a member of a former church once said, Jesus’ teachings on peace and forgiveness just don’t work anymore.  I suspect many of Jesus’ first followers felt the same way.

With that in mind, I asked ChatGPT to reimagine this passage through the lens of what we often hear from our nation’s leaders.  It is intentionally nonpartisan, reflecting values both sides seem to share in practice.  It’s response is telling:

Fellow Americans,

Peace sounds nice, but it’s naïve. Progress is forged through conflict — through proving who’s right, not reconciling with those who are wrong. Disorder keeps us alert; division keeps us strong.

Toughen up. Comfort breeds complacency. Help the weak if you must, but don’t let weakness spread. Patience only delays victory. If someone wrongs you, strike back harder — that’s how respect is earned.

Celebrate your side. Stay outraged. Gratitude is fine when we win, but don’t waste it on your opponents. And as for all that “Spirit” talk — keep your passion, but aim it at those who stand in your way.

We stand united — not in peace, but in purpose. Stay vigilant. Stay angry. Stay divided.

Jesus saw this same spirit in the religious culture of his day.  He wept over Jerusalem saying, “If only you knew the things that make for peace.”  The writing was on the wall.  Destruction was inevitable if they did not change their ways. 

Rome’s peace was powerful, but it came at a high cost, especially for those deemed weak in the eyes of the empire. 

We still struggle with the same temptation, to confuse peace with control, strength and domination.  We confuse love with the ability to protect what’s ours by any means necessary.  But living at peace with all does not mean overpowering or eliminating those we dislike.  It means choosing a different kind of strength, one that risks compassion and empathy.

Paul’s words still challenge us to a different way: comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone, and pursue the good for each other and for all.

What might it look like for us, in our time, to live as people who still believe the things that make for peace?

What Do I Know About Living Now?

What Do I Know About Living Now?

What Do I Know?: Part 3
November 16, 2025

Psalm 92:12-14, Phillipians 3:7-16

These things were my assets, but I wrote them off as a loss for the sake of Christ.  But even beyond that, I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ  and be found in him.

- Philippians 3:7-9a

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I Will Not Die an Unlived Life
by: Dawna Markova

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

In our constant efforts to avoid death and ignore our human limits, we can easily fall into another trap: not actually living.

It sounds absurd.  Of course we’re living.  We’re breathing, aren’t we? 

And yet our lives are so often marked by fear… fear of losing what we have, fear of what we will never attain, fear of failure, fear of the unknown… the list of fears is endless, but at the end of the day, we are afraid to fully live.

To truly embrace the beauty of this life means risk, vulnerability, loosening our heart.  It means planting and nurturing seeds that may never bloom and investing in a future for others that we may never see. 

To fully live means slowing down to see what so many cannot see, to find beauty, joy, and meaning in the little things.  A fellow Substack writer puts it beautifully in her description of walking her dog.  She writes:    

I could choose to hear the cars and trucks fuming by below me, or, I could choose to listen to the birdsongs drifting through the trees beside me.

It is more work to choose the birds. They, even en mass, are quieter than the traffic, and more dispersed, so it is more challenging both to block out the traffic noise and to let in the sounds of nature. But it is doable, and so much more worthwhile.

While listening to the traffic, I feel slow, unproductive and like I, too, should be rushing somewhere. While listening to the birds, I feel relaxed, connected and purposeful.

How are you living this one wild and precious life?  

How is God inviting you to be more present in each moment?

What Do I Know About Limits?

What Do I Know About Limits?

What Do I Know?: Part 2
November 9, 2025

Psalm 103:6-19, Psalm 90:10-17, Matthew 11:28-30

The days of a human life are like grass: they bloom like a wildflower; but when the wind blows through it, it’s gone; even the ground where it stood doesn’t remember it.  But the Lord’s faithful love is from forever ago to forever from now for those who honor him.

~ Psalm 103:15-16

 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me — watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

 ~ Matthew 11:28-30

note: no sermon for this week - we did our quarterly “Breakfast Church” and had table conversations around the topic of living within our limitations and finding rest in God.

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One of the greatest lies our culture has taught us is that we should live without limits.  In almost every field, success is defined by pushing the boundaries: bigger, faster, stronger, better, without end.  The people who tell us this are like Pharoah in Egypt, profiting off our constant striving.  Slowing down is not good for the engine of capitalism.

This constant push for more has led to a legitimate health crisis called “hurry sickness,” and it is literally killing us mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  Using the checklist below, see how many symptoms of hurry sickness you have, but do not feel guilty or shamed.  If you struggle with hurry sickness, it’s not your fault.  The truth is that this is how most of us are conditioned to feel.

□       Irritability (especially at little things)

□       Hypersensitivity

□       Restlessness (difficultly relaxing)

□       Workaholism / non-stop activity

□       Emotional numbness

□       Out of order priorities

□       Lack of care for your body

□       Escapist behaviors (overeating, social media, binging, etc.

□       Slipping of your spiritual practices

□       Isolation

Jesus realizes the people are tired and worn out.  Even their religious practice has become a drain rather than a source of renewal and life.  And he responds by inviting us to live differently, to learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

Even Jesus acknowledged his limits.  He regularly got away for time alone when the crowds pressed in and demanded more.  If even Jesus had to honor his own limitations, how much more do we? 

The path of simplicity and being fully present with God, ourselves, and others begins by getting rid of clutter, both external and internal.  Clutter is anything that does not add value to your life, anything that does not spark joy. 

• Where is God inviting you to acknowledge and honor your limits this week?

• What is one place you can begin to declutter your life and live more simply, internally or externally?

• How do you respond to Jesus’ invitation to rest?

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This week we had “Breakfast Church” which included a time of table conversations around acknowledging our limits. Consider getting together with a couple of other people this week to discuss the conversation starter below:

We all have limitations that we don’t like to admit.  Here are a few:

• Our bodies – physical limitations

• Our minds – we don’t know what we don’t know

• Our gifts – the problem of comparison

• Our personalities & emotional wiring – we only have so much capacity

• Our families of origin

• Our socioeconomic origins / opportunities

• Our education

• Our season of life

As you consider this list of limitations, discuss or journal about the following questions: 

1. What limits do you most struggle to acknowledge and why?  What feelings come up for you when you think about your limits?

2. How might accepting or honoring those limits bring you greater freedom?  How might your limits be a gift instead of a weakness?

3. How can appreciating our limits help us extend grace to one another?

What Do I Know About Grief & Loss?

What Do I Know About Death?

What Do I Know?: Part 1
November 2, 2025

2 Corinthians 4:7-5:10, Psalm 90:12

So teach us to count our days
    that we may gain a wise heart.

~ Psalm 90:12  (NRSV)

So, we are always confident, even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him.

~ 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 (NRSV)

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As we celebrate this All Saints Day, we remember those who have gone before us. We mourn for the loss of those whom we loved who have now passed throught he veil of death.

And yet, even in our grief, we have hope: hope that death is not the end, but merely a door through which we walk with Christ. People say a lot of things about death. Most are merely speculation or fantasy, and many are not nearly as helfpful or comforting as we intend.

I invite you to listen to the song below about the mystery of death and reflect on the questions below:

• What do I really know about death and loss that gives me hope? 

• How is God inviting me to live your life in light of eternity?

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What Do I Know?

by: Sara Groves

I have a friend who just turned eighty-eight
and she just shared with me that she's afraid of dying.
I sit here years from her experience
and try to bring her comfort.
I try to bring her comfort
But what do I know? What do I know? 

She grew up singing about the glory land,
and she would testify how Jesus changed her life.
It was easy to have faith when she was thirty-four,
but now her friends are dying, and death is at her door.
And what do I know? What do I know?

 Chorus:

 Well, I don't know that there are harps in heaven,
Or the process for earning your wings.
I don't know of bright lights at the ends of tunnels,
Or any of those things.

She lost her husband after sixty years,
and as he slipped away she still had things to say.
Death can be so inconvenient.
You try to live and love. It comes and interrupts.
And what do I know? What do I know?

Chorus

 Oh, what do I know? Really, what do I know?

 Chorus

 But I know to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord,
and from what I know of him, that must be pretty good.

Oh, I know to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord,
and from what I know of him, that must be very good.