Sack o potatos

I'm having a Dan Quayle moment...I can't remember if it's potatoes or potatos. Ask me if I care......

When I got up this morning I decided to go out to a little country church where a friend is pastor...his name is David. He used to be my pastor at Epworth. Now, he and I had our disagreements and I was in a tough spot because I was Staff/Parish Chair when he left the church. But, David is a very sweet and good guy and for some reason I felt compelled to visit his church. I think it was God nudging me down the highway.......It's a small congregation, maybe 30 in worship. I think it was old-time religion Sunday because we sang the great hymns of I Love to Tell the Story, Victory in Jesus, and We'll Understand it Better By and By. I LOVE the old hymns. This church does a lot of singing, we sang praise music for about 20 minutes.
David's sermon was about forgiveness. Yes, it's important to forgive those who wrong us, but mainly the message was about how we make ourselves accessible (or inaccessible) to granting forgiveness. He also told of an experiment where participants wrote the name of a person that needed to be forgiven, or a grudge/bad feelings were being held. Those names were written on potatoes and then placed in a bag. For a week, the folks had to carry around the heavy sack, laden with the people that needed to be forgiven. By the end of the week, the participants realized the heaviness they were feeling was not only physical but also spiritual. Thus, they learned to be more free with their forgiveness. It was a good message and one I think I needed to hear. Yes, there are people in my life I need to forgive and there are people who need to forgive me. I can't control whether I will be granted forgiveness but I need to make myself open to the possibility.
I often remind myself of a marquee I saw on a local church: He who angers you controls you. My relationship with God is strong but it will be stronger when I quit harboring thoughts and feelings that do nothing but tear me down.

It was a good day.