”Love is all energy, all strength, all health, all beauty, and all good work, well done. Love is the thinker of every good thought. Love ties all things together. Love makes all things one. Love is all there be. The books of the Holy Bible never say but one time just exactly what God is, but in three little words it pours out a hundred million college educations and says, ‘God Is Love.’ Love is the only God that I will ever believe in.” - Woody Guthrie

On a hot August Sunday 19 years ago, the fledging congregation known as ”A Simple Faith” met for the first time. The 20th year begins here.

This is Ronnie’s conclusion (Part 2 of 2) entitled: What To Do In A Storm, based on Acts 27.

”A storm is coming. You can count on it. And how I wish the coming storm was just thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening; just a little wind and rain. But the storm I’m talking about is more severe than that. I’m talking about personal, sometimes private storms. I’m not a pessimist. I’m not trying to make you feel bad or make you afraid; to live coiled up, waiting for the next shoe to drop is no way to live at all. I’m just an early alert system: Storms are bound to come. Most of them blow over in a day or two, and we are no more worse off for the wear. But some storms are life-altering, faith-testing, soul-crushing disasters. They break us. They lash and torment us in ways that the outside weather never could. Where do you turn in the midst of one of these land-falling hurricanes? How do you survive the darkest thundering days and the endless, sleepless nights? What do you do in a storm?” (Part 1 of 2.)

”Ezekiel’s dream of the future has come true. Not with the construction of some highly advanced cathedral for God with an artesian well, but with the construction of a people, of temples not made with human hands. God no longer lives in a temple. God doesn’t live in a  church. God hasn’t been cornered by any religion. God has made a home within you and me. We have inside of us, as in Jesus’ words to the woman at the well, “springs of living water” that will never go dry. The water flowing from the presence of God is the people of God, sent out to refresh and resurrect a dead and parched world.”

”Water, water, everywhere...and not a drop to drink.” So cried the Ancient Mariner. ”Worry, worry, everywhere” seems to be the cry today. This is Ronnie’s look at Philippians 4, heeding the wisdom of the Apostle Paul who instructed early Christians to, ”not worry about anything, but to pray about everything.”

”You might ask, ’What is wrong with a little flag waving or a pledge to the nation of our birth?’ Nothing! But to center American nationalism in the church is to marginalize the Lordship of Jesus. It demands that God share his place of supremacy with the flag. It fools us into calling this Empire, ’home.’ It tricks us into worshipping the blessing of living where we live, rather than worshipping the one who has blessed us with this opportunity. Let us remove all politics and nationalism from the church; and concentrate on following the words and way of Jesus - no matter what else might happen in our community or in our nation.”

Ronnie concludes his series from the Psalms (while connecting these with more contemporary songs), with this episode entitled, ”Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen.” Using Psalm 86, the African-American spiritual, and the insights of Viktor Frankl, this talk challenges the listener to wisely ”choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

I know this is not the most pleasant subject for many people. But in the last words of President McKinley, ”We are all going. We are all going.” So long as death is way down the road, at some far and distant juncture that remains out of sight, it can remain out of mind. But we have no such promises. There are no guarantees that our end is decades or years in the future.  Allison Arieff says: “It is the awareness and acceptance of our own mortality  that makes us human. And it is the impetus for living our lives to the fullest. The brevity of life leaves me determined to seize, observe and interact with the days that remain. It is the knowledge of how quickly, sometimes tragically, things can change or disappear that fuels my urgency to be in the present.”

Bob Marley...The Book of Psalms...Meister Eckhart...John Oatman Jr. What do all of these have in common? Gratitude. It’s the best way to live your life.