One rarely knows what is good for us and what is bad. Therefore if we knowingly put ourselves in the hands of Almighty, whatever happens must be deemed good. And I try literally to follow that precept.
Gandhi, "Letter to Francesca Standenath", April 1947

Glad to Be Home:
Returning to Durham Friends Meeting

Although I appreciated my time Prospect UMC in Yanceyville, today’s return to unprogrammed worship at Durham Friends Meeting was wonderful. I had forgotten how much good it does for me: the sense of peace that it brings and the time to be with God and to allow God to gently confront you is amazing. If you haven’t experienced an unprogrammed Quaker meeting, do so.

The one thing I will note is that getting the most out of it takes some practice. It used to be that the hour seemed so brief a time, but today it seemed to drag on for a long while. This reminded me of the same experience the first time I attended Durham Friends Meeting—an experience I had forgotten. I had been taking the experience I have for granted, not realizing that it took effort and practice to get to the point where I could sustain prayerful attention for that long.

But after about half the meeting (which seemed like ages), I reached that place: I was “in tune with the Spirit”, as one of the messages talked about. And then time flew right by.

Speaking of Durham Friends Meeting, I’d love to have people join me at Friendly Introduction to the Prophets, Saturday the 4th, 10 AM to Noon, Historic Meetinghouse. We’ll be asking the question “What is a prophet?” and “What is a prophetic book?”, and looking at Amos and Jonah as case studies.

Like this? Then check out these posts:

  1. Evangelism Starts at Home
  2. Dec 5th:
    "The Nativity of Jesus:
    For Grown-Ups"
  3. At Durham Friends Meeting:
    "A Friendly Introduction to the Prophets"