Happy Sunday!
For the third week in a row, we had a bright and sunny
Sunday. I hope the trend continues and we keep the good-weather Sundays
a’coming.
Our morning worship service at the Blackwoods Campground had
our highest attendance ever! Miles came with his two dogs (both were happy and
healthy this week). In addition, we had two families join the party. Both of
the mom’s had served with ACMNP years ago at other National Parks. Pretty cool
to be a part of such a long-running and extensive tradition that is ACMNP.
No one came to our service at the Seawall Campground, which
wasn’t too surprising. None of us made it over there to walk around the
campground and invite folks nor have we put signs up yet. Seawall proved the
point that if we don’t invite them, they will not come. We’ll be changing that
for next week.
Since we didn’t have the 10am service at Seawall, we went to
the 10:30 church service at the church of a couple on our Ministry Support
Committee members. It was a white-steepled, 200-plus year old Congregational
church hidden among the beautiful homes of Southwest Harbor. To be honest, I
wasn’t really interested in going to church on a day that I’d be helping to
lead two worship services. I’m sure glad we went, though. God certainly
communicated through the words of the Pastor Blake.
The message was on the
third mark of a true follower of Christ: worldlessness. He based his sermon off
1 John 2:15-17 and rephrased the passage to say (roughly), “Do not put your time
and commitment into the values, aspirations, and principles of what the world
pursues. This is because love of the world (in regards to materialism, convenience,
and power) is incompatible with loving God. Plus, our time on this world is temporary
anyway, so why invest so much time and effort in the impermanent.” John is
fairly straightforward in the original text, but I enjoyed hearing Pastor Blake’s
interpretation live and in person.
After church we had lemonade and cake out on the lawn with
the rest of the congregation. Between the children running around in their
Sunday best, the shade of the big deciduous tree out front, and the sweet taste
on summer in a glass, it felt like we were in a Norman Rockwell painting. Awfully
idyllic.
In the afternoon, Luke, Ally, and I went to the movie
theater in Bar Harbor for the screening of a documentary sponsored by the
Sierra Club. The film was good, but I’m almost positive I’ve seen it before. I
guess after going to school in Montana and studying recreation resource
management, I have been exposed to most of the wilderness appeals and such.
There
was a line one of the ladies interviewed in the film said about equating
camping in a Rocky Mountain alpine meadow alongside feeding deer with heaven. I
agree that does sound nice, but I’m not sure if that would be heaven without
Christ. That’s sort of the main feature of eternal life: the eternal presence
of God. I wouldn’t be surprised if a ACMNP sermon comes out of this idea. Stay
tuned…
In the afternoon I stocked up on some snacks for the week
during a trip to the grocery store, caught up with good ole Dad on the horn,
and watched the first half of the US vs. Portugal soccer game. Sabrina, Ally,
Luke and I then headed up Cadillac Mountain for what became our biggest worship
service ever! I’m not sure our final count because we had some folks come and
go during the service, but I know we had over 20.
Afterwards all of us ACMNPers
had equally powerful talks with different attendees. And of course all of this occurred
against the backdrop of a gorgeous sunset from the highest point on the
Atlantic seaboard. Through the worship service, the setting, and the people who
came with the same goal of being intentional about deepening their relationship
with God, I truly felt the presence of God on that windswept mountaintop.
Awfully idyllic.
Today’s picture of the day is the Southwest Harbor
Congregational Church. Enjoy!
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