May Welcome Note

Hello Spring! I know that our JOY should not be dependent on the weather,but now that my flip flops are out of the closet and waiting for me eachtime I need to go outside...I am a happy man! It also seems that with thewarm weather, I am having all these exciting thoughts about USM thissummer. I am in the midst of planning a great summer of learning and fun.

I wanted to share a part of anarticle I read recently. It was entitled "God isn't a Magic 8 Ball" andwas written by Ricky Alcantar. It kind of reminded me of our talk aboutprayer. If you asked Ben C. "what is prayer?" he will probably answer"It's us lining ourselves up with God". Here's what Ricky wrote:

"I found a spot in the park under a tree and began reading Psalm 37.Verse 23
said, "The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when hedelights in his
way; though he fall he shall not be cast headlong, for theLord upholds his
hands." But the words on the page felt hollow. It washard to believe that
--amidst all the chaos of my decision.Then I saw it. The condition. "When."
"When he delights in his way."A quick internal inventory revealed a distinct
absence of "delight" in myheart. But what did that have to do with my decision?
Then I saw verse 4:"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the
desires of yourheart." There it was again—the command to delight in God. Then,
throughall my hardheaded selfishness the thought came to my mind:Do my desires
in this decision line up with God's desires? Do I love whatGod loves? " (end)

(you can read his whole article at http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001729.cfm)