LESSONS LEARNED

Last Sunday, I completed the sermon series "The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss." It was a fun and intriguing series. It's amazing just how much you can learn about yourself and the world in which we live from children's books. Let me recap the series and one learning I had from each story:

The Cat in the Hat Comes Back - Jesus Christ is our Savior, our God, who came into the world we messed up to collect the trash and kick it out of our lives (the power of 'Voom!').

Yertle the Turtle - Build your houses and your very lives on the rock – Jesus Christ. We do this by living in humility, by being caring instead of selfish, by pursuing justice instead of power, and by letting the light of love for others shine far and wide.

What Was I Scared Of? - Fears limit our ability to reach our full potential as individuals and as the church. While faith will not eliminate our fears, faith does give us the discipline, confidence and courage to move forward in spite of our fears.

Horton Hears a Who - "A person is a person, no matter how small." (See previous post)

The Zax - We have a choice - we can reach out and accept God's free gift of grace, or we can live like the Zax: dependent upon old patterns and habits (I did it my way...) that only lead to being stuck.

Bartholomew and the Oobleck - Two simple words, "I'm sorry," have the power to save marriages, friendships, and relationships. But the words, "I forgive you" carry even greater potential.

The Sneetches - Instead of focusing on our differences, let us celebrate those things which we have in common with all Christians: creation, calling, Christ. Proclaiming and celebrating unity in the church means learning from our differences instead of allowing them to divide us.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas - We cannot raise ourselves up by bringing people down. Even the hard-to-love need to experience love freely given. People can change...they really can!

If you weren't able to join us for this summer series, I would invite you to check out the full sermon texts on our church website: www.willmarumc.org. After you've read them, or after listening, I'm curious to know what (if anything!) you've learned from Dr. Seuss.

Let's chat!