Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy

Janice Yates

At my first appointment my Physical Therapist, Trey, asked me at least one hundred questions, and then moved my arm, neck, back and shoulder all over including making it hurt on purpose, and then asking follow up questions about the pain.  After an hour of this he explained what I’d done - a labral tear in my shoulder.  And I said, “Oh, so if I tore a muscle I just need a sling right?  I should stop using it so it can heal?”  He literally laughed at me. Then through his n95 mask he said  “It’s not a muscle.  It’s connective tissue, and the last thing you should do is stop using it.”  

Pentecost - What Would This Wish to Be?

Pentecost - What Would This Wish to Be?

Janice Yates

This weirdness means that God is here.  God is doing things, whether you are ready for them or not.  God will surprise you, and God will use you to surprise others, and in recognizing God at work you will find salvation.  If you were looking for anything clearer, like a sign that you should go this way instead of that way, or plant this crop instead of that crop, or worship in one place or another, that’s not what’s happening now.  God is here.  That’s what it means.  

Hoverboards and Holy Mistakes

Hoverboards and Holy Mistakes

Janice Yates

While the Dunning-Kruger effect essentially lies to you about the state that you are in, these statement, often called the Beatitudes, tell the truth.  Life is hard.  Following Jesus is hard.  Anyone who says it’s not is trying to sell you something.  But I think most of us are here this morning not because we have escaped the hardness of life, but because we have experienced it, and we know that there’s blessedness in the midst of it.  We know that what Jesus says is true.

One With Each Other... (thoughts on Marie Kondo & the UMC)

One With Each Other... (thoughts on Marie Kondo & the UMC)

Janice Yates

I hope you have some people in your life who are easy to love, but if that’s all you’ve got then you may have Kondo-ed your life too carefully.  I’m not sure you can actually follow Jesus if you don’t have any people that you don’t like in your life, because so much of what Jesus tells us to do, and to be, is about how we respond to people who are hard for us to love.  That is a critical piece of how we practice our faith.