Cindy's Notes

by Cindy Spivey

The other day, while walking to the playground, (at my other job), one of my little 3 year olds looked up at me and said, "I wish we were going to neverland instead." I replied that I wished I was going to neverland too and was quickly informed that neverland is only for kids. However, I recently ran across an article about Fairy Tales and Technology. Since we are all affected by all of the technological advances in our world, I thought I would share with you how technology is affecting neverland as well! A recent update reports that today...

Little Bo Peep never loses sheep because of their embedded silicon identity chips.

Cinderella searches for her prince on Match.com and leases her pumpkin colored SUV at Avis.com.

Hansel and Gretel use GPS rather than breadcrumbs but have reported problems stuffing the wicked witch into her microwave oven.

A reformed Ebenezer Scrooge sends Bob Cratchett to update his certification for Excel and Quicken.

Old MacDonald uses voice recognition to make ordering easy at his agricultural auction site, www.eieio.com.

Romeo and Juliet avoid tragic problems by keeping in touch on their cell phones.

With her early Web capabilities, Charlotte is now a motivational speaker at tech conferences around the world.

The Pied Piper switched career fields after his tunes were bootlegged on Napster. Videoconferencing.

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to attend a rehearsal with our Jubilant Juniors. They were working on the music they hope to sing for you soon during a Sunday worship service and one of the pieces had the word "Easter" in it. They were a little upset because they knew they were not scheduled to sing on March 23rd, which was Easter Sunday. I assured them the song would be fine because there are actually six or seven Sunday's of Easter. Of course, they were a little confused. Since then, I have been thinking about how we really do not talk about the "Christian Year". So, here is a brief explanation.

First, each Sunday on our bulletin, on the bottom of the front cover, you will see the day of the Christian year and the color of the paraments in the pulpit area of the church.

Right now, we are in the what is called the "Easter Cycle" which begins on Ash Wednesday and runs through Pentecost Sunday. Of course, we know that Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, which takes us to Easter and then to Pentecost, which is the end of this cycle. Pentecost is the fiftieth day after Easter.

After Pentecost, we have what is called "Trinity Sunday" in which we celebrate the mystery of God's being as Holy Trinity. After this, we go into the "Season after Pentecost" which will conclude on "Christ the King" Sunday. This also happens to be the last Sunday before Advent.

Of course, we know more about Advent, because it is the four Sundays prior to Christmas.

Following Christmas, we have Epiphany, which symbolizes the arrival of the Magi. The following Sunday, we remember the baptism or our Lord and the last Sunday of Epiphany is when we remember the transfiguration of our Lord.

The Wednesday following that is Ash Wednesday, which begins Lent, the forth day period leading up to Easter, which brings us back to where we started.

This information in the article comes from a book I use frequently in planning worship called "The New Handbook of the Christian Year."

Recently, I ran across a short little article that made me stop and think. See if it does the same for you. Cell Phone vs. Bible.

1. I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?

2. What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

3. What if we flipped through it several times a day?

4. What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

5. What if we used it to receive messages for the text?

6. What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?

7. What if we gave it to the kids as gifts?

9. What if we used it in case of emergency?

This is something to make you go ...hmmm... where is my Bible? Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus has already paid the bill.

I hope to see you Sunday as we worship together!

Lithia Springs United Methodist Church

Cindy's Notes