For some people, this might be news. For anyone who has spent time around pastors, this information will ring pretty true. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/28/clergy-depression-_n_3830295.html

God gives to us divine Grace and there’s nothing we can do about it! As one of my professors used to ask, “What are you going to do, now that you don’t have to do anything? It’s a great question! Now that you don’t have to earn God’s favor (in fact, you can’t earn it and neither can I), how will you RESPOND? Or as we like to say around SOTH, how will you RE:Spond? How do you choose to live in response to God’s grace? Some folks just ignore it and try to make God love them by doing all the right things in order to prove themselves “worthy.” Some measure themselves by the things they can attain; others measure their “goodness.” Some folks do their best to rebel against God’s grace. They push every envelope to every extreme and deny that God could love them in any way, if, they say, he actually exists. But what of you? Or me? How shall we respond to the love of God in our lives? What shall we do now that we don’t have to do anything? I think the answer is to love God and our neighbor in the best way we can, always giving thanks to God in every situation. It’s much easier to write it, or say it, than it is to do, but we press ahead in gratitude for God’s love, grace and mercy in our lives. That gives us hope, which as Paul says in Romans 5, “will not disappoint us.” With that hope we can walk through difficult personal situations, in family, work, and health, knowing that God’s Holy Spirit will come alongside us to see us through. In that we can say “Thanks be to God!” But our response need not be limited to our personal circles. We respond to God’s grace by loving our neighbor wherever our neighbor is. We respond by helping those who are homeless, who are hungry, depressed or sick; abused, addicted or alone. As we serve others, we give glory to God! For my friends at Shepherd of the Hills in Fort Collins: I am excited to say that we can spend a good bit of time this year talking about how we respond to God’s activity in our lives and in the world. This fall we kick off a great theme for our 2013-14 program year, “RE:Spond!” We’ll spend a good bit of time looking at all the ways we respond: to God’s grace, to our families, friends, and to the needs of the community and the world. We’ll cap off our year with an all-congregation Faith Formation experience next summer, in which we will RE:Spond to the love of God in some fun and interesting ways. Together, let’s RE:Spond to the blessings God has given us at Shepherd of the Hills.