Brain Health
This summer may I suggest 3 books to improve your brain health and with that your well-being, resilience and happiness.
The Stress Proof Brain, Melanie Greenberg – If you name it, you can tame it. Understanding where stress comes from and providing tools and strategies for living a less stress-filled life.
The Awakened Brain, Lisa Miller, PhD – Spirituality defined as a personal devotion/relationship with God, Lowers risk of depression, anxiety and addictions.
Change Your Brain Every Day, Daniel G. Amen, MD – Activities to strengthen/enhance the brain – Prefrontal Cortex: Language Games, Scrabble, Boggle etc. Strategy games like chess and meditation (prayer). Temporal Lobes: Memory Games (Remembering Names), Learning to play instruments. Parietal Lobes: math games like sudoku, juggling and map reading. Cerebellum: coordination games such as pickleball, dancing, yoga & tai chi
Blessings, Pastor Michael
- U.S. Independence Day, July 4, 2025
Perspectives on Patriotism
While pondering differences between patriotism and nationalism, Ryan Hamm looks to Jesus’ example in Luke 19:41-44. “Jesus, it seems, loved his people, his city, his nation — so much so that he cried over it,” he writes in Christianity Today. “He didn’t despise his country or wish ill upon it — instead, he wanted nothing but the best for it, and it grieved him to see how his people had rejected his teachings.”
This example of “patriotism perfected” can serve as a guide for modern-day Christians, according to Hamm. “It’s an example that’s both pragmatic and romantic, shot through with justice, truth and love. It’s not a nationalistic patriotism — it’s a love for nation that doesn’t pit it against other nations. Instead, it’s a recognition of love followed by a mournful recognition of shortcomings.”
Put another way, God doesn’t love America more than any other nation. And he doesn’t want us to worship our nation alongside him, because that is idolatry. Instead, we are to love and proclaim God above any earthly realm.
Holy Ground
For me, there’s nothing quite like taking off my sandals in the summer and walking through the grass. But when our sons were infants, neither shared that love of going barefoot. When we’d attempt to lower them to play outside, they’d raise their legs, trying not to touch the tickly, prickly, green ground.
“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned Moses through the burning bush. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5, NIV). In God’s presence, Moses faced a turning point: either resist God’s instructions or obey, leading the Israelites out of Egypt.
Maybe taking off my sandals this summer can remind me that I’m standing in God’s presence. I may not hear a booming voice, and I might just be standing at the kitchen sink doing chores. Or I might be at a barbecue, with the opportunity to truly listen to my neighbors. God’s presence permeates life’s big moments as well as the mundane.
How can you “take off your sandals” and enter what God has for you?—Janna Firestone
Tips for Gardeners
“Love is to the heart what the summer is to the farmer’s year,” said evangelist Billy Graham. “It brings to harvest all the loveliest flowers of the soul.” Without summer, our gardens would disappoint, and without love, our hearts wouldn’t bloom.
The warmth of summer and love aren’t the only ingredients required for abundant physical and spiritual crops, however. Discernment and persistence ensure fruitful yields in both areas. “Unless we know the difference between flowers and weeds, we are not fit to take care of a garden,” advised Clyde Francis Lytle. “It is not enough to have truth planted in our minds. We must learn and labor to keep the ground clear of thorns and briars, follies and perversities, which have a wicked propensity to choke the word of life.”
Echoing God’s Goodness
Roald Dahl’s 1988 novel Matilda, since adapted for stage and screen, tells of a young girl surrounded largely by abusive adults. With her exceptional intelligence, wit and courage, Matilda decries her father’s lying and cheating, resists injustice against her classmates and kind teacher and, in the end, refuses to perpetuate a cycle of revenge. A community-theater director in Minnesota wrote in the musical’s playbill, “Her story reminds us that strength isn’t always loud, and power doesn’t always look like we expect.”
That also aptly describes Jesus, who came not with what society deems strength and power. Instead, the Messiah showed that true strength is kind, compassionate and sometimes quiet. True power is not bullying and domination, but giving of oneself in love. Refusing to curse his opponents or even his executioners, Jesus prayed for their forgiveness, demonstrating how to end cycles of violence and death.
Humans — no matter how brilliant! — can go only so far by themselves. That’s why Jesus went farther, rising to new life and defeating death entirely. But in the world around us, particularly in books, plays and other works of art, we can catch echoes of God’s goodness. Inspired by characters like Matilda and real-life neighbors who uplift others, we too can echo God’s goodness. While we trust above all in our Savior Jesus, let’s work courageously and creatively for kindness and care. —Heidi Hyland Mann
July Mission of the Month: It’s All About Kids