Will Vaus

Monday at dawn Seagulls crying in the sky I stood in the surf and poured out your ashes Like the sands of time In an hourglass run out The beauty of your life Reduced to a few grains But the Person you followed Through all the twists and turns Of your earthly journey Spoke these words… Unless a grain of wheat Falls into the earth and dies It remains a single grain But if it dies, it bears much fruit Any fool can count The seeds in an apple But only God can count The apples in one seed Your life was a seed That bore the fruit of my being You planted the seed of the Word In countless lives If mortals die, will they live again? All the days of my service I will wait Until my release comes Maybe then I will hold you again Because of the One who holds me now The One who was held on a cross to die Amen … May it be

I hope you enjoy watching the video above with snapshots of my mother's extraordinary life set to the music of Robin Mark whose artistry she loved. I prepared the video and the remarks below for my mother's memorial service (2 of them!) in October and November 2019... “And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.” ​​​Mark 14:9  There aren’t enough words, or the right words, to describe someone I have known all my life, Even before I knew words at all. Before I knew anything else, I was cloistered in the womb, listening to the beat of my mother’s heart. In time, like all of us, I would be born, and come to know, and take for granted, my mother’s devotion.  Mom devoted her life to God, to her husband, and to her children. Her relationship with God was lifelong and heartfelt. The seeds of faith were planted when, as a little girl, she attended Sunday School at the First Baptist Church...

Do you remember Daytimers? I used to use one until just a few years ago. I kept all my appointments written in it. Now most of us use smartphones to keep a record of our appointments. However and wherever you use one, calendars are important for helping us remember to be in the right place at the right time. But have you ever noticed that some of the most significant things that happen in our lives aren’t on our calendars? Sometimes it is the things we haven’t planned for, serendipitous encounters, that turn out to be life-changing. Such was the case for a man we read about today in our Gospel passage from Luke 19:1-10. Listen for God’s word to you… Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, becau...

According to the Pew Research Center, 55% of Americans say they pray every day, while 21% say they pray weekly or monthly and 23% say they seldom or never pray. Even among those who are religiously unaffiliated, 20% say they pray daily. Women (64%) are more likely than men (46%) to pray every day. And Americans ages 65 and older are far more likely than adults under 30 to say they pray daily (65% vs. 41%). 45% of Americans – and a majority of Christians (55%) – say they rely a lot on prayer and personal religious reflection when making major life decisions. The same survey found that 63% of Christians in the U.S. say praying regularly is an essential part of their Christian identity. [1] I wonder: what is prayer like for you and how does it figure in your life? In our Gospel reading for today, Jesus tells a story about two people at prayer. Listen for God’s word to you from Luke 18:9-14… He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves...