Great 'words' from cota folks

At the peace right after my sermon on the tongue and the power of our words, Jake Epker shared with me about "blessing."  We briefly talked about the idea that all our words fall into one category or the other: blessing or curse, that they fall on one side or the other of a gradient that ultimately results in blessing in curse.

Tom Aiken shared with me that when she was sharing a mission update with the church the week before, Stephanie Robinson thanked the people of COTA for "speaking life" into her.  What a great thing!  Let's do that more and more.

Tom also shared that around his house they talk about the fact that their words either build up or tear down - another way of saying blessing or curse, or life or death.

And Jim Lee reflected with me on the phrase "his words carry weight," and that we can think of that as meaning our words can weight people down, burden them with a heavy load;  our words can also relieve burdens and lighten the load.  This is part of Jim's passion and life mission - to share words and stories of grace that help remove shame and guilt and the heavy burden of so much religion, and impart life and peace and joy in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Great words from and for cota folks - those who are making cota an anglican church in a beautiful verbal landscape.

(In fact, newcomer JoJo Healy shared with me that she and Brian first came and loved COTA because of the retreat setting, but they kept coming back because of the beautiful verbal landscape... thanks be to God!)