Upper Room and Mrs. Edwards

This year, The Upper Room, a daily devotional guide produced by the Global Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church celebrates its 75th anniversary. Wow! For 75 years The Upper Room has been guiding individuals in their devotional time with God, a very powerful and important ministry. The devotionals are written readers like you and me! Clergy and laity mail in their short devotion with a bible verse(s) and prayer focus. The devotions are collected and printed in two-month intervals. Copies of The Upper Room can be found in the foyer of many United Methodist churches free for the taking.

In a world where daily devotionals can be emailed to cell phones or laptops, it seems the paper booklet maybe past its prime. After all, The Upper Room itself is available online here, complete with tweets, retweets, and facebook sharing. Do we really need to keep printing the paper copy?

This afternoon, I had a chance to visit with Mrs. Edwards. She is an older member of our church who is now home bound. Because she cannot drive, she rarely leaves her house. Private care workers stay the night and part of the day with Mrs. Edwards. I always enjoy our visits; she is such a lovely woman. Today she shared with me how much she uses The Upper Room devotional book; she reads the paperback devotional everyday before breakfast. The ladies that stay with her also read the booklet, usually in the morning while Mrs. Edwards awakes. Later, they gather around the dining table to eat breakfast and discuss the day's devotion. Everyday. Everyday! Wow! These ladies use the devotions as discussion starters for their own small-group!

Perhaps, because Mrs. Edwards is so dependent on others, she fears she has little to offer God. She is wrong. She has much to offer. She has found an effective way to be engaged in ministry in her setting. And I am sure that she is more effective at her breakfast table using The Upper Room than many clergy could ever hope to be. We can learn a lot from Mrs. Edwards, even though she will not be twittering her latest thoughts.

We should probably keep printing those paper booklets of The Upper Room.

Happy 75th anniversary to The Upper Room!

And, thank you Mrs. Edwards for all you do. God bless you.