There have been several songs written through the years about love being something the world needs now more than ever, with such examples heavy on my mind lately being “Where is the Love?” by the Black-Eyed Peas and “What the World Needs Now is Love” by Dionne Warwick. In watching recent news stories regarding the atrocities that have taken place in Minnesota at the hands of ICE, I feel that the lyrics of each of these songs are something that we ought to be paying closer attention to.

The hatred and atrocities brought on by the agents from ICE have taken on many forms, from the murders of Rene Good and Alex Pretti, who were innocent citizens, to the detaining of Liam Ramos, a five year old boy and his forceful separation from his parents all the while defense is being given that the ultimatum was to leave this young, innocent child wearing a blue, rabbit-eared hat to freeze, the hatred is speaking loud and stirring up conflict to the point that it feels impossible to find any sort of hope or love in the world and makes it easy to ask the question the Black-Eyed Peas ask: “where IS the love?”

While it seems impossible to find hope and think that love covers all wrongs at the moment, and it will surely take time for it to do so in this time, as Mister Rogers once said: “When I was a boy and would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You always find people who are helping.’” I feel that in this day and age, now more than ever, it’s crucial that we follow Mister Rogers advice that we look for the helpers, or strive to be helpers, to spread that love that the world desperately needs now.

God, please wrap your loving arms around everyone affected either by the tragedies taking place in Minnesota or those who are simply shaken up seeing more bad news being a constant. But help us not to forget to look for the helpers and try to help give even a faint gleam of love that the world desperately needs now so we may move towards a better tomorrow. In your name we pray, amen.

This devotion was written and recorded by Grace Jonas.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

A couple of years ago, my family and I took a trip to Normandy, France. We stood on Omaha Beach and Utah Beach. We walked through the American Cemetery, where row after row of white crosses stretch toward the sea. We drove through the Normandy countryside, where during World War II, American soldiers fought their way through hedgerows and small French villages. It's quiet there now. Beautiful, even. But you can still feel the weight of what happened in 1944.

Band of Brothers is a TV series based on the Stephen Ambrose book of the same name. I've read the book, and I've seen the series more times than I can count. It is a tradition in my house to watch all 12 hours of the series every Memorial Day.

It tells the story of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division—their experiences in World War II, from training in Georgia to celebrating the end of the war at Adolf Hitler's Eagle's Nest.

The men in Easy Company weren't related by blood. They came from different states, different backgrounds, different walks of life. They were just regular guys thrown together into an Army unit.

But their shared experiences changed that. By the time they reached the Eagle's Nest, they weren't just friends anymore. They were brothers—men who would die for each other, who knew each other's souls, who carried each other's pain.

The series takes its name from Shakespeare's Henry V. Before the Battle of Agincourt, King Henry tells his outnumbered soldiers: "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother." Shakespeare understood something about the way shared adversity affects people.

Which brings us to Proverbs 17:17: What's the difference between a friend and a brother?

The Hebrew word for friend is rea—someone you choose. But ach, the word for brother, carries the sense of being born into relationship. You don't choose your siblings; you inherit them.

So here's what the proverb is saying: Friends who love at all times—who show up in the hard moments, who stay when things get difficult—they become brothers. Adversity doesn't just test relationships; it transforms them into something deeper.

That's what happened to Easy Company. They chose to be friends, but combat forged them into brothers. Standing there in Normandy, I could almost see it—how every shared foxhole, every battle, every loss made them more family than some people born in the same house ever become.

And here's where this hits home for us: The Church isn't meant to be a social club of people who happen to share similar beliefs. We're called to be a family—brothers and sisters forged together through shared adversity.

What transforms us from friendly acquaintances into actual family? The same thing that transformed Easy Company. Showing up when it's hard. Sitting with someone through grief. Walking alongside them through doubt. Being honest about our own struggles instead of pretending we've got it all together.

Jesus calls us friends in John 15, but by the time we've walked through real life together—through loss and doubt and failure and redemption—we become something more. We become the family of God, brothers and sisters, not by birth but by choice made permanent through shared adversity.

So, who in your life has moved from friend to family? Who showed up when everyone else disappeared? And maybe more importantly, who needs you to be that person for them right now?

Father, thank you for the friends who became family by loving us at all times. Help us show up for each other in the hard moments, knowing that's where true brotherhood is forged. Amen.

This devotional was written and read by...

No one has ever seen God. That's a bold statement, and it might surprise us at first. What about Moses on the mountain? What about Isaiah's vision of the throne room? What about Ezekiel and the wheels within wheels?

But the Jewish teachers understood something important. Moses saw God's glory, but not God's face. Isaiah saw the hem of God's robe, the train filling the temple. Ezekiel was careful to say he saw "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." These are protective phrases, theological qualifiers. They saw manifestations, revelations, glimpses. But God's essence, God as God truly is, remains beyond human sight.

So if no one has ever seen God, how do we know God is real? How do we encounter the invisible?

John gives us the answer, and it is disarmingly simple. If we love one another, God lives in us. Love makes God visible. Not in some abstract, mystical sense, but in concrete, everyday action. When we love our neighbor, we are not just doing something nice. We are participating in a revelation. The unseen God becomes recognizable through human faithfulness.

We are made in God's image. That's what Genesis tells us. But that image is not a static thing we possess like eye color or height. It is something we enact. When love remains just a word, just a sentiment we feel but never act upon, the image stays hidden. But when love becomes active, when it takes the form of kindness and generosity and honest engagement with our neighbors, then the image of God becomes legible. People can read it in our lives.

This is what it means for God's love to be made complete in us. Not that we perfect ourselves, but that God's own character becomes visible through what we do. We become, in a sense, everyday theophanies. Not burning bushes or pillars of fire, but ordinary people through whom the invisible God shows up.

Our Father, we cannot see you with our eyes, but we can make you visible through our love. Help us to be faithful in this calling, so that others may catch a glimpse of you through us. Amen.

This devotional was written by Jim Stovall.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

Turn on the news, open Facebook, any social media sites, or check your preferred news sources, and you will invariably find angry, bitter comments and fighting words. Read or listen for a while, and opponents will soon start slinging angry comments at each other, tempers flare, words get nasty, and hatred boils.

Later, we may have conversations about our feelings on the debates we’ve heard, and our anger can grow into hatred for those ideas. Perhaps we even feel hatred for those who take the opposing side. That feeling of hatred can make us unhappy and uncomfortable and can lead to more conflict inside our thoughts. The hatred of the idea pushes us to feel conflicted toward the person and negative words may slip out. Hatred simmers. Where is LOVE?

The hated idea is not the person, but the person holding the hateful idea gets stuck in our feelings as an enemy. We don’t start out to hate someone, but those awful conflicting ideas that we disagree with are so hard to separate from the person! How can we forgive the person for the ideas we find detestable ,and how can we LOVE that person, in spite of the awful ideas?

Only with the help of God can we reach this goal. Only with the LOVE of Jesus can we get a handle on this dilemma. We must not let hatred stir up conflict in our hearts, for there it will boil over into words or actions and will control our thoughts. If we really focus on the Greatest LOVE ever known in the world – the LOVE God showed for us by giving His only begotten Son to die for us – then God’s LOVE can help to keep our feelings and emotions in check, even when we feel righteous anger.

God’s LOVE covers all wrongs. God’s LOVE can transform our angry feelings and relieve our conflict. God’s LOVE overflowing from our hearts can end the battle of ideas and keep us focused on the truth…God is LOVE, and he is asking us to live in that LOVE. He will help us to LOVE our enemy. He will help us to relieve our pain, but we have to allow His LOVE to be first in our minds and hearts.

Dear God, help us today and every day to center our hearts and minds in your LOVE. Draw us to you in prayer and help us to constantly forgive our enemies and to turn these worries over to you. Help us to remember that an idea is not the person. We don’t have to agree with bad ideas, but we have to find a way to LOVE the people who have the bad ideas, who take the bad actions. We have one job – LOVE YOU and LOVE our neighbors as we LOVE ourselves. Help us to stay focused on that job and to allow you to keep our thoughts covered in LOVE. We can’t change another’s thoughts, but we can change ours with your help. Help us keep our thoughts in LOVE. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

This devotional was written and read by Bernice Howard.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

Bonnie Ware spent a number of years as a palliative care nurse. She cared for the dying. Over the course of that time she heard a great many patients express regrets, and she began to catalog them. Some were particular to an individual, but many of them she heard from a lot of patients. She listed the ones she heard most frequently, and from that list and her experiences she wrote a book, “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.” Here are a couple of them.

The most frequent regret she heard was: I wish I had had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others wanted for me. In other words, I wish I had listened to my heart and followed my own dreams rather than trying to meet the expectations of others.

Number two was: I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. Every male patient who expressed regret said this. They were saying I wish I had spent more time with the people I love.

As I reflected on the most common regrets people have as they near the end of life, what strikes me is that all of them,at the base, have to do with relationships. Jesus told us that what is most important is our relationship with God, with others, and with ourselves. We call this the Great Commandment.

In contrast with those who ended up with a life of regrets, listen to the Apostle Paul. He says, “The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight (that is, I’ve given my life to what matters), I have finished the race (my life is ending), I have remained faithful.” No regrets!

It’s not too late for you and me to turn our regrets into resolutions.

I Resolve: to live an authentic life, not one someone else wants for me but one true to who I really am.

I Resolve: to put relationships first: my relationship with my Creator and my Savior, with central people in my life, and to engage everyone with kindness and helpfulness. So there are no regrets!

O Holy One, I have this one life to live. Help me not to waste it, but to make your priorities mine, and finish my race with faithfulness. Amen.

This devotional was written and read by Herb Sadler.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

We spend our lives learning how to live. The world is a complicated place. We get to a point where we have knowledge and experience, and we look around trying to solve problems. With an eye to help and being a servant, we try to help others.

We want to share. We want to help. We want to love. But sometimes, we think others should thank us for telling them what to do, how to do it, or when to do it. Since childhood, isn’t this how we’ve been told to react to someone who has gone out of their way to help us? Isn’t that what being polite and grateful is about? Heaven help us, we think that they should learn from us, be like us, and value what we have.

Where is the humility in this? With closer examination, neither the giving nor the thanking is an issue. So what is the issue then, but simply the expectation. What is humility if not simply abandoning expectation, leaving behind the expectation to be thanked, to be repaid, to be thought well of, to be praised, to be rewarded, to be noticed.

Humility is the ability to abandon expectation, both positive and negative. If we carry the love of God to others, then why be troubled by whether we are praised, insulted, or ignored? Let the faith and hope that God’s love brings us be shared regardless of whether others understand the motivation.

Let us begin each interaction by looking to what others need and want. Let us start with a question not an answer. Let us start by listening, not speaking. Let us start and end with love, not arrogance. Then the light and love that we share can shine brightest in a world that is filled with need.

God, forgive us each time we let pride in our accomplishments overshadow our gratitude for what you have shared with us. May we not expect to be given but grateful that we have been given love in such abundance that we should never want. May hope and faith lead us to share with others with no expectation other than your love being there for us every moment, Amen.

The devotion was written by Jill Pope and read by Susan Daves.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

Welcome to the Saturday episode of the Grace for All podcast. Thank you for joining us today. Saturday is a special time when we take a few moments to review the scriptures that we have cited in the episodes this week.

If you missed any of those episodes, you might want to consider listening to them today. And even if you heard them all, there may be one that you might want to listen to again. We hope that each of these scriptures and podcasts will bring you a full measure of joy, peace, and love.

Now, let's listen to the scriptures that have been on our hearts this week.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

In isolation the closing verse of Psalm 29 is a soothing verse. But in context, it is even more soothing.

It reminds me of a memory I have from childhood. I grew up in West Tennessee. Tornadoes were just part of the landscape, with 92 of them between 1960 and 1980. We didn’t have as many as the folks in Oklahoma. I once knew a guy from Oklahoma who claimed his home had a wind-checker by the front door. It was a knothole through which you poked a crowbar to test the wind. If the crowbar bent, you didn’t open the door. But we had a lot of tornadoes in West Tennessee, and even more storms that were nearly tornadoes.

We didn’t have a storm shelter, but my parents had their house built with a central hub instead of a hallway, including a windowless bathroom. I remember huddling with my family in that place of relative safety, insulated from the other rooms with windows that could break in the wind and scatter life-threatening glass shards. Many times we sat in that room lit only by candles with the power out, and listened to the winds howling outside.

When the storm passed, the quiet felt more peaceful, less taken for granted, than before the storm.

Psalm 29 seems to be a Psalm of David, written as he witnessed a storm sweeping in from the Mediterranean Sea, shattering cedars in Lebanon, and tearing through Israel destroying wilderness and forests before finally devolving into peace, leaving God still enthroned and his people at peace.

When God goes with us through the storms of life, it makes the peace he ultimately brings that much more profound.

Father, we face many storms in this life. You came to us in the person of Jesus and lived as one of us, among us, and so you know the storms of life firsthand, beyond the knowledge that comes from being our Creator. Thank you for the peace that passes understanding when we trust in you despite our circumstances. In the name of Christ we pray, Amen.

This devotion was written and read by Donn King.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.