Trinity United Methodist Church, San Diego

06/07/2026

06/07/2026

Daily Devotional from "Walking in Grace 2026: Daily Devotions to Draw You Closer to God"

Sunday, June 7

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. —Romans 8:18 (ESV)

On a balmy June Sunday, I glanced down at my phone and saw a message from Snow’s caretaker. Six months prior, our family had made a tough decision to rehome our horse, Snow, since my daughter’s skill had outgrown her and we wanted Snow to be able to teach other little girls to ride. The message explained Snow had had an accident and would be euthanized the following day.

My family was completely gutted. With tears and a heavy heart, I and my children, Jacques and JoElla, rushed immediately to Snow’s side. Not knowing the condition we would find her, we prayed for Snow’s comfort and prayed we would have strength for the goodbye we never planned on having.

When we reached Snow, she was alone in a stall and immediately whinnied when she saw us. She remembered! She put her head down, like old times, and I rubbed the top of her forehead. We spent some time with Snow, then clipped part of her tail to take home with us, thankful Snow’s new caretaker allowed us this time with her.

On the way home, Jacques asked why I took part of her tail. I explained there was a horsey-people saying, “The best horses in heaven—they have no tail.” I explained our piece of Snow’s tail would be a physical remembrance to keep her close to us.

We commemorated Snow’s place in our lives with a bracelet and an ornament. Our little mementos of Snow still remind us that God bestowed the blessing of a lifetime on our family when He gave us Snow to love.

Dear Lord, may we continually seek Your comfort in times of hardship and open our hearts to Your blessings. Amen. —Jolynda Strandberg

God Bless!✝️🙏
Carl T(Tim) Fritts

06/06/2026

Daily Devotional from "Walking in Grace 2026: Daily Devotions to Draw You Closer to God"

Saturday, June 6

Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor fearful. —John 14:27 (NASB)

My sister and I stood at the sliding glass door of our oceanfront hotel in the Bahamas watching the unexpected storm. Rain pelted the glass. The wind rattled the windows with its fury. The sea raged. Yesterday it had been a lovely, tranquil blue. Today it was gray, foamy, and fierce. Sandy enjoys watching storms. Me, not so much. Besides, the weather was keeping us confined to our hotel instead of strolling the beach to look for shells and enjoying conch stew on the restaurant’s patio. Ever cheerful, Sandy retrieved a deck of cards from her suitcase and challenged me to a gin rummy competition. As I tried to swallow my disappointment, I couldn’t help but think of other unexpected squalls in life that dash one’s hopes and ruin one’s plans—tragic accidents, job loss, the death of a loved one. I reminded myself that Jesus, the master of the sea, calmed the storm without any difficulty at all. He understands life’s storms too.

American author Willa Cather once said, “There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.” That’s true. Through the squalls of life, I’ve learned patience. I’ve witnessed goodness and kindness. I’ve learned to trust God more fully, knowing He is more than able to see us through any situation in life, no matter how overwhelmed we might feel at the time.

The Lord indeed saw us through that squall too. He blessed us the next day with sunshine, which we enjoyed immensely while relishing another bowl of spicy conch stew on the restaurant patio.

Precious Jesus, thank You for being with me during life’s storms. —Shirley Raye Redmond

God Bless!🙏✝️
Carl T(Tim) Fritts

06/05/2026

Come Do Life with Us at Trinity UMC this Sunday, June 7 at 10a.m.!

06/05/2026

Daily Devotional from "Walking in Grace 2026: Daily Devotions to Draw You Closer to God"

Friday, June 5

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. —Psalm 16:11 (NIV)

I’m sometimes asked how I find ideas for my devotions. I’d love to say they are divinely given, but it’s not that easy and I’m not that blessed. I think the Lord wants me to work a little harder.

The first devotion I ever wrote, some 30 years ago, was a story about a minor spat between my late wife, Julee, and me concerning the exact measurement of ingredients for perfect guacamole. I had no idea what to do with the piece until my editor pointed out that buried in the disagreement was a faith lesson about marriage and love.

That was good writing advice and even better spiritual guidance. I became a kind of detective searching for clues of God’s presence in my daily life. The more I searched, the more I discovered evidence of His divine touch in the otherwise most ordinary moments—bathing my dog, interviewing a prospective employee, changing a flat tire, filing my taxes. Nothing was too small for God to have a part in. It was for me to recognize those conjunctions.

Not all these clues amount to a devotion. Most don’t. But they open my eyes to the tangible wonder of God’s presence, reminders that moment by moment I never walk through life alone. I believe everyone can find these clues whether they write devotions or not—for the lesson is in the moment, there for us to discover.

Where did I get the idea for this devotional? One of you asked!

Lord, help my soul see what my eyes don’t. —Edward Grinnan

God Bless!✝️🙏
Carl T(Tim) Fritts

06/05/2026

Sometimes a poem finds you at exactly the right moment.

I've listened to this one more times than I can count this week.

It's a poem about hope.
About possibility.
About the ways we carry each other through this life.

And about saying yes... to love, to courage, to compassion, and to the beautiful work of being human together.

Take a few minutes and listen.

Then tell me which line stays with you.

Andrea Gibson
"Say Yes"

When two violins are placed in a room if a chord on one violin is struck
the other violin will sound the note
If this is your definition of hope
This is for you
The ones who know how powerful we are
Who know we can sound the music in the people around us
simply by playing our own strings
for the ones who sing life into broken wings
open their chests and offer their breath
as wind on a still day when nothing seems to be moving
Spare those intent on proving god is dead

For you when your fingers are red
from clutching your heart
so it will beat faster
For the time you mastered the art of giving yourself for the sake of someone else
For the ones who have felt what it is to crush the lies
and lift truth so high the steeples bow to the sky
This is for you

This is also for the people who wake early to watch flowers bloom
Who notice the moon at noon on a day when the world
has slapped them in the face with its lack of light
For the mothers who feed their children first
and thirst for nothing when they’re full

This is for women
And for the men who taught me only women bleed with the moon
but there are men who cry when women bleed
men who bleed from women’s wounds
and this is for that moon
on the nights she seems hung by a noose
For the people who cut her loose
and for the people still waiting for the rope to burn
about to learn they have scissors in their hands

This is for the man who showed me
the hardest thing about having nothing
is having nothing to give
Who said the only reason to live is to give ourselves away
So this is for the day we’ll quit or jobs and work for something real
We’ll feel for sunshine in the shadows
look for sunrays in the shade

This is for the people who rattle the cage that slave wage built
and for the ones who didn’t know the filth until tonight
But right now are beginning songs that sound something like
people turning their porch lights on and calling the homeless back home

This is for all the s**t we own
and for the day we’ll learn how much we have
when we learn to give that s**t away
This is for doubt becoming faith
For falling from grace and climbing back up
For trading our silver platters for something that matters
like the gold that shines from our hands when we hold each other

This is for the grandmother who walked a thousand miles on broken glass
to find that single patch of grass to plant a family tree
where the fruit would grow to laugh
For the ones who know the math of war
has always been subtraction
so they live like an action of addition
For you when you give like every star is wishing on you
and for the people still wishing on stars
this is for you too

This is for the times you went through hell so someone else wouldn’t have to
For the time you taught a 14 year old girl she was powerful
This is for the time you taught a 14 year old boy he was beautiful
For the radical anarchist asking a republican to dance
cause what’s the chance of everyone moving from right to left
if the only moves they see are NBC and CBS

This is for the no becoming yes
For scars becoming breath
For saying I love you to people who will never say it to us
For scraping away the rust and remembering how to shine
For the dime you gave away when you didn’t have a penny
For the many beautiful things we do
For every song we’ve ever sung
For refusing to believe in miracles
because miracles are the impossible coming true
and everything is possible

This is for the possibility that guides us
and for the possibilities still waiting to sing
and spread their wings inside us
‘Cause tonight saturn is on his knees
proposing with all of his ten thousand rings
that whatever song we’ve been singing we sing even more
The world needs us right now more than it ever has before
Pull all your strings
Play every chord
If you’re writing letters to the prisoners
start tearing down the bars
If you’re handing our flashlights in the dark
start handing our stars
Never go a second hushing the percussion of your heart
Play loud
Play like you know the clouds have left too many people cold and broken
and you’re their last chance for sun
Play like there’s no time for hoping brighter days will come
Play like the apocalypse is only 4…3…2
but you have a drum in your chest that could save us
You have a song like a breath that could raise us
like the sunrise into a dark sky that cries to be blue
Play like you know we won’t survive if you don’t
but we will if you do
Play like saturn is on his knees
proposing with all of his ten thousand rings
that we give every single breath
this is for saying–yes
This is for saying yes

06/04/2026

Daily Devotional from "Walking in Grace 2026: Daily Devotions to Draw You Closer to God"

Thursday, June 4

Everything they do is done for people to see. —Matthew 23:5 (NIV)

Hey, Mom,” Aurora piped up from the back seat, where she’d been reading a magazine on our drive home from school. “Did you know that the word polite comes from polish?”

I hadn’t known that, but we both wanted to know more, so when we got home, we looked the words up in the Online Etymology Dictionary. And sure enough—it said that polite comes from the Latin word politus, which means “refined, elegant, accomplished”—literally “polished,” because it is the past participle of polire, “to polish, to make smooth.”

“So they’re both about how people act and how things feel on their surfaces,” I told Aurora. I thought of the Pharisees and the well-polished exteriors of their cups. Jesus made no secret about what He thought of those, yet it’s still a trap I fall into all the time. Because working on polishing the inside of my cup means I first must allow it to be seen, and it’s so much easier to worry about policing behavior—mine and others’—than it is to risk showing those imperfect, unpolished parts of myself to the world.

But then I think about those moments when I’ve felt most loved. It sure wasn’t when I’d finally managed to convince someone of my refined manners or perfect rule-following. Quite the opposite. It was when all those things failed me, and, braced for rejection, I’d found real and tender acceptance instead. In moments like that, I’m so grateful to know that God’s already fully aware of what’s on the inside of my cup, and that His strength is made perfect via those very weaknesses.

Your love is perfect, God. I’m not. Thank You for sharing it with me anyway. —Erin Janoso

God Bless!🙏✝️
Carl T(Tim) Fritts

06/03/2026

This Week Around North Park + Trinity: June 1 - 6

Check out our latest Zine! https://heyzine.com/flip-book/e8256f9afa.html

Pastor Jen's feature on Leeanne Ward: "The People Who Make a Community" https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PkiFRDicmvLV_trFdXln8j9mvzGRDhGvNf9S_-6etqI/edit?usp=drivesdk

AND our Kite Flying Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/Fq6jTZ5VzmU?feature=shared

06/03/2026

Daily Devotional from "Walking in Grace 2026: Daily Devotions to Draw You Closer to God"

Wednesday, June 3

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. —Galatians 6:2 (NIV)

Frustrated with my friend Leanne, I headed out to work in my garden. I figured I could take out my displeasure by w**ding between the rows. Leanne and I had planned to attend a Bible conference in October. I made sure she was committed, because several times in the past she had canceled at the last minute. As soon as the registration was open, I paid for the conference and booked the hotel and flights.

Now, a week before we were scheduled to leave, Leanne did it again. She called, apologized with some flimsy excuse, and canceled. Remembering our all-too-short conversation, I yanked at a stubborn w**d.

All the planning, all the expense. I should have known. What kind of friend was she, anyway? I continued grumbling under my breath as I worked my way down the row. With my energy spent, I looked down at the pile of wilting w**ds and realized they were like my negative thoughts: useless. Instead of letting my disappointment get the better of me, I needed to pray and uncover the real reason Leanne had canceled, convinced it wasn’t the one she’d mentioned.

With my head and my heart in a better place, I called Leanne and asked what I could do to help her. It didn’t take long to learn she’d been going through a difficult time fighting depression. We discussed what was going on in her life, and afterward she agreed that the best way to deal with the darkness was to step into the light.

Leanne and I thoroughly enjoyed the conference. We were blessed by every single session—so much so that we both signed up for the same conference the following year.

Friends are precious, Father, and I thank You for Leanne. Help us continue to encourage each other. —Debbie Macomber

God Bless!✝️🙏
Carl T(Tim) Fritts