Sierra, my 6 year old, and I went to dinner with my mom tonight. It had been a big day. Her big sister is on a girl scout trip so she has had mom and dad all to herself. Today she had mom and Nana all to herself. Glory! Anyway we were at a Cuban Restaurant and mom and I had ordered our drinks, mint tea. Sierra ordered lemonade, but our drinks came first, and our drinks were fancy with lemon wheels and lime wedges. Out of the corner of my eye I watched Sierra bow her head and fold her hands to pray. I knew immediately what she was she was doing. I asked if she was praying to God the great magician. "I want that on my drink. I want one of those", she said pointing to the lemon wheel. "So you are praying for God to do a magic trick" I asked half smiling. I told her she could have mine if she didn't get one on her drink. And then I proceeded with the following:
Well sometimes God works that way but what I know from the Bible is that God has given us all gifts and abilities and he expects us to use them. It is pretty awesome that you went to God first though. And so on...
We all do the same thing don't we? Sometimes we sit back and expect God to do some kind of cosmic magic trick. It's not that He can't but I think He expects more from us. God has partnered with humankind since the beginning of creation and God does not change. We are all uniquely gifted and purposed, we all are on a trajectory into God's story. We can set back and hope for the best and let life pass us by or we can use those God-given gifts and talents and live into those purposes and all of their implications.
Oh ya, as soon as Sierra's drink arrived sans the lemon wheel she snatched mine!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
With blessing comes responsibility...
Gosh so much has been running around in my head lately I need to start carrying a recorder with me or writing stuff down. I think I started three sermons today on a short road trip but right now I could hardly tell you what about it.
Instead what I am thinking about the other day when I was finishing up some time in study and prayer and was just overwhelmed at how much I have. To many it may not look like much and to some I may look like a princess but I just sat amazed at all God has blessed me with, the simple wonderful things that we all want in life, a nice home in a comfortable community, good health, healthy children, a loving husband, a supportive family and friends, an awesome church family, a great part-time job, all of our basic needs are met. I can look out my window and see beautiful green trees and grass hear birds singing outside, the rain falling, the sun shining. I can choose what I want to eat, drink, wear. And I have a relationship with my Creator. He knows every hair on my head and He is teaching me about who He created me to be. Really I have so much more than I deserve considering there are so many people that go without every single one of these things. I'm not talking about people in some far away place but people in my county. People with kids who go to the same school my kids do. I am so humbled.
Last week see, I met with a mom who has none of this. She has just been introduced to Jesus and she has just started coming to church. She is perplexed by all of these strangers that care and want to help her and she keeps stopping to ask why. Time and again she has been told that she is only the recipient of what we ourselves have received, that God is the reason and that she is loved. Still she is perplexed. It is alot to take in really. When you have gone your whole life and the world has told you one thing about yourself and you believed it and suddenly you are being told something else, well. Anyway we all have that responsibility. We have been so blessed and we have a great responsibility as a result. As the body of Christ, the church in the world, we are called to live counter to the world, this is what it looks like. To God be the glory.
Instead what I am thinking about the other day when I was finishing up some time in study and prayer and was just overwhelmed at how much I have. To many it may not look like much and to some I may look like a princess but I just sat amazed at all God has blessed me with, the simple wonderful things that we all want in life, a nice home in a comfortable community, good health, healthy children, a loving husband, a supportive family and friends, an awesome church family, a great part-time job, all of our basic needs are met. I can look out my window and see beautiful green trees and grass hear birds singing outside, the rain falling, the sun shining. I can choose what I want to eat, drink, wear. And I have a relationship with my Creator. He knows every hair on my head and He is teaching me about who He created me to be. Really I have so much more than I deserve considering there are so many people that go without every single one of these things. I'm not talking about people in some far away place but people in my county. People with kids who go to the same school my kids do. I am so humbled.
Last week see, I met with a mom who has none of this. She has just been introduced to Jesus and she has just started coming to church. She is perplexed by all of these strangers that care and want to help her and she keeps stopping to ask why. Time and again she has been told that she is only the recipient of what we ourselves have received, that God is the reason and that she is loved. Still she is perplexed. It is alot to take in really. When you have gone your whole life and the world has told you one thing about yourself and you believed it and suddenly you are being told something else, well. Anyway we all have that responsibility. We have been so blessed and we have a great responsibility as a result. As the body of Christ, the church in the world, we are called to live counter to the world, this is what it looks like. To God be the glory.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Reflections
I am reflecting on the last 5 months, mostly because my semester is ending, the girls are out of school after tomorrow, and I am worn out, but wonderfully full. Wow what a five months. Honestly I don't know how I made it through...well....I do. Chaplaincy internship, internship at church, part-time job, two classes, two children and my sweetheart. Phew. Oh also there is the Youth Girls small group I co-lead with my bud Linda, a young woman I have been mentoring individually, the monthly cook and freeze sessions my other bud Carol and I have been doing. I really don't like having such a packed schedule. I am definitely looking forward to a lighter load, however in reflecting I am so grateful for the journey.
I kinda feel like I am growing (read God is growing me) into a pastor type person. I am doing things more regularly like praying over people, counseling and shepherding them through challenges, doing things in ways I never thought, helping in ways I never thought, etc. etc. etc. People are starting to seek my advice, look to me for the answers, and help. Some of this happened before, but now I feel like the opportunities to minister are pouring all over me. This is humbling and wonderful. Exciting and terrifying. In reflecting, especially in the vulnerable, stripped bare, who are you really? and who is God in the hardest moments? times in chaplaincy I have had a few big revelations about me. One of them is this....I have become the person that I needed to meet at so many points in my own life. It sounds crazy but it breaks my heart for me. I stand amazed at what God has done and continues to do in me. I am certainly not yet fully formed but am more excited about being the clay.
Isaiah 64:8Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Philippians 1:6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
I kinda feel like I am growing (read God is growing me) into a pastor type person. I am doing things more regularly like praying over people, counseling and shepherding them through challenges, doing things in ways I never thought, helping in ways I never thought, etc. etc. etc. People are starting to seek my advice, look to me for the answers, and help. Some of this happened before, but now I feel like the opportunities to minister are pouring all over me. This is humbling and wonderful. Exciting and terrifying. In reflecting, especially in the vulnerable, stripped bare, who are you really? and who is God in the hardest moments? times in chaplaincy I have had a few big revelations about me. One of them is this....I have become the person that I needed to meet at so many points in my own life. It sounds crazy but it breaks my heart for me. I stand amazed at what God has done and continues to do in me. I am certainly not yet fully formed but am more excited about being the clay.
Isaiah 64:8Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Philippians 1:6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
How mysterious!
Well I hit my end of semester wall and had to do something a little crazy so I went out and got myself some hot pink highlights. See, after a semester of hitting the books and having to say no to too many invites from friends and projects I would love to be doing, and children that would like more of my attention, I feel a little pent up and hemmed in. Right about now I get a hankering to do something wild. I starting thinking about why I have chosen two times to do extreme highlights and once to get a tattoo and I came up with this explanation...
One thing I prize is transparency and authenticity, mine and that of others. I never want to be thought of as unapproachable as a pastor or as not real. I am a very real person in every way, shape, and form. I want so much to meet people where they are in order to offer them the Jesus I know and share the love I have been given. That is hard to do when someone is not being real, if they are acting like they have it all together, when they don't. This I know, we are all broken and we all need each other! So I intentionally pursue transparency. The wild hair, for those that know me, makes them think twice...maybe I don't know her like I thought. For those who don't know me I think they regard me in a certain way at first sight. But there is soooo much more there than how I look. But you wouldn't know if you didn't take the time to get to know me.
That's my explanation. Keep 'em guessing but make them curious!
How transparent are you?
One thing I prize is transparency and authenticity, mine and that of others. I never want to be thought of as unapproachable as a pastor or as not real. I am a very real person in every way, shape, and form. I want so much to meet people where they are in order to offer them the Jesus I know and share the love I have been given. That is hard to do when someone is not being real, if they are acting like they have it all together, when they don't. This I know, we are all broken and we all need each other! So I intentionally pursue transparency. The wild hair, for those that know me, makes them think twice...maybe I don't know her like I thought. For those who don't know me I think they regard me in a certain way at first sight. But there is soooo much more there than how I look. But you wouldn't know if you didn't take the time to get to know me.
That's my explanation. Keep 'em guessing but make them curious!
How transparent are you?
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Here's a question for you...
The more I know the less I understand. Well that's an understatement. I have been working on the Board of Ministry questions that I will have to have answered before I go in front of them in the ordination process. All told that is probably two years off. I am working on them for a class this semester on United Methodist Polity and Discipline. It's a great opportunity to take a first attempt at these soul searching questions.
So, I am working on them and a quesiton came to mind that I am sure I will be asked when I am defending my answers in interviews.
If all God created was good, and evil exists, did God create evil? If so how is evil good?
I have my own ideas about all this. What do you think?
So, I am working on them and a quesiton came to mind that I am sure I will be asked when I am defending my answers in interviews.
If all God created was good, and evil exists, did God create evil? If so how is evil good?
I have my own ideas about all this. What do you think?
What defines you?
Heard some wisdom. Had to share. "We are so good at defining what we are against that what we are against has come to define us." Julia Butterfly
Really it comes down to your motivation and the condition of your heart. Do you mean to be right? To have your way? Do you even know what you believe, YOU, not what your mom and dad, husband, gradparents, told you was true or right. What do you believe? Why do you believe it? so many of us skate through life never thinking these things out. I have spent the last several years doing just that. Now about to finish my second year at Asbury I have not only thought about it. I have have had to articulate it....over and over and over again.
It seems that so many of us have our backs up about this or that wee come off as defensive and off putting. You know kind of like that ugly Christian that wants to cram Jesus down your throat. Anyway, just stuff I have been thinking about. Stuff that is rolling around in my head. It makes more sense to know what you believe and why. But before you tell others to believe what you do, find out what they believe and why. Sounds like a wonderful way to start a real dialogue don't ya think? Then real sharing can happen.
A proverb that I think constantly about, especially since my mission to Jordan and my Anthropology for Mission class:
He who answers before listening--that is his folly and his shame. Proverbs 18:13
Bottom line, don't think you have all of the answers if you have not even taken the time to figure out what the questions are.
Really it comes down to your motivation and the condition of your heart. Do you mean to be right? To have your way? Do you even know what you believe, YOU, not what your mom and dad, husband, gradparents, told you was true or right. What do you believe? Why do you believe it? so many of us skate through life never thinking these things out. I have spent the last several years doing just that. Now about to finish my second year at Asbury I have not only thought about it. I have have had to articulate it....over and over and over again.
It seems that so many of us have our backs up about this or that wee come off as defensive and off putting. You know kind of like that ugly Christian that wants to cram Jesus down your throat. Anyway, just stuff I have been thinking about. Stuff that is rolling around in my head. It makes more sense to know what you believe and why. But before you tell others to believe what you do, find out what they believe and why. Sounds like a wonderful way to start a real dialogue don't ya think? Then real sharing can happen.
A proverb that I think constantly about, especially since my mission to Jordan and my Anthropology for Mission class:
He who answers before listening--that is his folly and his shame. Proverbs 18:13
Bottom line, don't think you have all of the answers if you have not even taken the time to figure out what the questions are.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
My cup runneth over!
Man I can't believe it has been a week since my last post. I am so overwhelmed now that i am at the end of the semester. Everything is just happening so fast. I have one more week of chaplaincy with one big paper for that, 2 more weeks of UM Polity and Discipline with a VERY big paper for that and a final exam, and 2 more weeks of Greek with one more quiz and a final for that. The girls are wrapping up their school year too so a lot of things going on with them. CRAZY! I remember someone asking me at one point in time to do something in the church and I told them that I could not possibly take on one more thing. My plate was too full! I remember their reply. It was something like well, so your cup runneth over. As long as you are not walking through the valley of the shadow of death. HA! No I am far from there, well in some ways. In other ways I find myself dying to self over and over again. Not a bad thing I know. It certainly gives one a different perspective.
Today was the National Day of Prayer. Have you prayed for your country? I had the pleasure of leading a time of guided prayer tonight. The turn out was meager but we prayed and God heard and all is well!
Right now included in my daily prayers are the requests for God guided thoughts and strength and perseverance to finish strong this semester. Please pray with me?!
Today was the National Day of Prayer. Have you prayed for your country? I had the pleasure of leading a time of guided prayer tonight. The turn out was meager but we prayed and God heard and all is well!
Right now included in my daily prayers are the requests for God guided thoughts and strength and perseverance to finish strong this semester. Please pray with me?!
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