Peaceful living

I sat this morning with my sister discussing how our upbringing has taught us about what we do and do not want to be like. With regret we talk about those we love and how they have not been able to use their experience and knowledge in loving ways rather than preaching and nagging…how our relationships with them have always been full of conflict. We talk about how some people are remembered for their loving, peaceful lives and others for their anger and the strife they bring to everyone around them. Then, I read this in a daily e-mail…


The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
- James 3:17-18

Beautiful is the moment in which we understand that we are no more than an instrument of God; we live only as long as God wants us to live; we can do only as much as God makes us able to; we are only as intelligent as God would have us be.
- Archbishop Oscar Romero, from his last homily, March 23, 1980


God speaks and we must listen - or else we too will be remembered not for the peace of God shown through our lives, but for the lack thereof. Someone once told me that I was not called to be effective, but faithful. I pray for all of us who have a difficult time with this concept.

Holy Ground

A friend told me today that he and his wife visited Camp Bethel this past Saturday. After all these years, it was good, he said, to be back on those grounds. He told his wife, "this is indeed holy ground."

It is wonderful that even though our physical world can change so much, the holiness of God remains the same.

Divinity revealed

I sat working on a prayer shawl while also watching a dvd of Dena Pence Frantz's theological study at NOAC 2006. At a certain part of the presentation, Frantz speaks of icons and their place in the history of the church. She says that the group will look at "how the artistic drive to portray the divine presence of God is a spiritual quest." Frantz explains how the artists had to contend with the questions "how is the divine revealed in physical earthly things?" and how can we depict something we may see and yet something that is beyond our capacity to see?

As I sat working on that shawl, I related somewhat to those Bizentine artists. My desire to create the shawl is somewhat of a spiritual quest. I want to bring the presence of God to another through the warmth and comfort of the shawl; to bring the knowledge that they are cared for and loved; to bring to them the hope and peace that is God. I also have found that the presence of God is with me as I create the shawls. I pray that my heart would be right with God before and while I am working; find that I feel a sense of peace within my own being; find my heart filled with compassion and love for the person to whom the shawl may go - whether I know them or not.

My prayer is that these physical earthly bits of yarn would reveal some of the divine to both the receiver and myself and bring about a desire to seek that which is beyond our capacity to see.

Unwritten

I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined
I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in

No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with eyes wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines
We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can't live that way

NATASHA BEDINGFIELD

What?

Choir director - "I don't know what to call that part of the music."
Tenor - "How about "the beginning?"

Sometimes the most obvious things are so far beyond our understanding.

The walk

On this morning 26 years ago, I was waking up to my wedding day. My parent's house was to be filled with family from Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. First Church would be filled with friends, family and people I didn't know.

"Love isn't just walking into someone's life...it is walking in the same direction."

On this day 26 years ago, I began a walk with someone I love very much. Sometimes, our steps are not equal in length or speed, but God always seems to bring us back together.

I love you Rob.

aaah

clean vac, clean teeth, clean windows

I like clean.

Making it stick

"We discussed Paul writing to the Corinthians about things that were items of concern at that time and were asked if we were Paul writing to First Church instead of the Corinthians, what would we write about?"

"Did you say, "Get off your butts and do something?"

"No, I said, 'Keep going. You're not done yet."

Not quite as specific as I wanted to be, but then, I'm not sure the people in attendance could handle what I really wanted to say. Paul (Alwine, not biblical) said he felt that Paul (biblical) had to consider who he was writing to. He said that conversation was not just saying stuff, but it was saying things in a way that would stick with the listener. He felt that Paul (biblical) had to consider how people would take what he said and so he had to say it in a way that they would actually understand what he meant and not misunderstand his words because of their background...where they came from. He said he had to do the same thing when he wrote sermons.

Re one of my long-time teachers/mentors/friends:
Conversation. Not just talking, but making it stick.
Sermons. Not just talking, but making it stick.

Leah

Twenty years ago today, I waddled around my kitchen in my bathrobe trying to fix supper for Rob and Dana Beth. I grew more and more uncomfortable until I knew I was going into labor with our second child. As I lay on the bed, Rob started making arrangements for his parents to meet us at the hospital to take care of Dana Beth. She asked him, "What's the matter with Mommy?" "She's going to have the baby, " he responded. "She can't!" Dana Beth exclaimed! "She's got to go to the hospital first!"

And go we did to experience the birth of a beautiful little girl with a head full of wild dark hair.

Today, we remember and celebrate that birth and the beautiful young woman with long dark hair that is my Leah.

Happy birthday Lele. I love you.

Little boys

I miss having children in my home. Eric and Alec were here yesterday and we had a great time.

ice cream and neighbors

short committee meetings where nothing is talked about except the matter at hand, a yard full of little kids, hispanic gentlemen who share my love for coke floats also known as black cows, neighbors who pronounce "Mary" "Murrie" just like me, seeing that when it comes to carrying on a conversation with a one-year old, I've still got it

Rain, rain...

sitting on the porch watching the rain come down...its a good thing

knowing that some are being evacuated from their homes by it...not