Scout and the Big Stick

.....coming soon to a theatre near you!

Thank you

No matter how many years I do this, I never fail to be humbled
when I stop at the hospital, at the bedside of someone who is very ill.
It's clear that the person is in pain.
Sometimes they are barely conscious.
I'm not sure they know what I am doing.
But I pray.

I pray the Lord's prayer. And I pray for them, my own words,
for healing, strength, rest, comfort, wisdom.

And they say "thank you."

too bad for me

i am typing this with my right hand. i'm really not supposed to use my left hand at all.
but i have not been good.
i typed my funeral sermon and my elbow ached.
don't feel too sorry for me. it's not such a bad break.
i need to be patient but i'm not
plus i am discovering how hard it is for me not to write
just notes doodles and stuff
it's like not eating potato chips.
i don't mean typing
there's something about feeling a pen in my hand

some things are hard like
driving
washing my hair

some things are impossible though
i.e. opening jars
can't do it

i will still read blogs but probably not comment
for awhile

maybe i'll write some
haiku

Random Blessings

Today I went over to church to meet with a family regarding a funeral. I traveled side streets there and back, fighting the urge every once in awhile to stop the car to reach out and grab a bunch of lilacs.

It's that time of year.

Yesterday was Confirmation Sunday. Somehow, more than Easter, more than graduation, this marks the beginning of spring for me. Maybe it's the lilacs. Maybe it's the fresh young faces in their white robes. Part of me wishes we would switch Confirmation to fall, so it would be associated less with graduation; part of me loves Confirmation in the spring, with all the new life and hope, all at the same time.

I took a risk yesterday, preaching about half of my sermon from the floor, with just a few notes in my hand. I compared the gifts of the Holy Spirit with a "winter survival kit", with the tools we need as we are sent out on Christ's mission, sharing the wideness of God's love, expanding our own world at the same time. I got to speak directly to them, and I felt that they were listening, too.

I was incredibly tired after church, which was the day after younger Stepson's graduation in the Big Windy City to the north. That too was a blessed day, to be able to celebrate the accomplishments of a Young man of Value.

This morning we went to breakfast at the Birchwood Cafe, in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis. We haven't been there for awhile, but a beautiful spring morning, complete with lilacs, seemed like the right time to head down there. For me, it was also a trip down memory lane. Until I was in the 5th grade, my paternal grandparents lived in the Seward neighborhood, just two blocks down from where this cafe is now. We walked down to the house where they used to live, and I remembered standing at the bus stop across the street, while my grandma and I waited for the bus to take us downtown. I also remembered how all of us grandkids would walk one more block down to a convenience store where we would buy Milk Duds, Starbursts and other kinds of candy. I know the neighborhood has changed in the 30 years or so since I had spent time there, and I caught myself wondering who lives there now.

While at breakfast, my husband and I started planning our summer, just a little. While we will probably be taking Scout up to the North Shore sometime this summer, we both agreed that we wanted to carve out a little time to go see the Jeffers Petroglyphs over in Comfrey. I had won 4 vouchers to Minnesota historical sites at our church's annual Mardi Gras Breakfast, and we've been trying to figure out ever since how to use them.

After I got back from the church this afternoon, there was a big box waiting for me. It had finally arrived! All of the small items from the Revgals Big Event this April, the one I couldn't go to. There was also a coffee mug (signed by everyone) and a T-shirt.

Spring is pouring in the window. I'm thinking about a faith that's wide enough to include all of our lives and all of our activities, both ordinary and heroic, the tragic and the joyful. I'm thinking about a God whose arms are open to comfort the grieving, who gives strength for doing the dishes and cheering the home team and speaking up for children who are left behind. I'm thinking about a God who is big enough to be in small moments, a creative, redeeming, sustaining God.

What about you?

Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Denver

Here is a great video clip from my internship congregation in Denver. This congregation is also featured in the ELCA's ad Campaign: 'God's Work. Our Hands.'

hang-gliding

I broke my arm Wednesday late afternoon. I didn't think it was broken so I stuck with it through confirmation and the pizza party afterwards. We called the nurseline and she recommended going to ER which we didn't do. Instead I got up this morning and went to Urgent Care. I was the first patient, and it didn't take them long to tell me that I did, indeed break it.

It's the radial head, which is part of the elbow. I googled and found out that it's a common injury when you fall and try to break your fall by putting your flat hand out.

I don't have a cast, just a sling, but I'm supposed to check back in a week to see if I'm doing all right. If not, they might put a splint on.

This weekend I'm preaching, but trying to get ahead because we are going to step-son's graduation Saturday in Another Town. Typing is hard (longhand impossible), but one good thing is: I'm already about 2/3's done with the sermon (it's confirmation this weekend). So maybe I'll be ok tomorrow. Driving is no fun either, nor is eating. (I'm left-handed and of course I broke my left arm.)

The Doctor said 2 weeks if I keep my arm immobile like I'm supposed to.

Sometimes it hurts a lot, other times it doesn't bother me.

I don't have a real good story about how I broke it, so if anybody asks you tell them: hang-gliding. yeah. I broke it hang-gliding.

wind

our church council is meeting tonight, our regular monthly meeting. Lately we have been setting aside extra time for vision setting and brain storming every month.

we have a patio with a garden in the center of our building, an open space right in the middle of the building. tonight the patio door was open. A woman was working out there, her golden retriever helping her as she mulched and prepared the soil for spring flowers.

the wind was blowing wildly. sometime tonight we expect a storm, we don't know exactly when.

the wind was noisy, and I caught myself distracted more than once, looking over to the patio doors, wondering what was going on out there. at least one person wondered if we should close the doors, but others said no. we should leave them open.

I think they are righter than they know.

we should leave the doors open and let the outside in.

this evening we talked about all of the usual things that church councils talk about: leaking roofs, Sunday School Programs, stewardship drives, meeting times. but we also batted around words like "paradigm shift". we talked about getting people together in small groups, and asking them questions like, "where do you see God working in your life?" or "how do you express your faith in your daily life?"

(This is so much an improvement over a question I have heard and come to hate: "Does the church/or the pastor meet your needs?" It makes me tired just to hear this question. I would much rather meditate on the question of whether the church or its pastors are equipping us to be God's people in the world: speaking and acting love, justice and mercy.)

this morning I went to a breakfast meeting sponsored by the community organizing group Isaiah. Isaiah leaders don't have any problem talking about how God is working in their life. They are also pretty sure that God is working in the world. They believe that God is working in the world through them.

we should open the doors and let the outside in.

just outside the door a woman is preparing the soil.
just outside the door the wind is disturbing us
just outside the door the creation is groaning, waiting for redemption

The rain is coming.

I pray that it does not blow over.

Holy Spirit, come.