Not Said Often Enough

Dear God

Not said often enough

Grateful for your creation we are

I have faith

The world created by your hands

Your hands continually shape us

Like clay

Formed from the earth

Thank you

Love and creative energy

Surrounds every moment

Beauty, light,

Sounds, smells

Animals, people

Differences

Thank you

Hills, valleys

Sleeping, waking

Life

Thank you

Faith in you

Through times of troubles

Happiness

Sorrow

Thank you

Faith unites me

To you

My community

Thank you

You have faith in us

Faith that we will all get along

Stop killing

Start loving

Reconcile ourselves with each other

With you

Thank you

Faith

Hard to understand

But

My life

Unbearable without believing in you

Amen

Jen-n-tonic

The title of this blog may seem weird to some of you, but in the context of the Jan term class I'm thinking it is fitting. The class is called Ministering to Families of Alcoholics. The nickname is not to poke fun at those people who suffer from addictions at all. So I hope no one takes offense. Some people in my class are recovering addicts and they are very open about their struggle and the grace of God. I think this is something that is important and over looked in our society. I hope the following entry taken from a daily journal I'm required to do for the class, will help give some insight into God's grace that is for everyone.

Tonight while looking through a book for the spring term, I happened to open the book to a very fitting prayer. It comes from the book: Prayers from the Confessions by Augustine of Hippo. The title of the piece is: You did not let go of my soul. I feel it fitting to share this prayer in my daily journal. It reads as following:

Thanks to your hidden providence, O my God,

yours hands did not let go of my soul.

Through my mother’s tears

the sacrifice of her heart’s blood

was being offered to you day after day,

night after night,

for my welfare;

and you dealt with me in wondrous ways.

You, my God, you it was who dealt so with me;

for our steps are directed by the Lord,

and our way is of his choosing.

What other provision is there for our salvation,

but your hand that remakes what you have made?

This prayer reminds me of the potter and the clay story in the Old Testament where the potter is continually reworking his clay until it is perfect, just like God is continually reworking us until we are made complete and perfect in God’s eyes. Just like God is reworking and not letting go of us no matter what addictions we may hold in the center of lives. God is giving us grace we do not deserve and can not earn. God is giving us second, third, fourth, and fifth chances, maybe more. I believe that one thing God does through God’s grace is to remind us that when the time comes we will no longer reject God, we will no longer reject each other, and God promises to us that we will no longer sin and the world will be at peace.

The ties that bond

On December 8th 2007 a very extraordinary young woman was placed backed into the hands of God for eternal rest. She was the young women I wrote about in my October blog. I was doing pastoral care visit with her knowing she was going die from cancer.

What makes her so extraordinary was her faith in God, the hospitality she gave when she was sick, and how she embraced many people into her family. She connected people together. She was born in the village town of Dinka in the Sudan. She was on consist move from one place to the other as wars interpreted her and her family's life. They lived in refugee camps with the dream of resettling in America for a better life. In all these moves she lost her mother to illness and was separated from her family expect for two brothers. She fought for their dream of arriving in the states and in 2000 that dream came true. Her brother is being fostered by a wonderful family. When she got cancer she too was taken in by the same family and cared for with love. And she reciprocated that love far beyond the reaches of the family that cared for her.

Whether she knew it or not, she tied a bound between many different people. She tied a bound between those who were members of her church, those in the state of VA, those in the United States, and those that lived around the world in Africa. Her service of witness to Resurrection united all those bounds in one place and it is one of the most beautiful things I have seen thus far at seminary.

The Sudanese Christian Congregation was there to offer up readings from the Bible, prayers and songs in her native language of Dinka. Hearing them speak in her native language was incredibility moving.

I think there is something powerful in listening to words that you may not understand. What exactly that something is I don't know. The best I can say is it's similar to the feeling I got when God called me into the ministry. Maybe it's God's way of telling those of us that knew, cared for and loved this young woman, that God was there supplying comfort, and drying our tears.

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

SHALOM
January 1st, 1983-December 8, 2007

You know your in seminary when....

Here are some ways you that you are in Seminary:

1) you read more than 300 pages in one night
2) you take more than 2 naps in the afternoon
3) As soon as you put your hard earned money from working at the library into your bank account, it is sucked right back out to pay for your rent.
4) you write more than 15 papers in one semester some of them totaling 10 pages single spaced.
5) you get a wonderful care package from you church and upon opening it you are really really excited about seeing a highlighter, a pen, cards, and a stress ball.
6) you walk into a church library for a youth bible study and upon entrance say "OHHH Commentaries"
7) when you hear a word in English you automatically think about what the word be in Hebrew.
8) Caffeine becomes a staple in your diet.
9) you have no life outside of church related activities
10) The topic for lunch discussion somehow always finds its way to the subject of Calvin or school related topics.
11) The number of funerals you attend increases

I will add to this list as I think of and observe new ones!

A Tribute to Uncle Bill

The Day you Died

The day he died the rain fell from the sky
From the laughter of the jokes in placed in God's eye

Your faithful servant answered his call
He knew your creation one and all.
He knew the name f every tree and the life it bore.
He knew every creature young and old and adopted them as one of his own.

The ministry he chose is one that froze the actions of the world.
He lived the life of humility to show us what living was all about.

He embraced many titles and the meanings within: Child, Husband, Father, Friend, Uncle, Grandpa, Servant, Leader, Preacher, Teacher.

He was a child at heart, a husband and father for eternity, a friend for all ages, an uncle to those from whom he knew at birth, a grandpa that was involved and loved, a servant of God, a leader of his own dreams, a preacher of life, a teacher of all things.

He left a legacy that will never be forgotten in the eyes of those who saw and heard and embraced.

He left a love that spans the world: love for his wife, his children, his grandchildren, those who called him uncle and those that saw him as a father.

He left a love for the world that we will carry on.

His work on earth is done, but what he has done will live on in the hearts of all those he touched.

It can be rest assured that God's servant was greeted with the word's "Well done good and faithful servant!"

Amen.

Matt. 25:31-46 : Who are the Least of These?

Here are some insights to pastoral care that I have learned after just two visits. In some cases it's just down right hard and in other cases it is the most wonderful and heart warming experience in the world. There is nothing like the power of God's presence in human interaction. We all know that God is present in every time and in every place. I also know that God is present in ways we may not be aware of until later. I know that we also forget that God is there more times than we may recognize God's presence. It is one thing to learn these things in a classroom setting and yet it is a completely different thing to experience it in the real world, in our lives. Taking my pastoral care class has forced me to open my emotions more so than I ever have because it requires going out and actually visiting the sick, homebound, or healthy. I have faced many of these in my own life, but it is very different doing it from the prospective of a pastor and having those you visit, knowing you are "in training," still in some light view you as a pastor.

I have the most wonderful opportunity to share the life of a young women from the Sudan (name and other specifics left out for confidentially purposes). She will eventually die from cancer and she is not much older than I. Her will to survive is not for herself, but for her younger brother. Her love and openness to share her life with me even though I have only visited with her twice is so humbling. She thinks more about her family in the Sudan and her family her in the states then she does about herself. She has had made a lasting impression on everyone she has met and it's not hard to see why. She is tired and dieing, yet she offers me brownies. She is tired and dieing, yet she offers me something drink. She is tired and dieing, yet she visits with me. She is tired and dieing, yet she takes my plate and proceeds to clean up after I have eaten my brownie. She is tired an dieing yet she worries about my allergies because of the two cats the family has in the house. She tired and dieing yet she teaches me. She has reversed the parable in Matt. 25:31-46. She seems to be taking care of the least of these, US (by us I mean those people in her life, like me, who are not sick, tired, and dieing). She recognizes God's presence in her every day life. She prays and she makes sure I will pray with her and her host mom before I leave. Maybe the least of these encompasses a much broader definition then we tend know. It seems to encompass not only people like herself who are tired, sick, in prison, thirsty, and hungry, but also US. Us who are not humble, us who forget God, us who don't recognize God's presence, us who only think of ourselves. This young woman has certainly taught me what this parable may also mean beside those who are healthy taking care of those who are sick, homeless, hungry, thirsty, tired, and in prison. She has shown me how those who are in need also teach us about God's presence in every day life and how God is in every place and in every time. Something we need to learn and should remember in all situations and interactions of life.

Casted UP!

This specifically goes out to the ICE MAN! (you know who you are).

So I woke up this past Saturday morning and was going about my day. I went to sit down in my desk chair with my right leg under my left leg (old camp still of sitting). As I sat down I felt this bad pain in my ankle. So I looked at my ankle and low and behold it's swollen and you can feel the fluid on and around it. So I went to the doctor that day and they took x-rays of my ankle. The doctor came in looked at my ankle felt it a little bit and then he was going to go look at my x-rays (he didn't sound very positive at the time so I was a little worried it was something worse). He got back and told me good news, it wasn't broken just appears to be a bad sprain. He gave me this big hard cast to wear for about week and told me not move ankle from side to side but to flex it up and down so it wouldn't get stiff. Then after about week to start drawing the ABC's with my foot. Also of course there was the stay off of it (ummm....he didn't know I was in seminary) and the ICE it! My foot has been COLD for about a week. (in the picture to the right you can see the swollen ankle; in the picture to left you can see the not swollen ankle, and in the picture below the hard cast I've been in for a week)

How did I sprain it you ask? The answer is truly I HAVE NO CLUE!! I think from having sprained my ankle so many times in my life that playing Frisbee on the quad at my school (a field that is very un-level) I hit one those dips and my ankle jutted down in towards the ground making it swell and pose as a sprain.

It is getting better now. It is still swollen back by the tendon in my heel which makes me think something is still wrong but I don't know. Overall, I can walk better and I'm not limping around as much, but I haven't been able to play ultimate Frisbee for going on two weeks now. I will be glad to not have to wear this brace much longer!

ICE MAN I hope your doing better. If I had been in The Woodlands I would have brought you some ice for your head. My prayers have been with you!