Moments

I hope that i will sieze these fleeting moments. my world is so rich... and it's bizarre to think that all of that nothing amounts to something. reality is mostly empty space, nothing that is pose'n as something. and yet all of us exist.

these symbols you are reading aren't the images that are conjured in your head.

one day my daughter will speak in complete sentences, drive a car, find love and heartbreak and love again...



all we have is now and metaphors to try and capture it. even our best technology, video camera's that record in HD, digital camera's that can freeze and instant, are nothing compared to the present moment, and our memories of it. and by the time you recognize this moment, this moment will be gone, but you'll bend the light pretending that it some how lingered on.



rawk in these mountains and now diamonds will remain. we're live'n in this life together and we'll wait to find if it lasts forever...

forever and ever amen.

The Real Red Sea

so while i was in Hurghada, Kate was in the Cayman islands.

hard life, i know.

but it kinda was... even though i was in a wonderful location, snorkeling and seeing new fish and viewing fit europeans in tiny swimwear, i still missed my wife and Boogie (our child that's still in utero). every night i feel Boogie kick, as if he/she is trying to say 'hi'. messages from another world. i missed those. plus my roomate Steve snores. but i had no reason to complain as you'll see in the video:



meanwhile, here's what Kate was doing as evidenced by the pictures her parents took.

it was nice to know that Kate just wasn't at home during this week, it really kept me from worrying too much or fighting to get in contact daily with her.

we had devotions that evening, here's what i wrote:

Praise and thanksgiving, oh God!
I have seen God working in antiquity,
in human history,
in human relationships,
in human culture.

I give thanks to the Creator as I now realize that,
I may only see God in the other,
that I must first go into Egypt,
to be called out of it. (Matt 2:13)

Uncomfort creates growth.
Growth creates understanding.
Understanding, peace.

Praise be to God! Amen

Pastoral Prayer: Where We Look and Where Jesus Calls Us To Look

given at Trinity Reformed on 11.23.2008; inspired by Matt 25:34-46 and Doug Hagler's Mission Prayer over at Progressive Nostications.

I operate on the assumptions that there is no such thing as secular and there is no such thing as coincidence. I’m really into synchronicity or what the Catholic’s call Serendipity: things happening for a reason. I try to be attuned to the ever transmitting divine and see the world as illuminated. I think that’s what the text today is saying. Jesus is also directing our attention to places we wouldn’t and don’t want to look, namely the poor and hungry. With this in mind, let us pray:

God of nations and of peoples and of missions, it’s always a little jarring to learn there might be some distance between your mission and ours. We think we may have it right, that we’re doing a great job, but then you remind us where to look.

You remind us of the sick, the poor, the homeless. You never said to help them because they’re kind-hearted, or because they think rationally, or because they’ll understand and turn their lives around to live ones resembling ours. No… We want to out into the world bearing the truth, teaching others how they should live, what they should believe, giving and helping to show our generosity, and then returning home, content.

But that’s not what you; Jesus our Christ, would have us do. Yours is a larger mission, larger than us and all we can do. We go out and find You already there Your mission has begun, You are doing a new thing, going out into the world ahead of us. We meet You in outsiders, in strangers, in those we thought were only there to receive from us but it is we who receive and once again you are made strange and wonderful, not the domesticated God we carry out into the world but the true God we encounter already at work. You invite us to join You in Your mission which is already turning the world around.

Help us see you and response as you would, oh God. Guide us into a world that resembles the words your Son gave us when he said, OUR FATHER….

Benediction from Jesus is Punk Rock

Two critiques of Punk music is that it all sounds the same and each song has the same three chords. I contend that Jesus had three chords, namely, love of God, neighbor and self. How many different ways can you play those? Does every church sound the same?

Go forth and make your own tune in the name of God our creator and record producer, Jesus our inspiration and model, and the Holy Spirit who guides our fingers to the right notes. AMEN

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CHALLENGE!

SVS stated " Jesus seems like a throwback to old time rock n roll - retro - a call to the innocence and creativity of the genre when it first began (to borrow from your allegory)."


I've posted three songs that work for me that I'd call RADIO JESUS. I want to hear what y'all would post! Post a song in the comments where you sense the divine! What song sings to your heart? What song calls you to be a better person? Where do you meet God/Jesus/the Spirit in music (secular or otherwise)? I'm interested to know what that sounds like!

In otherwords, LET'S RAWK!

A Quick Prayer

Deliver us from the cowardice that dare not face new truth,
From the laziness that is contented with half truth,
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth.

Amen.

Pastoral Prayer from June 29th

Given by yours truly (with some help from Carrie Newcomer and Nickel Creek lyrics) at Trinity Reformed UCC Mountville.

Let us bow our heads and quiet our hearts in prayer…
Lord, how can I explain your love to these newly acquainted strangers. I don’t know them that well, and they’re a trusting people to let me up here and all… but what am I to say?

I can’t explain it, I couldn’t if I tried. How the things we carry with us are the things we hold inside. Like a day out in the open, like the love we won’t forget, like the laughter that we started and hasn’t died down yet.

God, aren’t we the ones who cause each other to shine, aren’t we standing in the center of something rare and fine? Some glow like embers or light through color glass, some give it all in one great flame and throw kisses as they pass.

Holy is this place… holy are these faces… Holy are the quiet moments, later, this afternoon… Holy is the busy street of our home, holy is the checkout girl counting change and the hands that shook my hands today. Blessed be the hymns of birds that fly overhead, just like their parents did. Blessed is the dog that runs in her sleep, to catch that wild and elusive thing… And folding sheets like folding hands… to pray as only laundry can.

Holy is the place where we stand, to give whatever small good we can. The hymnal page, the open book, redemption is everywhere we look. Here is your children of Trinity Reformed, slowing our pace in the shade of your unexpected grace.

O God, we’re east of Eden, but help us realize there’s heaven in our midst. Help us know that we’re never really all that far from those we love and miss. Give us the courage to wade out in the water and see the glory all around, as we speak the words that Jesus gave us… Our father

Pastoral Prayer from June 22nd

Given by Toothface at Trinity Reformed UCC Mountville.

Dear God, Creator, Lord, Yahweh, The Almighty, The Great Unknown…

What’s the deal?!

Just when we think we’ve got it figured out, that our own returns from boot camp, just when the floods and fires seem to be under control, the rug is yanked out from under us. We know that these events are not part of Your will. Some are wheels we put in motion ourselves, some just happen. Help us remember that when these things happen, the world weeps and is weeping still. You weep and are weeping still.

Though we are shaken, we still believe. Help us be the best of what we can be. We are only one congregation; individuals gathered in Your name… gathered in your grace. Because of your love, we feel we must try. We have our questions and frustrations… They rise like rockets and fall like dust, maybe they rise like prayers… and fall as your answer… the small, still speaking voice that holds your answer…Love.

In the face of deepest loss and in our joyful, celebratory moments, help us treat each other tenderly. We know that we are in your arms and that your eye is even on the sparrow. Help us remember that YOU make no separation, just fiercely love us all. May we be conduits of your healing love as we speak the words Jesus taught us… Our Father...

Father's Day Prayer

Written by Nancy Dahlburg, delivered by yours truly Sunday June 15th, 2008.

God, today of all days, we thank you for giving us fathers. Thank you for being a God who set an example of what a loving parent should be so that we might know some of the ways in which parents should love their children. You love us even when we disappoint you....you love us when we don’t do our best....you have shown us how to care, how to commit, how to show affirmation and unconditional love. Thank you for being a God who shows us the love of a committed and compassionate parent and thank you for loving us even when our earthly parent’s have failed to live up to your example.

Today, O God, we thank you for all the people in our lives who have shown us the love of a trustworthy parent:....for those men who fathered us, or adopted us, or fostered us or mentored us. Thank you God for the men in our lives who taught us how to put a worm on a hook, who told us scary stories around a camp fire, who carried us to bed when we fell asleep in the car, and who only knew how to make peanut butter sandwiches when mom was sick. Thank you for dads who taught us how to swim – in lakes and pools – but also in board rooms and offices. Thank you for those fathers of ours who had patience, persistence, and praise. For those who took the time to know us – for the ones who held us in the embrace of a family love – even when we wanted to turn away. Thank you for fathers – the ones that tried – the ones that didn’t – the ones that need your forgiveness and ours – the ones that left us early, but never seem to go away.

Thank you God for fathers who worried when we took the car keys and thank you for fathers who didn’t worry when we applied for college. Thank you for the fathers of our youth that we have befriended in adulthood, and thank you for the fathers who finally learned to be a father with their children’s children. Today, O God, above all days, we thank you for dad, and grand-dad, great grandpa, our uncles, step dads, pappies, boom-pa’s, pop, father, and the guy we called “the old man”.

And today we also thank you for the women in our lives who took our father’s role when our father couldn’t or our father wouldn’t. We ask for the healing of our memories where those relationships that might have been failed to meet our expectations, and we ask for forgiveness for the ways in which fathers have burdened others with their responsibilities or neglected their role but wanted the credit.

Thank you for all our father’s....for the ones we love, for the ones we’ve lost, for the ones we have never had and the ones who have yet to earn the title. We thank you for those who were, those who are, and those who are yet to be. We pray in faith, believing in the name of Jesus our Christ, and praying the prayer that begins with words particularly meaningful today: Our father..... Amen.

Our Hearts Get Bigger, But Our Bodies Get Torn Up

My family has a big part missing from it right now. My Grandma Bet passed away May 30. I have wanted to do a small tribute on here for awhile and maybe put down some thoughts... but how can you talk about someone whose been like the very air you breathe? Gma has been part of every major event in my life... it's hard to even think about it cause the loss is so staggering. but this is how it is with life...

my biggest lesson from Gma is a positive outlook. Gma had a saying that summed up her life, and that was "sometimes i have bad days, but that's okay, i used to have bad years." Gma had a great life, don't get me wrong, but the last few years had a couple of huge changes. She divorced her husband of 42 years... THAT was a huge change... and she never regreted it. in fact she became more alive and spunkier than ever in her personality... even when her body was failing her.

so when customers get crappy, or i discover a fairweather friend, or i'm a little too on edge, i just think to Gma's example. The world could be falling down around you, but the sun is always shine'n somewhere.

now i've left out a whole lot of details here... and skimmed over a lot of point and counter points, but that's what happens when you're talking about 81 years. A lifetime.

My Grandma Bet's lifetime.

And i'm happy to be a part of it... and pass her on to my kids, just as we will pass on all those that have come before us. We are not original beings... we are copies of the greatest traits of those who've raised us.

Thanks Gma... you've taught me more than you'll ever know.