On Sunday morning I woke up with a very irritated eye. It was blood red, almost like I had scratched it. I thought maybe there was some sort of particle in my eye and I rubbed it red in my sleep. It didn’t feel like anything was still there so I used some Visine and figured it would get better. Today it was still bad so I went to the doctor thinking maybe I had some new-found allergies. After questioning me and examining my eye the doctor asked, “do you read a lot?” To which I replied, “ahh yes.” It seems that all the reading I have been doing recently caused muscle strain which then caused blood vessels to burst. He gave me drops, told me I had to take a bit of a break in reading and needed to rest my eyes.
Who ever heard of such a thing? It’s not what you want to hear when you are on a reading schedule of 75 pages a day so you can finish course work…hmm, maybe I can get Rich to read to me:)
Do we all have a specific “destiny” predetermined by God?
Is the question even valid? Does God give me life and actually let me have free choice as to what might life will be about?
What about the Jeremiah call? Is that the only way we can know God’s will for our lives by a specific call that is often interpreted as “destiny”?
What are your thoughts or questions on what is often called referred to as “destiny”?
When people do not respond to an Evite does that mean their RSVP is “No”? Why do you think people do not respond to an Evite and do you think it a bit rude?
Yesterday I had a noticeable spike in hits on my blog. When I looked to see where they were coming from…
here
and
here
The second website had some pretty interesting information such as:
Information For Those Left Behind
The Left Behind Letters Letters to the tribulation saints
Oops, I Guess I Wasn’t Ready! If you missed the rapture
The Post Rapture Survival Guide A plan for the left behind
Second Chance for Salvation There is still hope
Memorandum A note from those who were raptured
Wow, life is so full! I am trying to keep up with it all. Charleston was good, I made it late. Good meetings, met some great people and spent time with our regional leadership. Back home, trying to catch up with VCC, Turning Point and my course work. I am very, very behind…I am taking three days next week to go away and catch up…Alex is on mid-winter break so Rich and I and Alex are going to Leavenworth.
It’s been busy…
Last week my youngest son, Alex turned 10! In eleven days my oldest son Michael turns 30!
Just returned from a retreat in Oregon. Three days offline..it was a great time away with Rich and others. Lots of down time and reflection. Good conversations, lots of alone time out in the woods, on a river. God affirmed our path in some pretty amazing ways.
Tomorrow is a big day for VCC (it is the first time since my ordination in 1996 that we have set in someone as a pastor) we are setting Jim Fox in as our associate…
Book recommendation - The Jesus Way by Eugene Peterson
Beginning a new series of teaching tomorrow - taking narratives from Genesis and Exodus through the next few months (until Easter we will be at crossing the Red Sea)…
Fall is my favorite time of the year. It always has been. As a child I can remember raking piles and piles of leaves in our yard and then jumping in them. We had a lot of trees so we would have tall mounds of leaves to jump in. I love the smell of fall, the colors of fall. It feels comforting to me when school starts and the weather begins to change. I like to cook a pot roast with potatoes and carrots and I love to get a new handbag and a new pair of shoes. Colored leaves, pot roast, school supplies, schedules back in place, new shoes…
I just recently have put language or have attempted to put language to why my insides begin to yearn for fall. Fall means change and dying. Not in a morbid way. In a good way. For me it becomes a season of letting things die. The things I don’t need to carry on can go. This is not easy but necessary. The paradox of losing life to find life speaks to me during this season. A time to reflect and look at my life. That way of coping with stress, or that way of being in relationship with others or some ways of thinking have to be surrendered in order to find new life.
Fall reminds me of all the “little” deaths Jesus invites me to in order to make room for new life. Death, dying to the large or even the small things that are necessary in my life comes to me with a natural instinct to fight rather than surrender. Surrender becomes my spiritual work - this season reminds me there are things to let go of, let them fall away. I think that’s why I feel the comfort that comes from a fall dinner of pot roast, or a new pair of shoes…some how it eases just a bit of the letting go…
Five years ago I read, “Call to Commitment” by Elizabeth O’Connor. Elizabeth’s written record of the journey of the COS was more than inspirational to me. It was a large piece in informing the paradigm shift that I and my fellow travelers at VCC were experiencing.
Sometime after first reading Call to Commitment, I had a dream. It was a short dream. At the time our church was renting space for our worship gathering in the basement of another church. In my dream, I was sitting with about 12 other people in that space. Elizabeth O’Connor was sitting on a high stool with a music stand in front of her and she was teaching us.
Since that dream I have embraced Elizabeth O’Connor as one of my mentors. She and her colleagues at COS have taught me a great deal on how to think about things such as:
- What is the essence of Church in our context?
- How do we encourage VCC members to work primarily outside of the internal community of VCC in mission groups that bring healing in the personal, local and global realm of life? How do we look to see what God is doing in this world and become participants in God’s redemptive work.
- How do you continually hold paradox while leading a local congregation committed to a center set model of belonging?
Where do call, gifting, passion, talent fit in the journey
-
How to live in the tension of belonging to a community where the redemptive work and purposes of God occurs without falling into delusion (think Bonhoeffer here) of finding a community where everyone is mature, healthy and like-minded.
-
To appreciate the Church in all its forms
-
Later I will post on Turning Point One Year Later
Thanks to Dr. Winn I have a new home for my blog. It looks this this format will be easier for a non techy person like me to navigate. Testing my skill, I would will try to:
- make a list
- list a category
- publish this post