Who woulda thunkt??

I’m tired of reading - tired of sleeping - and yep - tired of being alone!! Two days only and I’m anxious to get back to ‘normal’, whatever normal is…

Surgery on Wednesday to repair a torn cartilage - and I don’t know which is worse - not being able to walk because of injury or not being able to walk because of healing - well, I guess I’ll go for the last option.

When I last wrote about ‘retreading’ I had no idea that I would be doing exactly that with my knee. Coincidence? My last day of serving the congregation before retirement and the first day of mucho discomfort in my knee?? Dis- ease has a way of forcing us to stop - slow down - and I guess the Holy Spirit knows better than I that unless forced to do so - I’ll make excuses. There is a lesson here somewhere in this transition between not well and well, in more ways than one. A time to heal physically - and a time to heal emotionally & spiritually. A time to reflect and a time to discern what might be next - another chapter opening, another first step on this journey that is my life - another ‘Yes - send me.’

But in the meantime I’ll be consoled by the fact that I am now on one crutch instead of two!!

To Do or Not to Do

A recent posting on the Sojourners website

(SoJoMail@sojo.net), by Cathleen Falsani was titled ‘Doing Nothing for Lent.’ She recounted her experience listening to Eugene Peterson talk about his decision as a parish pastor to ‘do nothing’ - to just ‘be’ a pastor and not have to prove anything to anyone- but especially God and himself And I got to thinking…………… 

To do nothing - to just be… I guess it depends on how you define ‘doing. Taken to an extreme, this would seem to be an impossibility. Even at rest our bodies are still doing what bodies do - heart pumps, lungs contract and expand, blood flows through our veins, the stomach is noisily processing breakfast, the neurons in the brain are snapping… well most of them anyway. Thoughts are crashing through the brain at an endless pace… some we can pull out of line and think about - the rest go on their merry way without us. And if for some reason something hurts - our attention is focused there - pain always gets our attention.

So ‘doing nothing?’ not hardly. However, maybe Falsani & Peterson really have given me something top think about.

This ‘retirement’ thing for instance…. Re-tire- ment - as in retreading tires (yeah - like for trucks). Here is what Wikipedia has to say about re-treads:

A retread, also sometimes known as a "recap," or a "remould" is a previously worn tire which has gone through a remanufacturing process designed to extend its useful service life. Retreading starts with a safety inspection of the tire. The old tread is then buffed away, and a new rubber tread is applied to the bare "casing" using specialized machinery.

Retreads are significantly cheaper than new tires…”

Sounds like retirement to me. Re-moulding for further service, a way to extend the useful; life of a tire - or in this case a person. When I first entered ministry a friend commented that she was really impressed with the way I continue to recreate, reinvent, myself. ( and she meant this is the most positive way) Continually looking for new ways to grow, to serve, to be. (I kinda feel sorry for people who have been in the same job for their entire lives - same old same old…)  

So I think that is where I am now - a remanufacturing process ( a.k.a. discernment) with the idea that something new will emerge - ok, so think caterpillar to butterfly, or do you prefer Phoenix rising from the ashes? Whatever - chose your metaphor..

I think my point is that even in our ‘not doing’ something is still happening. Maybe we have made a conscience decision to not do a particular thing - to not be busy for the sake of busy - but that does not mean we are in a state of non-existence. God is still working in us - behind the scenes if you will, our bodies are still doing what bodies do - like keeping itself alive - maintaining what scientist call homeostasis - if our bodies are out of whack we cannot even then do this thing we call ‘not doing.’ 

And so even this state of just being is a doing, albeit not what contemporary society would call productive work.

But God, (I don’t think I’m putting words in God’s mouth) doesn’t require our constant doing for the sake of busy. God is content, I think, that we just are - and so that is my challenge - and yours I suspect - for this season of Lent. The season that is a significant transition point in the cycle of the church. This season that is a full stop and rest in the melody of our lives. Let our bodies do what they do, let God do what God does in each of us and for all outward appearances, we can just not do and just be…

Water Water Everywhere

(This should have been posted last week, but alas, it wasn't!!)

I first learned to swim at about 7 - or maybe 8. I don’t think I was afraid of the water - but I do remember numerous ear infections from the overly chlorinated water - or maybe under chlorinated, who knows. I think I even enjoyed the freedom of being in the water knowing that 1) I wouldn’t sink and 2) getting away from my little sister who was also learning to swim, but taunting her with my expertise...

I can remember playing in the puddles after the rain - in spite of mothers admonishments not to - “you’ll get dirty!” Well isn’t that the point?

Bath time was a treat - Gramma was the bath giver - and it was always fun.

Saturday night ‘bath’ night - and popcorn - only Daddy could make it right - and my sisters & I got to share an entire bottle of Coke while we watched TV. Yes - black and white and maybe only one channel!….go figure………..

But those were happy times, most of them...........

Fast forward to high school and mandatory swim lessons - dog paddling in place for 2 - 3 minutes - maybe more - swimming laps, staying submerged for what seemed like an eternity - just to prove to the instructor that we could - AND to get that coveted ‘pass.’ Back in the day we had to pass gym and swimming in order to ‘pass’ high school….baggy green cotton swim suits and ice cold water notwithstanding (fortunately it was an all girl’s class!!) - it had to be done.

So maybe it’s no wonder that water and watery places hold a special place in my heart - the ocean shore - whether rocky and or sandy, it doesn’t matter. And there are as many different rocky and sandy shores as there are grains of sand…..

Rivers rushing and tumbling over rocky beds, smoothing the harshness of the boulders to a soft and soothing stone for my pocket. Quiet canals as still as glass - so still God can count, again, every hair on my head. Oceans of vastness as far as the eye can see. So many colors of blue that even God must get dizzy just thinking about it all. Snorkeling at the Barrier Reef is a lesson in the majesty and artistry of God - who else could make fish of many colors (Joseph would be jealous) and those shapes? The most imaginative among us couldn’t come up with any of this on our own.

Lakes large enough to get whipped into a frenzy or small enough to walk across. Have you ever stood in the headwaters of the Mississippi? A seemingly inconsequential puddle, if you didn’t know where to look for it, you’d miss it altogether.

The pond in front of our house is coming to back to life - waking up after a winter’s nap. The geese are back, but so is the green stuff growing up from the bottom - the frogs will breed and it won’t be long before the edge of the water will be thick with black tadpoles. The turtles will be sunning themselves after a hard day of playing hide and go seek with their eggs. They hide - the raccoons seek.

No matter where we travel - there is a significant body of water somewhere close by (actually every body of water is significant - just ask those who live there…) Water that is refreshing, healing, cool sometimes warm, always full of life. But least we get too sentimental, it is also a harsh force - death and destruction are just as possible as the healing. God made a promise once upon a time - no more total destruction by water - but sometimes it seems as if God is playing it pretty close to the edge.

Water. We and all of creation need it in just the right amount. Too much will kill us and not enough will taunt death.

So maybe that is why it is so fascinating - that juxtaposition of life and death - as if it were a game - surely we will win?

As I write this - the water falling out of the sky has changed from rain to hail to snow within about 20 minutes. So it’s not just the liquid water that we hold in awe - but snow, ice cubes to cool our summer drinks and icicles to arouse our imagination, sleet, hail, steam. Mountains made of ice that are thousands of years old - and the one in a trillion snow flake that disappears the moment it touches your outstretched tongue……

Our scriptures talk about Jesus as the living water but there is dead water too. Water so full of salt that nothing will live there… Water so thick with salt you could almost walk on it. Dead water - full of the poisons that get flushed out of our houses, chemicals that are needed to make the things we need and want - dumped unceremoniously into rivers and lakes - poisoning the very earth that God created and said was ‘good’ - well not any more it ain’t.

No wonder water is a wonder - it runs the gamut from Awesome and Full of Life and Healing and Soothing and Majestic to Deadly - and Dead.

Even Jesus - the Living Water for all of creation - death that brings life. Fortunately that was not the end of the story - dead Living Water resurrected - infused with new Life- so that we too might be refreshed, our thirst quenched, and live.

Reflections

I took this photo of the Briare Canal in July of 2011.  It is about 1 1/2 hours southwest of Paris.  Lent was a long way off and certainly not on my mind last summer.  But Lent is, among other things, a time of reflection....a time of listening....So be still, my friends, and listen.......