I just noticed the big lavender bushes flanking the front walk of my house (here’s one of them).I’ve been walking past them for about six weeks not noticing at all, and it took last week’s gospel lesson, John 15:1-8, to make me stop and look. Well, maybe it was last week’s gospel lesson and maybe it was the fact that everything, everywhere, seems to be blooming. Fresh cut grass, heavy-hanging rose bushes, riotous flox . . . it seems that,... Read more
I think it’s safe to say I never thought I’d be blogging about this topic. Actually, I think it’s safe to say it never crossed my mind . . . ever . . . that I would even be thinking about this topic in direct relation to my own life. It all started a few weeks ago. We were sitting around dinner one night and I thought to myself, “I wonder if Hayden is getting a cold?” He just sounded... Read more
“Is there a prophet in the house?”My friend and classmate Jason Harvey, Associate Pastor at Broad Street United Methodist Church in Statesville, NC, asked that question in his sermon yesterday, the final day of my second intensive Doctor of Ministry class at Wesley Theological Seminary: Preaching With Prophetic Imagination (Jason is helpfully pictured here so you can imagine him calling us to task from the pulpit in Wesley’s chapel). I don’t know what you think about such a question, but... Read more
I keep hearing the stories of rebuilding, but the devastation is still so horrible. I took this picture while in New Orleans in February . . . it seemed especially poignant to me to see a manger on a pile of trash near the curb. Frankly, I am still trying to make sense of what happened. Here’s a link that graphically depicts how the devastation happened. http://www.nola.com/katrina/graphics/continuous.swf Read more
My Mom always sends me the nicest Mother’s Day cards. And for years I’ve been rather puzzled by this as she is, after all, my mother and not the other way around. (As my husband Mark would say: “Of course I didn’t get you a card! You’re not MY mother . . . .”) Every year my Mom usually writes something in her card thanking me for making her a mother (my other four siblings were nice, of course, but... Read more
I’ve spent hours this week listening to sermons. This may not seem notable to all of you who have to suffer through that experience every single week, but let me remind you that it is a rare week I have to sit through even one sermon. Usually, as you know, I am giving the sermon. Standing.This week I’ve been in intensive Doctor of Ministry study in a class at Wesley Theological Seminary called Words and The Word: Theology and Rhetoric... Read more
I went back to school today.When I got up the courage to count I realized I have not been in a classroom as a student for over 11 years. That is a very long time, as 11 years ago would have been when I was in my 20s and some (namely my husband, a whole five months younger than I) would say that I am quickly sliding into 40 (gulp!).As I packed my backpack this morning (notebook, pens, highlighter, books)... Read more
I just noticed that my last two posts were awfully cheerful. This must stop; I cannot continue perpetuating the illusion that the world is a cheery place. My commitment to angst is why one of my favorite companies of all time is this one. If I had my way the entire office would be decorated with their products. Here’s one for today, particularly as my sermon from last Sunday used an illustration about the arduous journey of the Pacific Sockeye... Read more
If you read around the web you may have noticed this poem posted here in a great community of online ministers who blog. I had to reprint (reblog?) it here. Enjoy: Hope Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune–without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I’ve heard... Read more
I was talking the other afternoon with the resident sage at our house. Sam always manages to say the funniest things that make me think. Here’s the latest: Sam and I were sitting on the couch after school as we usually do. He likes to review his day every afternoon, reporting interesting new math concepts, discussing the merits of the day’s lunch options, and updating me on the latest in the ongoing recess saga (apparently everybody gets to be a... Read more
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