Back in the time before lead pastoring, when I was writing four blogs a day, I would have writing sessions. In those sessions which came about twice or three times a week I would write and schedule several blogs at a time into their respective time slots. I had a pretty organized schedule of which blogs were posted when.
These days I am happy when I just get seven blogs a week done on “Notes From the Vicarage”. I haven’t yet figured out how to schedule each post into its respective time slot, because while I am writing everyday (or just about everyday), it is still catch as catch can as to what time the writing gets done.
I had worked out a pretty good rhythm before life changed, but I am in a new movement in the symphony of life and so I am still figuring out the new tempo, meter and rhythm of this particular section. Part of this change is learning to give myself grace and space as I hunt and peck my way to my new normal. It’s funny. It took me almost two years to realize I needed a new normal.
ARE YOU A STICKLER FOR SCHEDULING OR DO YOU FIND IT EASIER TO JUST LET LIFE HAPPEN?
I am choosing SHARE YOUR WORLD as my community participation blog this week. SHARE YOUR WORLD is hosted by Pensitivity101. Check out that blog and the other contributors by clicking on the link above when you are done reading my answers to the challenge.
What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word “cuddly”? I think of puppies or kittens. 2. Would you like to own an exotic pet? If so, what? I would not like to own an exotic pet. Exotic sounds like a lot of work. I currentlyhave two dogs and they are more than enough work. I think when they pass from this earth I may be done with pets for a bit. 3. If you were suddenly gifted £1000/$1000, what would you do with it? I would probably save it for a vacation somewhere. Idon’t think I will be taking any kind of a vacation until after Mom passes, but by then I think I will need a vacation.I have been looking at VRBOa lot lately.Which one do you like?
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4. Do you wear slippers at home? It is cold here in New England and keeping the floors warm is near impossible. So yes we all wear slippers, in fact I have one of my pairs on now.
Gratitude: I am grateful for the VNA Hospice that has begun to help us care for Mom this week. Everyone has been so kind.
My Aunt took me aside, way back then and told me, that I shouldn’t quit.
I laughed and asked, “Aunt Joan, what possible use is piano playing going to have in my future?”
Of course, it turned out she was right. A large part of my portfolio as a pastor has involved leading worship and piano playing through the years….Go figure!
Anyway, worship was a such a large part of what I did as a pastor that many believed I could never give it up. I actually continued leading worship for about 6 months after I became lead pastor, but I did give it up.
Then back in September I was called to lead worship again with a ministry called, The Worship Room House of Prayer.
This ministry is dedicated to building round the clock worship and prayer in our region to empower the church and release the grace of God over our region. It is patterned after the thought in Leviticus 6 of never letting the fire go out on the altar: The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offeringson it. 13 The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.
I believe that if the church is to move forward it will do so from the position of prayer. So when I saw a need I offered my abilities such as they were. I do a devotional hour of worship from the piano on Monday nights from 5-6 P.M. The first month I sounded like a rusty old gate when I sang, and I played more wrong notes than right notes. Even six months into this I am still so weak in this gift of worship, but it is not about me. It is about raising up a prayer that will help the church in our little town move into its next stage of growth. I have to admit It is great fun playing and worshipping again even if the gift has aged in me.
One of the things I heard in prayer during the 21 days of fasting and prayer, that our church just completed at the end of January, was that I need to prepare in prayer. Part of that prayer preparation is going to be times of family prayer, I think.
I have a confession to make. I am pretty good at private devotion. I am even good at prioritizing corporate prayer with the church body. The area I have always struggled with is in calling my family to consistent times of prayer.
Praying as a family for emergencies… I can do that….but I feel like this preparation is going to be more than just the joining of hands through a time of trouble. I feel like God is calling us at this season to consecrate our family through regular prayer times.
In the past I have always struggled with saying yes to so many things that the yes to family prayer got pushed into the back ground. I do guess that is a common failing of young men, but I am no longer a young man. I need to stop living a young man’s mistakes.
It sounds like my family is game for this. So we have chosen a time and we begin this week!
This week’s big “project” at The Vicarage has been setting up hospice for my mother. At last week’s Telehealth appointment with Mom’s primary care doctor she felt we needed an evaluation to see if hospice was in order.
So this week we have had: Two telephone consults, two visits with a nurse, a visit with a social worker and a visit with a home health aid.
It seems to be a God wink thing that is going on. What’s God wink you ask?
God wink (plural God winks) An event or personal experience, often identified as coincidence, so astonishing that it is seen as a sign of divine intervention, especially when perceived as the answer to a prayer.
Here are the God winks we have seen this week:The doctor in charge of the program is actually the doctor mom worked with about twenty years ago when she was nursing at a local clinic; The social worker that came to our house I know personally through other hospice situations I have been involved in; And the home health aid I have known for years as her whole family has been a part of our church throughout the years.
It seems like God is working already to comfort us in all our grief! I love these God winks.
Today is Tuesday. It is the end of my work week. It is the day I prepare for my personal sabbath. So I will prepare by writing down some things (quotes) I am going to think about during my sabbath rest. I will also write and schedule my blog for tomorrow so that I can pull back fully from the world.
The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.-James M. Barrie
HERE IS A DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT I RECENTLY SHARED WITH OUR CONGREGATION.
AS A CONGREGATION, we have been given a congregational sentence that comes through the many prophetic words which have been spoken to us over the last year or so. That sentence says: “Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Prepare you Spirit (come out of the decay of your strongholds). Prepare your Souls(Prepare to practice and feel compassion). Prepare your facility (your structures, infrastructures and plans). Prepare for the storm (Pray for action plan, Pray for a spirit of perseverance). Prepare your witness (know your gifts, earn the right to speak, build your relationships with those outside the church, build your example). Prepare your hope and faith (think hope, speak hope, act in hope). Prepare your love (love each other, love the people in your towns, love those who disagree with you, love through the doors that open).“
Today I would like to talk a bit about coming out of the decay of our personal strongholds.
DAY 2: PREPARE YOUR SPIRIT(COME OUT OF THE DECAY OF YOUR STRONGHOLDS).
Strongholds are controlled by and flow out of our flesh nature. Of this nature Paul the Apostle said, “5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the fleshcannot please God.” Romans 8: 5-8
When we choose not to deal with our strongholds we are for all intents and purposes voting against God and His plan for our lives. When we refuse to deal with our strongholds we are in effect sabotaging our spiritual walk.
IS THERE ANYWHERE IN YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE YOU ARE EXPERIENCING HABITUAL FAILURE? WHAT MINDSET (STRONGHOLD) IS CREATING THE SELF SABOTAGE?
Pray with me: Dear Lord, You see this area of failure in my life. Forgive me for my sin and help me to see how my thinking is keeping me stuck in this failure. Deliver me from my wrong thinking and help me to start thinking Your thoughts. In Jesus name Amen.
Back in the days of that other lifetime before being lead pastor I was posting up to four blogs a day, and I was reading a lot of blogs as part of my involvement in the blog community.
I really enjoyed it, but when I took on my current position, I went from four blogs a day to one blog a day done as a video devotional thought for my congregation. I also gave up almost all reading of anything other than essential business material. I missed the community, but couldn’t find the time.
This year though something has shifted…not so much in my schedule, but in my ability to organize myself. Maybe it’s just that I have finally hit my stride.
So as part of my New Year reevaluation and commitment renewal, I decided to try venturing forth into the blogosphere once again. I made a decision to start doing one NOTE FROM THE VICARAGE in addition to my daily devotional each day. It’s taken about a month but I am now blogging a NOTE everyday.
This week I am adding some light reading of blogs back in to my regimen.
Back when I was writing four blogs a day (another life), Share Your World was one of the favorite challenges I participated in. This year I have made a goal to start blogging daily and my plan is that once a week at least I will participate in a community challenge. I am so glad that PENSITIVITY101 has taken up this challenge!
When you have finished reading my answers please check out the rest of the community responding to the challenge.
THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS:
1. Who is your oldest living relative (aunt, grandparent etc)? My mother is now my oldest living relative. She is heading towards her 88th birthday.
2. How often do you visit them or is distance a factor? I live with Mom. At least that is the way it started. Several years ago I found myself in need of a place. She graciously provided me with that place. As she has aged she has needed more and more help. My sister and I took over the mortgage of the house several years ago and Mom’s care.Now I guess it is appropriate to say Mom lives with me. Mom just signed for hospice care and we are doing that from our home now.
3. Have any of your family lived to be 100? No. most of my family dies before 90. 4. Would you like to celebrate your 100th birthday? I think I will celebrate it, but it will probably be in Heaven.
I have been thinking about my grandmother a lot lately. One of her statements, in particular, keeps coming to mind. “There are lots of reasons to go to church, J. It’s not always about God.”
Now…God is the reason the church exists. He is the center of it all, but my grandmother was not wrong in her assessment. In and through the church God provides many things that are essential for life. One of those things is community. For most of my life and ministry, I have downplayed the need for community to my shame.
This week we met with a hospice agency for Mom’s care going forward. Truth be told, I have been pretty stressed out, grieved and weighed down by this. In spite of all that I am doing OK…because of my family and my church community.
During the course of ministry, I have had the opportunity to meet many people who do not have the benefit of healthy family or community of any kind. They often come to the church in an hour of desperate need because they have no place else to turn. It is not that they have relationship with us at all. They come to us because they have no one else to turn to. Often by the time they reach out to us there is little left we can actually do. I often think though “If only we had known them when the issues were smaller, we maybe could have helped.”
I will be the first to attest to the fact that church life is not perfect. Our communities, all of them, are imperfect. BUT…I can say with certainty that my life and my family’s life is stronger because we have been part of this church that we minister in and have been ministered to by. My family is strong enough to see Mom through this season of her life because we are part of the church and have our faith and our community to draw on. This is hard, but we will walk through it and come out stronger on the other side. I can credit the church community for the health of my family. I can credit the church community for the health of my spirit and mind.
This morning one of the men in the church reached out to me, as a friend, offering to help in anyway he could. He did that because I am a part of this community.
I cannot imagine facing this gauntlet, called hospice, without the wonderful tribe God has placed me in. There are lots of reasons to go to church. Knowing God is perhaps the most important reason, but a close second is the power of community.
Notes From the Vicarage 