Four days ago Brenda was getting ready to preach her final message before vacation, was still packing her bags for her trip to the United States and was still getting her house ready for her house sitter.
Today Amanda drove me to the office, as my car is in the shop, Joe has started his new job at Gardner Middle School and Brenda, Sevy and Kristine are at the Vicarage with Gramma. When I left them Sevy was playing trucks in the front room and Mom, Brenda and Kristine were finishing their morning coffees.
From quiet house to full house. Four days goes fast and four days can bring great change.
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)
I believe in the Second Coming, not as Yeats did, but I believe. I feel sometimes we are close. I feel the collective despair and fear and anger of the world held in a basin for years is ready to be poured out. The words of Revelation 1:7 echo in my mind even now.
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”[b] and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”[c] So shall it be! Amen.
AND YET
I have this hope that God is always good and that He has a good plan for saving those who want that salvation.
I have this hope that God’s goodness dwells in people who choose it, and in these days is still expressed in love that overcomes despair and fear and anger.
I have this hope that where people of faith dwell the darkness that threatens to engulf the world will be held back.
I have this hope that this little town where I live is one of those places where love and faith will grow and the darkness will be swallowed up in the light of people who will work together to bring about the good.
I cannot stop what is coming on the world, but I can help make a boundary across which that darkness cannot cross for a time.
Joe, Kristine and Sevy are on their way to visit Joe’s Mom and her husband and parents in South Carolina for the week. They will be enjoying a week of southern hospitality and warm beaches.
Amanda is on vacation this week and is taking some time at a local priory to center her heart for the season ahead.
That leaves me and Mom, the cat and two dogs to get the house ready for next week when we will be full to the brim plus one. Amanda returns on Friday. Joe and his family return on Sunday and Brenda arrives on Monday.
So tonight Melanie and the girls are coming to help me get Brenda’s room ready for habitation .
I love my little town in the North Central part of Massachusetts. These people are my tribe! We are greatly varied in the way we view the world, but we hold our region in common and the land ties us together in deeper ways than most of us realize.
TRINITY THE TIE-DYE ARTIST
The first line of our church’s mission statement is ‘WHILE DOING LIFE TOGETHER”.
DOING LIFE TOGETHER is how we are beginning to see the world. We are in this TOGETHER. We are better TOGETHER. It is WHILE DOING LIFE TOGETHER that we now share the LOVE OF CHRIST.
AMANDA AND PAM, TIE-DYE ARTISTS
I am proud of our little town. Over the last few years I have sensed a growing spirit of cooperation. Oh, we still have our divisions, but I see a growing number of people willing to reach across the chasms of thought to join together in making our region a stronger community. I see it in the work of the HEAL COLLABORATIVE. I see it in the dedication of the Winchendon Community Park. I see it in the Taste of Winchendon Fairs and the Parks and Rec events throughout this summer. I see it in the library’s One Book One Community conversations.
TRINITY STARTS MY SHIRT
AND I saw it today in the town’s first ever WINCHENSTOCK. A tip of the town’s hat to the 1970’s and a fundraiser for our local COMMUNITY ACTION COMMITTEE. My daughter, Amanda, and her team ran the tie-dye booth. I was afraid to tie-dye my own shirt, so Trinity did the art work for me. I can’t wait to wear this in the pulpit in honor of what is building in our little community!
MY SHIRT WILL NEED TO SET FOR NINE HOURS AT LEAST AND THEN BE RINSED OUT THOUROUGHLY AND DRIED
The other day I wrote a post here on “Notes” entitled “THE LINGER”. It was about the importance of using my prayer space to reenergize from the rigors of ministry and from the burdens I felt in recent schedule changes
I asked two questions in that post. The first question was… DOES CHANGE MAKE YOU TIRED OR DOES IT ENERGIZE YOU?
And the second question was….HOW MUCH OF YOUR PRAYER TIME IS SPENT LISTENING?
I got three great responses from that post which I want to share with you and then follow up with how I intentionally sought the linger.
Jane said…”I appreciate your reframed question from yesterday. I was wrestling with a response as I am one of those who is wired for change .. I love the flow and adventure of it. As to your question from today … my version is .. “how much of your/my time is spent listening?” (to myself, to others, to the world large and small, to God) .. a reminder I can need to receive rather than express. Thanks!”
Basia said… “Sometimes it’s hard just to be in the presence of God. for me the best times are during bouts of insomnia.“
Brenda said…I think change is exciting and challenging, therefore it is always emotionally exhausting. If you are excited for the new direction or adventure, there is still a crap ton of work to do to prepare the way so to speak…and if your new direction or adventure is a surprise to you that can feel like a heavy load to carry. It doesn’t mean you don’t understand or even like the change it is just….you have to work through it all. Change is good. Change helps us grow…growth most often is uncomfortable.
Change and growth are uncomfortable. I find they also take energy and so I need an intentional way of reenergizing. I think everyone reenergizes differently.
Then there are those like me who reenergize by prayer and spiritual focus. Normally I can just sit on my front porch and slip easily into the prayer space. This week it has been harder. I find my mind continually wandering back to the worries of the day.
It is for this reason I have set aside some time this week to go to the worship room. The worship room is a ministry dedicated to 5days a week of prayer 4 hours each day.
I was able to set aside two one hour slots this week to just go and sit and listen to the voice of God. The change of location and method was enough to jar me out of my distraction and get me into the presence of God.
Yesterday I wrote about “running on empty” because of my current schedule transitions. I asked what some of you do when you go through transitions to beat the weariness that comes with change.
I guess the first question I should have asked was DOES CHANGE MAKE YOU TIRED OR DOES IT ENERGIZE YOU?
I know that not everyone reacts to change the same way I do. Sometimes I wish I didn’t react the way I do to change. I wish it didn’t make me tired. But that’s me and I have been at this game called life long enough to know that part of the pathway to peace is to accept who you are as a person and to find the benefits in the you that is you.
I have found that one of the things I need is to spend lots of time lingering quietly I the presence of God.
For me, prayer is not a job of getting g through lists of prayer requests so I can move onto the next bit of work. Prayer, for me, is like sitting in the sun at the beach watching the ocean waves roll in as the tides change.
Don’t get me wrong. I pray for lots of people everyday. But I spend far more time just being with God and His Word. The majority of my prayer life is just waiting in His presence for Him to direct me to my next thing or for my next thing. The lingering and the listening always come before the asking.
Family reunion Saturday! What an incredible day it was.
Then Sunday was church! It always amazes me how much energy goes out of me when I preach and pray.
Normally I take off from Sunday right after service until Monday evening Men’s Ministry. This week though I had a quick church board meeting after service and then several pastoral calls to make Sunday afternoon.
Monday morning was the big change though. I have been praying for some time about launching another DLT (which stands for doing life together) group on a morning during the week. I think it will be on Mondays at 9:30 A.M.
So this week I met with a group of people to talk about the launch of this group. It looks like it is a go.
So I will be moving my day off from Mondays to another day of the week.
In ministry work schedule changes are almost a seasonal thing. They are generally led and created by God (or at least by seeing where He is working in your community and responding to that move). But I have found that no matter how inspired or called or ordained the change is, it generally takes my body some time to adjust to the new rhythm. In the in between time I often find myself extremely tired and easily distracted when I should be focusing.
WHAT ARE SOME THINGS YOU DO TO HELP YOURSELF ADJUST DURING TIMES OF TRANSITION?
This weekend we had a family reunion on my mother’s side. I was originally going to hold it at the church, but we all know we are in a season of lasts with Mom. This may be her last opportunity to see her family all together in one place, so I opted to hold it at The Vicarage.
Sevy and Kristine got to meet Uncle Tom, and my cousin Nada and her husband Ray
My cousin Matthew and his wife Brittney came with their children Justice and Aria.
My cousins Todd and Dan andMike and Barbara also came. Later my daughter Melanie came with her children.
The biggest hit of the day with the adults was the catching up with each others’ lives.
The biggest hit of the day with the kids was the solar bird bath and the pile of stones in the driveway.
About five years ago I began hearing this line over and over again in my private prayer times. I hear it to this day.
This morning one of my congregants posted a question in my Facebook Feed.
WHAT WAS THE GREATEST TEMPTATION JESUS HAD TO ENDURE?
His answer and my response brought me right back to this long standing question.
Ray says…What was the greatest temptation Jesus had to endure? The answer to this question will confirm why prayer is so vitally important. The answer was everyday, He had to surrender His Will and His Freedom to God. Are we willing to let go of our greatest idol, our will and our freedom in exchange for Jesus. We will never experience true freedom in Jesus until we completely surrender and trust in Jesus. We have to destroy the idol we keep hanging onto. It’s name is SELF. MY RIGHT. I AM ENTITLED, and the one we love even more, MY WILL BE DONE, not yours. This is why we must surrender in prayer everyday.
I responded…Jesus did surrender daily to the will of His Father. He never did anything He did not see His Father doing. When you think of how much Jesus actually did, that He saw His Father doing, it does make one wonder how much we are missing of the Father’s work around us.
HOW MUCH OF WHAT THE FATHER IS DOING ARE WE NOT SEEING?
Maybe it is just because I am getting older and so have less time on this side glory than I used to have but it just feels like there is less time for more things and I am saying “no” to more things than ever before.
Last week the Lillie VI family arrived at the Vicarage and began to settle in. I cancelled almost everything on my schedule before they got here thinking that the settling in was going to need most of my attention. I was right and I was wrong. It was good I had the time so that I could help ease my son and his family into life here in Massachusetts. Jetlag really effected my grandson’s sleep schedule.
And so my son and daughter-in-law’s sleep schedule was likewise effected. They muscled through and it got a little better everyday. Then I got sick with a bug my son brought back from The Philippnes. I ended up cancelling even the things I had kept in the schedule.
The week ended with a family party for my oldest granddaughter.
This week our schedules went back to normal.
My son had two job interviews and two job offers. My daughter-in-law’s social security card came in and today the Lillie VI family is beginning the search for an apartment.
My schedule of meetings has been completely full to make up for last week and Amanda’s schedule has blossomed as we approach the coming of fall and the restart of our children’s school programs (it is unbelievable to me that we are almost to the start of the new school year!).
I am filled with awe at how fast things seem to be moving. At the same time I have this sense that it needs to be this way. Something is coming and we must be prepared.
DO YOU FEEL IT IN THE AIR? THERE IS A CHANGE COMING!
Notes From the Vicarage 