It has been three days since I have written here. In my defense, I have produced two daily devotional videos, and I have written six meditations for our 21 days of prayer and fasting.
I have also been doing some pastoral care for sick parishioners. Phone calls, visitation and what not.
Today was given to more writing and a trip to the Verizon store to reactivate Brenda’s American cell phone and then to Walmart for supplies for all of our weekend activities.
This day started at 1:30 A.M. Mom was struggling to get up to the toilet. I heard her on the baby monitor in my room and went down to help. She has been having a lot of muscle and joint pain. So I massaged her back and got her settled back in after she used the bathroom. Her legs are getting very weak now and I didn’t feel comfortable leaving her alone. So I opened up the recliner and went back to sleep.
I heard Joe leave at 6 and then prayed until I got the dogs up to walk at 7.
By 10 I was t the office for staff meeting. (Kristine was home with Mom today. I am so grateful for extra hands).
At noon a group of us hosted some missionary friends from China for lunch.
Then Joe and I braved the weather to Walmart to pick up pillows for Brenda’s bed. She flies in tomorrow to help with Mom for the next few months.
By 5:30 the storm had really picked up, but we were home for supper and tucked in for the night.
After supper I walked the dogs and then settled in to write for a bit.
Now I am ready for my final prayers and sleep. Life is not a sprint for me. It has become, is becoming a daily marathon. I think I need to get in better shape.
IS YOUR LIFE MORE A DAILY MARATHON OR A DAILY SPRINT?
It is a universal truth that we humans come from stories and we are moving into story. All of our lives are made up of the mingling of many stories. We are books that tell of the intersection of lives and the conflicts and wonders those intersections create.
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Psm. 139:16
I have noticed this common truth about the people I have worked among, that life flows from the stories we tell ourselves and each other. We live until we stop telling our stories. We grow until something comes along which causes us to stop making our stories before ourselves and others. As soon as we stop adding new chapters to the book of our lives we begin to die.
There are signs that we have stopped the authoring process. When we decide that the story is done, when we decide there is nothing more to add we stop trying to make more story and we just begin rereading the story that was. We begin to live in the past and only the past.
One of the great dangers of our society today is that so many people who should be making stories are just sitting and watching other people’s stories. It is one thing when a ninety year old stops telling their story. It is quite another when a twenty something gets so wrapped up with Facebook or Twitter or Instagram that they stop telling their own story.
I guess this post is an encouragement to people of any age. One of the great keys to life is to not let anything stop you from adding a new chapter to your story. Whatever is happening to you…around you don’t let the roadblocks stop you from adding something new to the book of your life. Keep making story. Keep living!
WHAT ARE THE ROADBLOCKS TO YOUR NEXT CHAPTER? HOW COULD YOU CHANGE THOSE ROADBLOCKS INTO THE NEXT DEVICE THAT PROPELS YOUR STORY FORWARD?
Amanda had a meeting of her cohort of women ministers.
Meanwhile I watched Sevy.
When Amanda got home, she and I bounced back and forth between keeping an eye on Sevy in the playroom and cleaning the front office in preparation for Brenda’s arrival on Wednesday.
Mom’s health has reached a place where we are beginning to need the extra hands (even with everyone residence). So Brenda is coming home on a quasi-leave of absence/ fund raising tour.
Sunday morning has begun as most Sundays do with a few hours of prayer in preparation for the on-line service. Then morning chores: shoveling snow, setting up pills for the week, walking and feeding the dogs, making the coffee and getting Mom up and ready to meet the day.
The air pressure has set off Mom’s arthritis so it is a Motrin and Aspercreme morning ( the type of day that is becoming most common for her recently). She seems to be settling in well now, though the pain was bad enough to bring tears first thing this morning.
Amanda is setting up for her children’s on-line meeting at 9. I am getting ready for the morning service at 10. Joe is doing pre-approval paperwork for a home loan and Kristine is out cleaning off the cars from the five inches we got last night.
So… happiness…activity. I am pretty happy, but I would say it’s not just any activity that makes me feel that way but activity that builds family…activity that makes a difference.
I missed yesterday’s posting time. It just got busy. That is always my excuse…. I got too busy. At some point I have to stop making excuses about the things I say I want and just do them.
Today I am answering the question from NOOM entitled, “EXPRESS YOURSELF PT. 2”
JOURNAL ABOUT A DAY IN YOUR FUTURE LIFE, WHEN YOU ARE LIVING FULLY AND CONFIDENTLY. THINK ABOUT THE QUALITIES YOU SEE IN YOURSELF AND HOW YOU ARE INTERACTING WITH OTHERS AND THE WORLD AROUND YOU. HOW DO YOU FEEL? HOW DO YOU WANT TO BE SEEN BY THE WORLD?
I was just talking with my daughter, Melanie, today about some things I am praying into for change during our annual fast which starts tomorrow.
I am praying for increased dedication to losing weight and to increasing may flexibility. I have a lot of muscle and joint page now. Stretching really helps. I get busy (there it is…my go to excuse). Losing weight will also help significantly… I know it. I say I am too busy to meal plan (and again). So I see that one of the changes I am praying in to my heart is that I stop feeling too busy. Some of it is just about addressing the lie (the stronghold) that I am too busy.
I also have to pray about what I should stop doing.
On that day in the future I will wake up to a fully scheduled day…but I will not be stressed about it. Nor will I rush to get into my day but I will rise to a slow, constant and intentional pace. I will make the breakfast I planned the day before and I will spend time in prayer and then in stretching.
As I launch into the day I will work according to my schedule and pray according to the bells (on my phone that remind me when it is time to pray and study the Scripture). The people around me will be aware of the lifestyle I live and will let me live it, knowing that I am a better pastor and leader and man of God because of it.
2023 is history. Here is my favorite picture from the last year.
This is a picture of night time at The Vicarage during a full moon. I was pleasantly surprised by the filter edits I was able to impose on the original.
I am setting my sights on 2024 now. I am praying close into what God will give me for the year ahead. I already know my word for the year…”PREPARE”. I am asking now what I should use for filters on the raw material God gives me so that I might be prepared for God’s best outcome.
I know I am going to be working on my weight, strength and flexibility.
Me on day 1
I know I am going to be working on my administrative capabilities.
I know I am going to be working on my writing again.
I know I am going to be preparing for some big changes at The Vicarage which will affect me spiritually, emotionally, and practically.
I know there are opportunities and challenges in my pastoral work that I need to get a better understanding of.
I know there are coming changes in The United States and the Earth which I need to understand better.
I know God is about to move in our church in some new, exciting and challenging ways.
I know God is about to move in our region in some new, exciting and challenging ways.
No call to ministry can be carried out without much prayer. For me prayer is a practice I call myself back to seven times a day. Some of my prayer sessions are short, some are long depending on the rest of my daily schedule, but everything I do must be hemmed in by prayer.
Every day needs the Bible to be read and studied. Today being Saturday I spent time in devotional reading (Revelation and Deuteronomy) and then I spent some time studying Greek tenses for my sermon tomorrow.
There is never a day which does not involve connecting with people: Visitation, services, group studies, outreach, phone calls, letter writing, e-mails, texts, Messenger. I use them all and more in order to make connections with my congregation and community. Building relationships is a part of everyday’s work.
PAPER WORK
Photo by u0410u043bu0435u043au0441u0430u043du0434u0430u0440 u0426u0432u0435u0442u0430u043du043eu0432u0438u045b on Pexels.com
Paperwork and administration is also an essential part of the everyday work of a minister. It is my weakest area of ministry. It is what I call “swallowing the frog.”
Unlike most jobs the family life of a minister is an important consideration. The other works of ministry often make prioritizing family health very difficult. Lord knows, I have done a poor job of it during many seasons of my ministry life. It certainly effected my effectiveness as a minister. Now I try everyday to make at least some small move towards greater family health.
I don’t think of the ministry as a job, really. It’s more of a life rhythm that helps influence a community’s health.
The season of lights is almost over. 2023 is nearly done. My son and his family took me to Lancaster Nights on Wednesday to see the year out. We enjoyed the ride through the park of lights.
Each light display, each tunnel reminded me that we are on a journey here at The Vicarage. 2024 is right around the corner and I sense something momentous is coming in the year ahead.
Today Joe, Kristine and Sevy are on a two day breakaway, in Wells Maine. Amanda and I began preparing the house for the arrival of my sister in 13 days. She is coming to help with Mom for the next few months.
Mom’s health has taken a turn these last few weeks. It feels like this is a part of the momentous change that is coming in 2024. It is, certainly, one of the most important things I feel our family needs to prepare for. I am praying much into the “how’s’ and “wherefores” of this preparation as well as into what else the word preparation is going to mean for The Vicarage in the next 365 day span.
PREPARE IS MY WORD FOR THE YEAR. WHAT IS YOUR WORD?
I am in the midst of a day of death. I awoke this morning and headed to church early to set up tables in our fellowship hall for a funeral reception we are having this evening. After finishing up at church I was just sitting down to put the finishing touches on my funeral sermon when I got a call from another parishioner. His wife had just passed into glory.
I knew this as truth. I just needed the reminder in the moment of stress. I am thankful for a God who is able to speak to me when I need speaking to.
Bolstered by the knowledge of new beginnings I went to the family, prayed with them, hugged them and did the work for which God has appointed me. Now as I sit awaiting tonight’s funeral that knowledge still holds me and will hold me through. Such knowledge can hold us all through as we face life’s greatest challenges. There is a God who loves us. He is passionate about mankind. He brings help wherever He is invited, wherever He is welcomed. In the presence of God even death becomes a doorway through which we can walk into greater blessing.
WHERE IN YOUR LIFE DO YOU NEED TO WELCOME GOD AT THIS MOMENT?
We just marched through the second weekend of Advent, The weekend of Peace. It was so much fun. Last week our church was honored to host our local high school for three days while the school was repaired from a malfunction with one of its hot water heaters.
This weekend we had a team come in to clean up and get ready for church on Sunday. But the church staff and school staff did such a great job of putting the church back together that the congregation was able to do a few extra jobs which have been waiting in the wings.
I had thought we would have the students with us for two weeks, so I rented this huge dumpster which the school hardly used. We used it instead to get rid of a shed full of rotten lumber we have been sitting on for a looooong time. Meanwhile a group of ladies went through out kitchen and indoor storage rooms to get rid of old and broken kitchen and ministry items.
I love cleaning out!
Another group of congregants worked in the sanctuary reattaching the chairs which had been disconnected and because it is the fourth season of the church year they also vacuumed. You know the four seasons of the church year don’t you? Spring, Summer, Fall and Glitter.
Vacuuming is not really effective against glitter but at least it gets up the sand and the salt that people carry in from the parking lot.
After the clean out Amanda and I headed over to our sister church, Bread of Life, which was hosting the Special Touch Ministry Christmas party.
It was ten years ago that Amanda and I joined twelve other people led by Mike and Kim Ferguson to start the first New England Chapter of Special Touch Ministry to the Disabled.
It is amazing to see what God has done over this last decade through this ministry!
It was even more amazing to see Mike playing King Herod for the Christmas story wearing a tiara.
While we were partying, Kristine was hard at work at home reorganizing the Vicarage kitchen.
Amanda, Melanie, Daniella and Abigail, finished off the night by attending Cornerstone’s leadership Christmas party.
Notes From the Vicarage 