God

This Day At the Vicarage 8-22-20

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

Well, my migraine left after a good night’s sleep. Thank goodness!

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It left a lot to clean up today. Taking almost a full day off yesterday put me a bit behind on the plans I had for housework and volunteer work today. I take comfort in the fact that God wasn’t surprised by it at all. He knew it was coming. He planned for it, even if I did not.

This morning as I woke up He reminded me that in spite of the rather large to do list screaming inside my head I needed to remain slow, constant and intentional. The day had to start in the Sage’s Cave.

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During that first hour of prayer He settled me into my daily rhythm and warned me not to rush or depart from it. He reminded me that I had to walk the day’s cycle and keep coming back to prayer if the day was going to be a success. So I have done that: pray, exercise, write, read, chores, family time, study and then back to prayer time.

I got a call at around 7:30 A.M. from one of our elderly parishioners who was being transported by the ambulance to the hospital in Keene NH. I hung up and clocked the fact that I was at perfect peace even though I knew I was going to have to take the hour and a half drive to be my dear friend’s ride home in a few hours (she is often transported and after getting a good dose of medicine is almost always discharged within a few hours). I felt the Spirit urge me to just keep moving on with my schedule.

So I did. My study today was the second half of a video by artist Makoto Fujimura on the love of God.

After study and prayer, I felt like I needed to get ready to go. Just as I was finishing brushing my teeth the call came in to take my ride to Keene.

Parking Services | City of Keene

When I finished helping my friend I came home and after lunch I took a walk with Brenda around the D.A.R. Park.

The rhythm has repeated all day: Prayer, exercise, writing, reading, chores, family time, study and back to prayer…

Tonight, I feel very peaceful and fairly accomplished. I think I am going to go sit with Mom for a bit now. Maybe we will watch some more of the History Channel tonight. She seemed to like that the other night and it is a welcome break from Hallmark.

It is time now to sign off here and to say…

I am looking forward to tomorrow Dear Friends!

Pastor J

This Day At the Vicarage 8-20-20

/ joseph elon lillie / 4 Comments

I just wanted to put a quick word in tonight before heading to bed. It’s been a busy couple of days at the Vicarage. By that I mean it has been busy in a slow constant, intentional way. Slow, constant and intentional is the way I try to pace myself now, even as the world tries to get me back to running full tilt like I used to do.

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I have known for years that I was supposed to be slowing down. I have said it to many of you over the decade of blogging. Many of my parishioniers have told me I should slow down. It just never seemed possible. Then at the end of last year God began to talk to me about a coming season I would spend in the “sage’s cave”. I didn’t realize it was going to take a pandemic to get me here, but now that I am in this space of deep lifestyle prayer I am not going back.

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That said I have had things to do these last two days that have kept me going at the top of my slow speed.

I met with my Sectional Presbyter yesterday (some of you might call him a bishop). I had to retake a portion of my latest credentialing test because of a clerical error. So it was off to Leominster MA to get that done. Then last night Amanda and I led The Wall Prayer meeting at Cornerstone.

The Wall is Cornerstone church’s remote prayer meeting. Amanda and I taught and prayed through “the prayer for strength” for our on line congregation.

Today started with me giving a singing lesson. Then once I got home the phone was very active with several pastoral calls. I ended the afternoon with a visit from one of the artists from our C.cada Community.

Lisa and I talked about the direction of our community. It is a conversation I am beginning to have with all of our artists. Pandemic has kept us from meeting since February. We have tried a few Zoom calls but they have not worked very well. So last month I began engaging people in on-line conversation and this month I am doing micro-gatherings with the artists to see how we are going to proceed: Facebook live teachings, micro gatherings and even virtual art shows are all on the table for discussion. I am encouraged by these winds of change and excited to see what God has for our next steps.

Well I have crossed the 11 P.M. zone and 4:30 A.M. is just around the corner; So I will sign off here saying…

I am looking forward to tomorrow dear friends.

Pastor J