#reality

I Am Bowser

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

It was a week of celebrations in a season of celebrations at the Vicarage.

Of course the Lillie VI family came home. HUGE CELEBRATION AT THAT EVENT!

Not only that though, this week marked my oldest granddaughter’s fifth birthday. That I have a five year old granddaughter is beyond astounding to me. That I have all my children and grandchildren within five minutes of where I live makes me unbelievably blessed. I will revel in it for however long I have the privilege of it.

Daniella decided she wanted a Princess Peach birthday party. She of course got to be Princess Peach.

Her sister got to be “Mickey Hero”…. I do not know who that is, but Abigail seems to have taken on the role with serious gusto.

We had a great party with all the royal attendants in attendance.

And I even got to play a role in the weekend….By royal edict of Princess Daniella Peach and Mickey Hero Abigail I was dubbed Sir Bowser The Monster Villain!

HOW MANY FAINTED?

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

I walked in from church yesterday shouting my customary greeting, “I’m home!”

Apparently my holler was a little weak because Mom said, “You sound tired.”

She had it right.

I said, “I preached real hard today, Mom.”

“Was it a good sermon?” She asked.

“Well, I think so…”

“How many people fainted?” Mom asked.

“Fainted? No one fainted?” I returned.

“Then it wasn’t a good sermon.” Mom concluded.

Of course….I should have known that.

Most Fun Is Sticky

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

Well the Lillie VI family ( my son’s family) is adjusting to life at The Vicarage. Jetlag is a real thing folks especially for two year olds. Sevy (Joseph Elon Lillie VII) has been up most of the night all week, which means his parents have been up most of the night all week.

We have been trying to keep him up, but when Sevy gets tired he pretty much just collapses and nothing can wake him.

So we have been trying to do some events that keep him active. We went to the farm the other night and got homemade ice cream and watched the animals.

His father and mother have been taking him on walks around town.

And yesterday they bought him some coloring and sticker books.

What I am learning is that most fun is sticky…at least for two year olds.

CLIMATE HEADACHE

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

This summer has been sooo humid. We have had rain just about every other day. One system moves in followed by a small gap of good weather and then we are right back in.

We had two yellow alerts at church on Sunday. The first was a tornado watch at the beginning of worship and the second was a flood watch in the middle of my sermon. Both turned out to be nothing but the fact that we have now had three alerts this summer in Northern MA speaks to the volatile nature of our planetary climate.

Photo by Monstera on Pexels.com

One of the personal effects of our crazy weather pattern is frequent headaches from the constant change in air pressure. I have one today and it is laying me low.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

WHAT DO YOU DO TO DEAL WITH WEATHER RELATED HEADACHES?

They’re back!

/ joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

Well, the Lillies are back from South Korea. My son, his wife and their son arrived home on Saturday afternoon with no mishaps, except the loss of their stroller. My daughter-in-law managed to keep my grandson entertained with the people movers while my son tried to find out what happened to said stroller.

We have spent the last few days, catching up, looking at pictures, and doing some small business errands while Joe and his family recuperate from Jet lag.

I Need To Deadhead

/ joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

I need to deadhead the Lilys in the gardens. It is an easy job.

Sometimes, I get overwhelmed by the scores of easy jobs that seem to exist in my world.

Do you ever get overwhelmed not by the difficulty of the work but by the sheer amount of easy work there is to do?

The Ones Who Carry the Song

/ joseph elon lillie / 4 Comments

The kids and grandkids came over last evening. We took a walk to the playground with the kids and while the girls were sliding and climbing my daughter Melanie and I had a conversation about singing. I can’t sing like I used to. I am out of singing shape and my voice doesn’t obey me as it once did.

There was a time when I sang for a living. The congregation expected me to carry its song, and my bosses (the lead pastors) were expected to carry the vision. The song serves the vision and in a perfect world breathes life into the vision so the people are inspired to follow the vision’s path. I guess that is a little heady, but it is a good metaphorical explanation about the place of worship in a church congregation.

I am no longer the worship leader. I am the lead pastor. I now carry the vision and the song is carried by others.

Jody Clapp, our lead worship director and a deacon in the church

Melanie Franklin one of our worship leaders

Patrick Cortiss one of our worship leaders and an assistant at the Worship Room.

Jon Bauver one of our worship leaders and the director of the Worship Room. I am glad for those God has commissioned to carry the song now.

FIGHTING THE “DING”

/ joseph elon lillie / 4 Comments

I recently watched a documentary on the addictive nature of social media called THE SOCIAL DILEMMA

It raised a lot of questions in my own heart about how I am using time OR if it is even me using my time or perhaps Social Media is using my time for me.

I have begun making adjustments since watching this show.I have decided I will stop scrolling. I will use messenger for communication only. I will create my articles and videos and do a certain amount of reading based in targeted building of my own platform.

You know what? The whole bell “ding” thing described in the documentary is real! As soon as I put my phone away for a half a day and stopped watching Youtube and Facebook videos, I started hearing the “dings” of articles coming up that I “must watch”.

Has that always happened and I just didn’t notice it before? Or is my phone’s AI “intentionally” trying to drag me back to it? Either way…. I am a little freaked out by how I have been trained like Pavlov’s dog to respond to a bell on my phone and start scrolling again as soon as I hear the “ding”.

Have you seen the video? What do you think?