Rock da house with Mardi Gras celebration...

I'm always up for a celebration! And fittingly your friendly Religious Life department is hosting a pancake lunch to celebrate Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras). Check your email and fliers which will be posted all over the place for more details.

But here's the kick: What fun would a shindig like this be without a competition or two. Not wanting to let you down, here goes!

I need you (yes, you!) to tell me EITHER 1) Why you have the most reason to celebrate. (E.g. I have made it through three months of marriage, and most days we still like each other!) or 2) Why you have the greatest need to have a celebration. (E.g. I have a new puppy and she whines all night so I don't get much sleep.) Respond to this blog--but make sure you include your name! Or shoot me an email! Or stick a note in my box or under my door! Just be a part of the fun. This is a fun thing, so be as creative as you can. Things can either be about work or your personal life-- they just have to be true. I can't tell you what the prize is, but trust me, you want to do this. The winner and his/her prize will be invovled in the feast on Tuesday.

DEADLINE for entries: Monday, February 4 by Noon!

The Home Pole

For some unknown reason, the story of the prodigal son has been on my brain lately. There are many things that I love about this story: being allowed back when you've been anything but a son or daughter, the way the dad runs to welcome the "lost" one. But perhaps one of my favorite things is the idea that home is a place that the world doesn't get to take away from you.

But for us who work at the children's home, we know that's not really true. All of our kids, either the ones in group care or the ones in foster care, are here because home was taken away from them. And for those of us who work here, we spend our time trying to make sure that come what may, these kids have a home.

And though they hate it, and they will boldly proclaim that this is NOT their home, it is home for a while.

So, last night, with our two groups of young ladies, we started what we home will become a part of the way we welcome kids into our care: a home pole. It's not a fancy thing-- basically it is a 4x4 outside the side door of the chapel. But our hope is that every kid who comes through here will tie a ribbon onto that pole, in effect saying "I was here. I mattered. This is home for as long as it needs to be home. I have a place to plant my feet, even though it feels like my world has been dumped on it's head."

Come check it out. On those days when you need a reminder of why you do what you do, come be near the "home pole." Put your hands on it. Feel the ribbons. Pray for all those who have come through our doors, and all those who will come. Pray that though this isn't the home they left, that it is a safe and welcoming place for all who enter here.

1 or 2 words

I used to consider myself a reasonably intelligent person-- I used to have deep theological conversations and think brilliant (er...uh...maybe not brilliant exactly) thoughts. But as I have listened to myself these last few days, I realized my brain has apparently been vaccuumed out. Lately, I've sounded like this: "Good girl, Bella!" "Good potty, Bella!" "No, no... Bella! Bad Dog!", "No, Bella... we don't eat the cat!" "Bella, Please don't drag my broom across the house!" You get the idea.

My husband and I had one of my seminary friends over last night (one of those people with whom I used to have intelligent conversations...) and the friend pointed out something that maybe would help us out in the puppy department. He said that *smart* dogs had *maybe* thirty commands they could learn for a lifetime. He went on to tell us how to keep our commands short and too the point, or else the dog wouldn't hear anything at all. Thus my "Bella, we don't eat the cat" was probably rendered in her ears as "Bella...cat". In her mind, probably an introduction.

I've been pondering this. I'm (obviously) a wordy person, so I feel like the more words I can use, the better. I probably do this not only with puppies, but probably in the rest of my life as well. What if (and this may not be far from the truth...) people that we talk to only heard one or two words. Perhaps this is really about keeping "the main thing the main thing." We prattle on, but sometimes I wonder if we're really saying the things we need to say.

If you had to hook someone on Christ, just this fast, what would you say? I don't have an answer yet, but it's worth thinking about.

Funny Face Tissues

Alright, it's a grey yucky day, and it seems my mood matches the weather. But some nameless minister of religious life thought I needed these funny face tissues, and they make me hoot out loud every time I see them. This entry is a little purposeless, but I hope my tissues make you smile. If you need a pick me up, you're welcome to stop by my office and have a funny face tissue.

"Piece People"

We did a marvelous activity in our girls' mid week youth groups last night-- we made "piece people". Here's how it works: there are four sections, each corresponding to a section of the body (e.g. head and neck, shoulders to waist, etc). We let one or two people at a time work on the sections--but here's the trick-- no one got to see what other people had done, until the whole person was done. Thus you wound up with some really funny looking people. I guess that's what happens when you don't have a master plan.
Also last night, I was having a conversation with a friend who has just had a baby. We were all ooohing and aaahing over her little one and she said, "Looking at him, I just can't believe more things don't go wrong. I can't believe babies aren't born with six arms or three eyes." We laughed, and then someone else said "We call that God".
It was funny, but I've been thinking about the conversation. Have you ever thought about it, really? I mean how intricate we humans are. How each system works in just a certain way. Think about it-- we were given eyelashes and nose hairs to keep the dust out of places we don't want it. Or if we get an infection, there's a certain group of cells whose only job it is to attack and destroy the infection.
Can you imagine what an intimately involved God we have? A God who is so closely involved with us that all these things were thought up. We are not a haphazard people. We have been so carefully created and designed. We are not a piece people!
In your darkest days, if you ever wonder if there's a God-- look at a picture of the stripes of a zebra. Or look at the night sky. Or look at your friend.

(If you're dying to see the piece people, come to the upstairs hallway--near my office)

The generation gap

I had an eye opening experience at chapel last night, when we were doing an MLK-themed service. We did several things, including compiling a "collective biography" and reading one of his sermons. And then, knowing that they had been to the King Center earlier in the day, I asked the kids about their reflections of the weekend and the trip. I wanted to know what their "A-ha's" were. And sadly, there were none. Not a single youth volunteered anything about their experience. And when I pressed them further, still nothing. Well, that's not true-- I got the impression that they thought the weekend and the trip to the MLK center were a waste of time. It seems they believed that none of this really affected their worlds at all. I was flaberghasted. I'm not that old, but I remember going to the King Center as a kid and marveling at this man's vision of peace. Somewhere--probably in sunday school or something-- I had recently heard the verse "The lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and they shall not war anymore." And to me, MLK was living into that vision in a way that it had never struck me as possible.

I think what I realized last night was the urgency of our (yes, those unfortunate ones they call adults) mission. It's our job to help bridge the disconnecting gap. It's our job to help them realize their place in moving the country forward, not only in matters of race, but in matters of the welfare of society in general. It's our job to remind them of the struggles fought and the battles won, for if they let it stop with them, all of MLK's work would be in vain. It's our job to bridge the gap between the generations who remember the events and the generations who read about them, at best.

Tracks in the snow?

I love snow! Thus you can imagine how excited I was when it actually snowed here yesterday. Me and the husband and the pets all loaded up and went to look around UMCH-- figuring all would be beautiful, and the sounds of kids playing in the snow would be heard. But when we got here...it was indeed beautiful, but there were no sounds of playing children--anywhere. And the more I looked around, the more I realized that there were no tracks anywhere on campus. It appears that either no one had ventured out or that the tracks had all been covered. And some part of me was sad. Somewhere in my head, some very childish voice said "Where's the playtime?" As I tried to shhh the voice with excuses like "Oh the kids are probably still in bed" or "maybe they don't want to be cold", I realized that it was something deeper than that. We live in a society that tells us to work harder and harder and harder, and that playtime is for children. We tell ourselves that we'll play when we finally get caught up, but as a perenial do-er, I've realized that the blessed "caught up ness" never comes.
And some part of me thinks that God frowns when he gives us a beautiful day and no one is out enjoying it. The catechism that I learned as a kid starts off with this question, "What is man's chief end?" And answers, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and ENJOY him forever."
If you'll excuse me-- I'm off to enjoy God's creation. I'm headed out into the freezing cold, and I'm going to have a little holy play time before chapel. Please don't laugh if you see me giggling on the swingset.

SWOT

Alright, I have to admit that when I heard we were having a strategic planning process and that I had to give up a large chunk of precious time, I wasn't all that thrilled. However, yesterday turned out to be a really eye opening experience for me-- and eye opening in a good way. We had a lovely gentleman come and guide us through a process whereby the people in the room would be able to identify UMCH's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. (SWOT) This might be a little hard to envision, but we were asked as teams to identify things in the areas listed above, and then prioritize them in a process where everyone was given five color coded different point dots.

The first thing I noticed is that we had a HUGE list of non-duplicated stregths, the five greatest of which were 1. That we as an agency treat the child or client in a holistic fashion that includes mental, spiritual, emotional, etc tactics. 2. That we have very strong ties to the larger UMC 3. That we provide broad continuum of services. 4. That we have a historic foundation with a mind to forward thinking. 5. That we see all persons through the eyes of Christ.

The next thing I noticed was that with such a huge list of strengths, I ran out of dots for things I really wanted to emphasize as a strength. I had five dots! Perhaps in working some other place, I might not have run out of dots. It was really refreshing to see all these strengths listed like this, and thus be reminded of what we are doing really well.

And here's my thought-- we likeley wouldn't be doing so well if we weren't an agency full of passionate people. Now that is a gift from God!

A Prayer for the Meetingly Bombarded

God,
As I look at the calendar for the weeks ahead, I see that I have more meetings than it seems there are hours in the day. May you be present in these meetings, and may they accomplish your work. May you be present in my attitude as well--remind me that these meetings aren't just one more thing to add to my calendar, but that they are the way that we get things done. Be in my preparation times. And be in my down times too-- that when they happen upon me, I may find myself fully present and able to relax into the moments.
Amen

Marching in the LIght of God

I think I've mentioned this fact before, but I like church holidays. And today is another holiday I GET to talk about. It's Epiphany! A holy day in the church (which if I were in a different place, would involve wearing a white stole and all the church paraments would be white). Ephiphany comes from the greek word "epiphanai" which literally means an appearance or manifestation. And it is the actual 12th day of Christmas (think-- Christmas song that everyone sings but no one really knows all the words to...). But all that gibberish is to say that today is the day when Christians celebrate the light of Christ being in the world.

If you did Sunday school as a kid, maybe the term "Epiphany" sounds familiar to you-- but if you can't quite remember anything about it, let me help you out. Some verses you might have heard in conjunction with this day are "Arise, Shine! For your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you!" or perhaps "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." But here's what you may not think about: that cute little story in Matthew about the wise men following the star really seems to be more fittingly celebrated at Epiphany.

Lately, the song "We are marching in the light of God" (which I learned while I was in Africa) has been rolling around in my head. The words, simply enough, say "We are marching in the light of God! We are marching in the light of God! We are marching, we are marching-- We are marching in the light of God!" I was thinking about these wise men, and how they really were marching in the light of God.

I mean seriously, they were called out of their comfort zones. I don't know much about the job description of a "wise man", but I would imagine it to be a somewhat "cushy" job (relative to herding sheep or things like that.) I'd imagine that being a wise man didn't usually entail being uprooted and having to travel a long way for a glorified baby shower. But this star, which they are certain is of God, urges them forward-- down an unknown and perhaps dangerous path. They, like the rest of us would, probably have very great questions like "Where am I going?" "How will I get there?"

As I think about them, I wonder which new and different journeys God might be calling me to. I wonder where God sees my resistance, and is calling me to follow his light, trusting it to lead me into the things I have been created to do. I wonder what routines and creature comforts I would have to be willing to forgo to follow God's call. And I wonder who else is asking these same questions-- are you?

Some days, I think my song would better be "I am stumbling towards the light of God" but I trust that God will give me a star to follow-- and the courage to follow it.