Wonderings and Wanderings

Here is a link to my sermon from today.  I finished our Senior Pastor’s sermon series titled "Keeping Jesus at the Center".  The text was Titus 2:11-14 and the title was "Living with the End in Sight".

Blessings and Happy New Year!

The wonderful and talented Jen Lemen created this print for the good folks at www.coolpeoplecare.org. It is an awesome print – both in the artistic design as well as the inspiring words.  I ordered one for a central inspiration piece in my office. It is a nice mantra to say every day.  Can you picture me standing at the door, hand over heart, reciting this aloud as I head out the door?  No?  You should.

Anyway, if you are so inspired, go check it out and her other creations at http://jenlemen.etsy.com. 

When I was in high school I read a book that overall is not a book of classic greatness or literary genius.  Although I still spy it on occasion in certain bookstores along with more popular novels by the author, it doesn’t seem to have garnered much favor with readers nor is it one that I have ever recommended to others.

And I’m not recommending it now.  But there was one brief passage in this book that completely captured me and became a descriptive image of what I feel often in my life. After one reading of this particular scene, it was forever imprinted in my mind and became so real to me that at certain times I have trouble distinguishing it from my very personal and very real experiences.

A young, tormented man has been driven by life to the balcony of his apartment overlooking the packed and bustling city streets below.  Cars dart in and out of traffic, pedestrians quicken their steps to the safety of the sidewalks and scurry to their next destiny.  All the sounds that you imagine are there – the honking car horns, the spray of water from a puddle as the tax turns the corner, a car door as a man in a business suit exits the cab and heads into the office complex.  There is a constant murmer as people go about their day – walking past each other without a single acknowledgement and with minds in a million different places.

As the man watches the scene below him, he hears a shrill cry that rises about the noise. He scans the crowds looking for the source of the cry as it’s utter pain intensifies and pierces his heart.  Not only can he not find the person who is suffering so deeply, it appears everyone else is completely ignoring the scream.  Why are they not moving?  Surely they can hear this deafening cry. But no one changes their course.

Then more screams. More cries of utter pain and hurt rise up to his ears as he gribs the railing of the balcony. He raises his hands to cover his ears and cries out, "Oh, God, please make it stop." 

At the moment he is made aware.  Understanding is given to him and he is burdened with the realization that the screams are resonating from the very hearts and souls of the people walking below him.  On the outside, they give no evidence of their pain.  Yet the man is haunted with sounds of the true pain that lies beneath the facades.  And he is broken. For them. For himself.  For all the pain that is and that aches in silence.

There are times in my life that I hear clearly from my balcony.  There are times when I’m walking the streets oblivious to everyone but myself.  My calling is about blending the two.  It is about coming down from the balcony and walking the streets with compassion for others and vulnerability to be cared for, with intention to listen and trust that I can be heard, with the promise of hope to be given and the promise of hope to be received.

As much as my heart breaks from the cries of those who hurt, I find the balcony easier than the walking. With humility, I know God has molded my soul in such a way that it hears what others cannot. I can sense pain in others that goes unnoticed by many and most of my work has been dedicated to responding to those hurts. Yet to not be open about my own pains means I ask of others what I will not do myself. 

I’m not afraid of heights.  Its the descent that scares me.

It is a winter wonderland in my neck of the woods this weekend.  We had a pretty significant ice storm that rolled through mid-Missouri starting last night and throughout the day. With a solid coating of ice on everything, many tree limbs have fallen throughout the morning bringing with it loud popping sounds and an enormous amount of debris.  With some of the fallen limbs knocking out power lines, there are approximately 13,000 in town without power or at least they were earlier in the day.  Hopefully, it will be back up soon.

These are pictures from my house today.  The top picture is from my back deck.  The bottom picture is a close-up of the grass in my front yard.  It really takes on a different look when each blade of grass is incased in ice! 

We are bracing for another ice storm to come through on Monday afternoon or evening.

I am on vacation this week and the weather shouldn’t effect it too much.  I had some inside projects to do and the weather will force me to get it finished.

I would like to invite you to go to this website and watch this beautiful and powerful e-card from World Vision.  And while you are at check out their amazing gift catalogue.  There are many wonderful gifts that you can purchase on behalf of friends and family while making a difference in the world.  I purchased two goats two years ago for my grandmas and for some of my volunteer staff at church. I printed off a card from World Vision to let them know about their purchase and also bought a little beanie goat to give them as a reminder of their "goat"!

Almighty God,
give us grace that we may cast away
the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light,
now in the time of this mortal life
in which thy Son Jesus Christ came
to visit us in great humility;
that in the last day, when he shall come again
in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost,
one God, now and for ever.

1979 Book of Common Prayer