Wonderings and Wanderings

I’m one of those weirdos who listens to sermons on days other than Sundays. And I mean, sermons.  Not long-winded comments from people in my life who care or a hard-nosed politician on the campaign trail.  I listen to real proclamations from folks around the United States.  My ipod is loaded with podcasts from select churches and when I walk, I listen to them both as a spiritual feeding as well as way of growing as a preacher.

So, here, in no particular order, are the preachers in my life:

• Dr. Doyle Sager – the pastor of the church where I serve. I hear him in living color each week.
• Rob Bell – Founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Erwin McManus – Lead Pastor at Mosaic in Los Angeles
• Darrin Patrick – Founding and lead pastor at the Journey in St. Louis, Missouri
• Rick McKinley – Pastor at Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon

Now, these guys don’t preach every Sunday so I often get the pleasure of hearing from other teaching pastors at those churches. And the variety is great. Listening to sermons from all over the US helps me not stay stuck in my world here in Jefferson City.  So I exercise my legs and my spirit and my mind every chance I get.

You can find podcasts for each of these guys (except for Doyle Sager) on itunes.  I’m working on a podcast for our church so stay tuned.

Today was one of my famous "No Talk" days.  Days where I don’t utter a sound.  I literally haven’t spoken since 6:45 pm last night.  I’ve been working around the house, putting up Christmas (its all done), cleaning (not nearly done),etc. and haven’t had the need to say anything.  No singing out loud, no telephone calls, no cussing at the television. 

When I realize that I haven’t spoken in such a long time there is a weird second or two where I wonder if my voice will still work.  Yet I don’t want to break the trend by testing it.  I’m weird, yes.

Browines are baking in the oven as I type this.  I will be speaking tonight as I leave shortly to attend a college get together for students home for the holidays.  It is always good catching up with them – some whom I haven’t talked with since they left in August. 

All the talk around here recently has been the MU-KU game happening tomorrow night.  With Arkansas’s win over LSU, the Tigers are now ranked number one (which is unbelieavable).  On top of that, KU is having an amazing season as well.  Add into the mix the HUGE rivalry between the schools and well, the area tomorrow night should be a ghost time as all are indoors watching the game.  My family will be over for some chili, cornbread, and apple pie and a little football.  Should be a fun night.

Go MU.

Welcome to my new blog design!  I’m incredibly excited about the look and layout and most appreciative to Becca at EWebscapes for her hard work on making my dream and reality.  I couldn’t be more pleased.  This was my birthday gift to myself and worth the pennies.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and thanks for being faithful readers! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of the site.

Melissa

I’m very excited about a new blog designed that I will be debuting very soon here at Wonderings and Wanderings!  I can’t wait.  I think you’ll really enjoy it.  It definitely reflects this sight and me. And its all about me, right?  Right?

Tonight’s c-group was great.  The youth were more wound up then usual but we got to a really great discussion on experiencing God – or the lack thereof.  It was just one of the moments – one of those small groups that gets to that cool point where the sharings and the participants are in the moment. I love those times. It makes all the other times, where you wonder if anything productive happened, worthwhile.

The youth went trick or treating Saturday for the Samaritan Center – our local food bank.  It was lots of fun and they collected a lot of food.  We just went to random neighborhoods dressed up and explained what we were doing.  People were very generous – especially to teenagers showing up to their front door in costumes two weeks before Halloween.

I dressed up as a nun.  I was very convincing. I think it got us more food. 

I also went with my sister and mom to take my niece and nephew to a fall festival in our downtown area.  They were adorable.  Blake was a pit crew for Cars and Morgan was Snow White. Super cute. 

This is a gut-wrenching video. If this little boy’s face and tears don’t break your heart, well . . . I pray that it will. There are so many casualties of war.  So many wounds that go unnoticed or unmentioned by the masses.  Yet, these wounds cut deep in family rooms around the world – whether a small town in Northwest Washington State or a bombed-out concrete shelter in Baghdad, Iraq.  For this little boy running in this American classroom, there his is equal – running through the debris-filled street in Tikrit, running through the crumbling downtown of Kabul, running through the protestors in Myanmar. 

All are casualties of war.

*Thanks to Jonathan Brink for the link.

I am on vacation this week.  A real vacation.  Every year for my birthday, my parents give me time away by myself and it has become something I very much look forward to.  This year I have a few more days than normal and it has allowed me to relax without feeling the rush to the end. Some people, many people, question the idea of going on vacation by yourself but for this strong introvert, it is truly heaven.  I have not spoken a word for 41 hours except to place an order at Panera’s for lunch today. I don’t feel like I haven’t spoken because my mind is always "talking".  An introvert tends to live in his or her head.  Scary sometimes …

My goals for the vacation are few. I’m so goal-oriented that I need a break from that.  I spent yesterday just relaxing and doing nothing.  Read some, watched TV some.  I remember why I canceled my extended cable at home.  I can waste quite a bit of time on HGTV! I also lounged at the pool.  I had it all to myself and enjoyed just messing around some on the final days of summer. I plan to do a little shopping and also to travel to a nearby city to take my step-niece to lunch and to see my best friend and her husband.

Although my goals are few beyond relaxing, one goal I have is to do some cleansing and refocusing – both physically and spiritually.  Physically, I have put on quite a bit of weight this past year. Part due to medication side-effects and part due to my own lack of focus regarding eating choices and exercising.  So this week I’m doing cleansing to retrain my taste buds as well as developing an exercise routine again.  Spiritually, I am doing some focused praying. I brought a couple of books on prayer with me to develop my own understanding and prayer practice.  I have realized a need to be more intentional and dependent on prayer in my life – both personally and professional.  It is quite easy to minister out of skill sets or to do lists or current trends.  I have found myself lately allowing myself to be at the mercy of trends and expectations of others rather than at the mercy of God’s leadership.  Pray is the solution to that.

So, I’m reading Richard Fosters Prayer: Finding the Hearts True Home and Philip Yancey’s Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? Along with reading, I’ve committed myself to prayer times throughout my vacation.

On my way here driving down the interstate with 18-wheelers all around, I felt like a woman escaping away to a getaway with her lover.  I was full of joy anticipating our reunion and time together away from the world knowing fully that my Lover is faithful to be completely present, attentive, and always eager to bless me through our time together. Any failure to meet expectations will rest upon my shoulders … not God’s.

Thanks for the official welcome back to RevGals!  I’ve missed my cohorts in ministry.  It has been good to see that many of you have passed by my site. I took a break from blogging for quite sometime.  I had difficulty finding my voice for several months.  Life quieted me and the opportunity to blog became another task to do rather than something to enjoy.  So I stopped.

But I’m back.  Maybe that’s a threat for some readers …   Regardless, I will be posting little snippets of life and faith and all that jazz.