This blog has been interrupted for ....

I was working on a different blog post yesterday when my world started shaking... no, literally shaking.  It seems that a 5.8 earthquake centered about 80 miles from my location in Northern Virginia had struck.  I was at the grocery store and I felt dizzy - like my legs were rubbery and the ground was moving side to side and up and down under my feet.  When stuff started falling off the shelves, I knew it wasn't me.  Then we all looked around and said, "wow, I think that was an earthquake."  And then people started cleaning up and gong about their business... no panic - no evacuation - just buying cabbage and carrots for slaw and Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches, which were on sale.

I texted my spouse to let him know that I was OK and when I finished picking up a few things, I went home.  The house was still standing - nothing was broken - all was well with the world.  Then I turned on the TV.  All the local stations had interrupted programming, and a reoccurring theme began to emerge.  Many of the people interviewed compared their immediate reaction of the earthquake to the feeling they had on that September day in 2001.  The fears of that day 10 years ago reemerged for many.  And I was reminded of something important.

The things that happen to us matter.  Some things we may never forget - like where we were on 9/11.  For other times, the details are forgotten, but the general experience remains with us.  Today I looked at pictures of new student orientation at my colleges, and all of those feelings of fear and joy and excitement came rushing back, locked away long ago but ready to be unleashed by a sight or a sound or a smell.   Generations before us had the death of President Kennedy and Pearl Harbor/D-Day to remember.  For people born in the last 50 years, 9/11 will probably (hopefully) be the most defining national moment we experience.

These corporate moments are lasting for many reasons.  They are a common shared experience. They give us a starting place for conversation and relationship.  And they most likely change the way we think about the world and our place in it.  The events of September 11, 2001 also made us think about faith and religion in a new way.  For some, religion became a haven.  For others, it challenged their understanding of God and a world where these kind of things can happen.  For still others, their faith helped them to stay grounded and loved and to get through difficult and challenging times.

Yesterday's earthquake reminded me that those memories still live within us and have the power to invade whatever else is happening in our world and jar it just a little.  People here in the DC area were reminded of that day 10 years and the insecurities that are always with us in the nation's capital.  It's been 10 years - something in us want to think that someday it will not longer effect us with such impact, but I don't think that's the case.  I think these monumental communal events still effect us just as much as the personal events like weddings and births and deaths.  And as painful as those reminders are, they are also evidence that we are human and not in always in control of what happens around us.

What we can control is how we react.  For me, that reaction is anchored in my trust in a God who does not will trouble for us, but helps us to come through on the other side stronger than when we began.  Dean Sam Lloyd at the National Cathedral said it this way:  Jesus hung out with a motley crew.  They weren't pillars of the community - they sometimes made bad choices.  But Jesus lived out a kind of love that told them that no one could ever do anything to be outside the reach of God's love.  Jesus came to make our lives today possible - lives of love and peace and forgiveness.  And if we choose to follow him, he will give us the strength, energy and compassion to live our lives with all the fullness we can experience.

Paul wrote about this God-love in a letter to the church in Rome, where Christians were undergoing terrible persecution.  I remember these words everyday, in the midst of my remembrances of communal tragedies and personal struggles.  May they give you as much peace as they do me.

Romans 8: 35-39  "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:  “For your sake we face death all day long;  we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Now excuse me while I go to stock my hurricane box.  Irene is on the way.

Peace, Deb

We may never know...

I've had a lot of feedback about last week's post.  It's very humbling to know that people are reading what I write and thinking seriously about it.  I am reminded of the scene in the movie "Julie and Julia" where Amy Adams' character is wondering if anyone is reading her blog.  On the day when someone finally posts a comment she realizes, "uh oh, I better be careful about what I say... people are paying attention."  That's how I feel today.

And it started me thinking about how we often live without remembering that people are paying attention.  We may never know how that one thing we say or do may have an effect on someone's life.  It could be in the way we relate to our children or spouse at the grocery store or WalMart.  It may be in the way we drive our cars.  In may be reflected how we live out friendship, or in how we relate to people we don't know.  It may be in the way that we react to the circumstances around us... new jobs, new friends, unemployment, kids going off to school, or kids coming back home to live.  There are as many situations as there are minutes in the day, and if we are mindful, we can reflect love in every single one of them.

"Oh, no," you're thinking.  "Now I have to be careful about what I say and do all the time."  Well, yes - that's the way it works.  But it does get easier if we think about living one day  (hour/minute) at a time.  It becomes a way of life... a habit... an essential part of ourselves.  Does that mean we don't think about it?  No, it is very easy to get pulled back into what I call an "unthoughtful" posture.  I like to think of this lifestyle as character development.  And just like in mastering a musical instrument or a sport, it takes practice.

For me it's more than "What Would Jesus Do?"  It's more about asking, "What am I called to do?"  Whether we consider ourselves religious or spiritual, I believe that each of us has a calling.  Some of that is about profession, but I have discovered over the years that it's more about being fully present and attentive and active in the lives we live.  This isn't about going to church, although for many that is important.  It's not about being overtly pious, either.  This calling is about making a life that is more about being centered... giving when we can and receiving when we are in need.  And believing that we are stronger when we are in relationships with others than we can be when we depend only on ourselves.

We may never know how much our care touches others or how our love brings out the best in those around us or how much we have to give until we try.  We may never know how much others need to give until we are willing to receive, how much our centeredness in God and with one another gives our lives grace and peace and meaning, or how that centeredness reaches into the lives of those we touch, even if it's just a minute or too.

We may never know how much we make a difference in each other's lives, but know we do and be mindful of making it a good difference.  It's as simple as sharing a smile, offering a hand, or going out of our way.  Be grateful for the good around you, even when things aren't going the way you planned.  Be sad at the sad things and look for joy around you.  This is the life to which we have all been called.

I am reminded of the prayer attributed to St Francis of Assisi in the 14th century.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.  Where these is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.  Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.  Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console,
to be understood, as to understand,  to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.  Amen.

May we all be instruments of God's peace.  Deb

Looking for a place to call home

I've been flying under the radar the last few weeks.  I've been a little busy - trying to get settled, learning my way around, going out have new adventures.  I've been in touch with a few friends from previous assignments, made and kept an appointment at the Army hospital, and had lunch with one of my neighbors.  But we're still working on making this "home."

Home is more than getting the boxes unpacked, more than hanging pictures, more than filling the freezer and cupboards with food.  Home is about making a life, both in the house and out in the world.  And that part is really hard.  We're still working on finding a church.  There are 15 United Methodist churches withing 10 miles of our house (more choices makes it harder, not easier, in case you were wondering) and so far we have visited 5 if them.  Two were off the list before we got back into the car... one is too far away and two others are on the short list.  We're visiting number 6 this Sunday - then we make a choice.

Of course, we are an unusual family when it comes to finding a congregational home... we know way too much and have opinions about everything else.  And then there's the all important question... are we choosing a church family based on what they can do for us or what we can do for them?  So far, we're trying to weigh the choices evenly, but when we come to the bottom line, we just want to worship in a place we can call home.

Isn't that what we all want... you and me?  Not just to have the boxes cleared away but to find a place of meaning, at home and in the world.  All of us want to be in a place where we can know that we make a difference... a place where we can be loved for who we are... a place to serve when we are at our best and be served when we are in a time of need.

Right now each of us is in "between times" - between the times of saying goodbye and saying hello.  We are remembering good and bad times in previous places, and looking into the mist of the future, praying the there is a puzzle where our piece will fit.  Some of us are sending our kids to school for the first time and wondering what we will do with our days.  Some of us are going back to work after some time away.  Some of us are even in the same place, but people we love are gone, so we will have to make a new normal right where we are.  No matter what our situations, we have the opportunity to make the best of whatever comes our way.

I know that this will become home for us.  As has happened so many times in the past, we will be blessed by the relationships that we develop with old and new friends, and we will work to both serve and be served.  God's past and present faithfulness are reminders that there are big plans in store for each of us as we live fully through whatever circumstances meet us along the way.  For some of us that means moving from place to place. For others it means staying put and welcoming new friends into your lives, even if they are not going to be around forever.  Paul reminds us that we can be equipped to handle and even thrive in all the circumstances of our lives.  Simply put, that's what it means to be "home."

Paul writes: "Because we know that this extraordinary day is just ahead, we pray for you all the time—pray that our God will make you fit for what he's called you to be, pray that he'll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. If your life honors the name of Jesus, he will honor you. Grace is behind and through all of this, our God giving himself freely, the Master, Jesus Christ, giving himself freely."  (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 in The Message)