Pastoral Thought--May 5

While I enjoy rainy days, let me say this: enough is enough! 

My rationale for feeling this way is different that what you might expect. Sure, it has rained off and on now for three days. The grass is very high in most yards. The yellow dandelions have given way white plums as the seed pods prepare to be spread around our yards creating more yellow splotches of color soon. I do not look forward to moving the yard with its high grass. It is going to be a bit more work that normal to push the mower through shin-high grass. But it will get done and I have plenty of podcasts to distract me while I mow, hopefully, tomorrow.

No, my ‘enough is enough’ feeling relates to how I have to live around the rain. Let me explain. . . 

Over the weekend Emma decided that I needed a small cactus to put on my desk. I am not sure why, but it’s fine. So while out shopping at IKEA, one was purchased. She re-potted it on the dinning room table while narrating how the roots were in such a poor state. She hoped that the plant would survive (spoiler alert: its fine). She lovingly water it and packed potting soil into a steel pot for me so that I could take it to the church. Since Sunday it has been sitting on the fireplace in our living room waiting to come over to the office. Finally on Wednesday, after forgetting for several day is a row (much to Emma’s frustration), my cactus was ready to go to its permanent home on my desk.

Now, each morning as I come to work I am carrying a cup of coffee in whatever Disney mug that I grab. It is my habit and one that I like and do not neglect. I like all of these mugs so it is not a big deal to pick one. Often I just pick the one that is closest to my hands. Today, happened to be a white one with a blue interior. On it reads a quote from Walt Disney. It says, “Its kind of fun to do the impossible.” If that is not foreshadowing then I don't know what is!

I also needed to carry the books that I finished recently back to the office so that they could return to their place in my library. Each was placed, by size, in my backpack and slung over my shoulder. It was heavy but not unexpected.

(Stay with me now…. I am almost there).

Finally, I needed to drop off the registration for JonMark’s car in the mailbox. As my hands were full, that letter was sticking out of my shirt pocket. (This story was exhausting to re-live). So let’s recap and take stock of my story and what I am carrying:

1 cup of coffee

1 cactus which is bigger than the cup of coffee

1 backpack with books in it

1 bill for the mailbox that has to stay dry

My mask 

AND my keys to open the door at the church

My hands, like many of our minds and hearts as we work through covid and re-establish our Christian faith and practice, certainly was full. . . 

But remember it was raining at 9am today! How am I going to hold the umbrella in the rain in my current state??? The slight breeze blowing from across the field toward the church made my grip on the large blue umbrella tenuous at best. (I guess I like a challenge sometimes) Can you picture me this morning. I am trying to walk across to the church, avoid the puddles, with my hands overfilled as I try to balance too much. The pot digging into my pinky-finger while I balance it on the cup of coffee. My mask fogging up my glasses making it hard to see but I do not have a free hand to lower the mask and improve my visibility. The umbrella bobbing back and forth in my hand. I am trying to walk briskly to end my suffering, and I am also trying to stay dry. I suspect it was a sight to behold. But I made it. 

I dropped nothing and forgot nothing.  

That little ‘event’ influenced my entire day—negatively. The event has been with me at every turn. I remember it, as I look at my cactus and finish my coffee, and I remember that the walk over here was trying. And here is my point: it had absolutely nothing to do with my Christian walk or my faith journey and yet I feel its impact on me. Something that did not have any spiritual aspect to it influenced my faith. Think about that. . . 

Sitting here I wonder: What things in your life have caused you today to lose traction in your Christian walk? What has impacted you in such a way that your faith is not able to be lived out as God intended? We can “make mountains out of mole hills,” but we also have to organize our days to complete what need to be completed. It is a delicate balance, but one that we are going to have to engage. So spend some time this afternoon thinking about those things that have cause you to lose traction in your Christian walk. What choices can you make that will help you faith be lived out differently? 

Blessings

Rev. Derek