Oh My! What Have We Done?

Next week will be a momentous occasion. Our little Grandson Andrew will turn 3 years old. As we were deciding what to get him, there was really only one thing that came to mind that he truly couldn’t live without and that is a drum set of his very own. First of all let me explain that Andrew is not just an everyday boy who likes to beat on pots and pans with wooden spoons. Andrew is already an accomplished musician.

There is nothing that he loves to do more than drum, much to the chagrin of his parents. He drums when he gets up in the morning, at the meal tables and he even drums when he is asleep. He drums with cool whip bowls and cooking spoons or drinking straws on the table at restaurants. Once, when he couldn’t find suitable drum sticks, he took the legs off his sister’s Barbie’s and used those. The remarkable thing about his ability is that he is actually very good, for a 3 year old. He looks like a drummer when he plays, he acts like a drummer, and if he plays along to music (which isn’t necessary to make him happy), he can even keep a steady beat. (Karen was impressed that he seemed to enjoy playing along to Barry Manilow, Copacabana is his favorite:)

Of course as a Christian we certainly don’t believe in reincarnation, but if we did, there is no doubt in my mind that Andrew would have been a famous drummer in a past life:)

So with that in mind, Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa decided that it was time to put away the childish Cool Whip bowls and wooden spoons and give the boy an official drum set. Yes, you heard correctly, Mom and Dad not only supported the decision but recommended it. (I think that we may need to pick up some ear plugs for Mom and Dad) You have to believe me when I tell you that drumming is this boy’s life and no one knows that better than Mom and Dad and they knew that there is nothing on earth that would make him any happier than his own drums.

So, this Sunday at 2:00, if you hear a very loud excited scream, followed by a loud incessant banging sound coming from around Ben and Crystal’s house, don’t worry, it will only be Andrew taking his musical talent to the next level.

May God forgive us for what we have done:)

Blessings

I Think My Brain Is Cluttered...

This morning I have a bunch of random thoughts floating around in my head so, I am afraid that you will just have to bare with the hodge podge that is my brain today:)

First of all, I am continuing along on my “Swim the Ohio” journey, I have now completed 144 out of the 1023 laps for a total of around 4.3 miles. So far so good! One continuing benefit is that I have also now lost 20lbs since graduation from seminary. It is a slow process and it isn’t like I am working that terribly hard at it, so I am pleased so far.

The next thing that I have been thinking about is Bible Study. I am just thrilled with both churches. We have been averaging around 35 in attendance between the two churches and what thrills me the most is the depth of the questions that they are asking me and each other. We have really been covering a lot of theological ground, and I hope that I am asking more questions of them than I am giving answers. (you may have to think about that last statement for a minute) In addition, I have now had a request to add a third Bible study that would meet during the day. Hmmmm, I better jump on that while the iron is hot, it’s not everyday that people are requesting more Bible studies:)

I am also very excited about the choirs in both churches. Oak Grove jumped on the choir thing very quickly and we have averaged about 9-10 people at each rehearsal. Wednesday night I actually got a chill during one moment that we were singing. I mean, they have harmony and everything:) Not that it is a contest, but I would be happy to put them up against any church choir that I have heard since I have been here in Harrison County, and I have heard several area church choirs.

Fountain was a little slower to jump on the choir wagon. The first rehearsal was just our piano player, her husband and me. But, we persisted and the first Sunday was a duet. Last Sunday we had 5 in the choir and last night at rehearsal we had 6 and I was just amazed at the blending of sound and harmony that they were doing after such a short time of practice. Both churches are very blessed with talented people.

Karen and I are also preparing for an exciting month of October. Our son Ben is running in his first 5K race that he has been training for, we are looking forward to going back up to Seymour for Oktoberfest which is an annual event for us, my sister is coming to visit for the first couple weeks, and we are very much looking forward to that, of course my birthday is October 6th and since I have made it a half century, that is worth mentioning:) We are planning a Pet Blessing service sometime in mid October and when we take my sister back home, we will pick up Karen’s mom and she will stay with us at least through the end of October, and oh yeah there is that little thing called Charge Conference that will involve many meetings through October. Sounds like a busy, but great month ahead:)

So do you get the feeling my mind is a bit jumbled this morning? Yeah, me too! Oh well, I am sure that after I spend the night tonight at the Youth campout at Fountain church, I should be back to normal thinking clearly tomorrow! What? You don’t think so? I know, me neither! But that’s my story and I’m sticking to it:)
Blessings!

Lesson Learned: Some people aren’t even remotely interested in my opinion:)

Yes, I know that this may be hard for you to believe, but I found out in no uncertain terms that not everyone values my charming insight, loveable, sarcastic wit and humble, sage wisdom. :) I was pursuing through Facebook the other day when I ran across a rather long but interesting thread submitted by a friend of mine. Somewhere toward the end, there appeared what I thought was a rather rude departure from the thread, where some guy (actually an MTSO Seminary student) that I didn’t know, seemed to be (in my opinion) bullying a woman, who I also don’t know, but have grown to admire as I have read her Facebook responses. (She is actually the Aunt of one of my “friends”)

Her comment to him was that she thought his critique of the issue he was discussing was rather harsh. Well, let’s see, he used the words Nazi, concentration camp, ghetto, and stated that we as Americans are all culpable in the genocide of the Palestinian people, so I think that those words might possibly qualify as harsh.

Of course me being ready to jump in and help this woman out, (and certainly not having a dog in the hunt) I pointed out to him nicely, (at least that’s my story:) that his words were not only harsh but incendiary and that perhaps he could win more friends and influence more people to his cause if he tried to tone down the harsh rhetoric. I think I have mentioned to you before that if you sit down with me and simply tell me your side, I am much more willing to listen than if you try to beat me over the head with your viewpoint.

Believe it or not, he didn’t seem to find any wisdom in my thoughts, as a matter of fact he didn’t find me wise at all:) (maybe a wise… well you know) He accused me of putting words in his mouth, not reading what he wrote, and basically saying that if I find the use of those words incendiary then it was me that had the problem, he was just speaking the truth.

Hmmmmm so what do you do? Well, I first looked and found out that this young man was younger than my kids. I know, go figure that one, young and already knows all the answers, now there is a combination that you don’t see every day:)

So, being the pastorally and mentorly type I am, I thought. “You know something, I bet he doesn’t even realize that he is being rude and totally insensitive,” and quite honestly, if he doesn’t understand that before he enters ministry, the people in his churches, or perhaps the Board of Ordained Ministry will help him to figure that out very quickly, and usually painfully.

Hoping to save him that potential career ending error, I sent him a message and pretty much just shared with him that he could do much better for both his cause (which happens to be the Palestinian people) and for himself if he dropped the incendiary rhetoric, and actually made an attempt to help people to understand the plight of the people that he was concerned about, that making the people angry who could potentially be allies in the struggle is really not a good idea, and in defense of my friend, shared with him that there is a big difference between the theoretical debates of seminary and the give and take of ideas in the real world and that you can catch a lot more flies with honey if you only try.

Well, our young friend took considerable exception to my fatherly advice, told me that I wasn’t worth his effort to respond, questioned my intelligence (which he may be right on that one) called me several things that I had to go look up in the dictionary (He really is an intelligent guy) and told me something psychoanalytical about me trying to act superior to cover my inferiority complex, or something along that lines. I may have to go look that one up as well, you never know, he may have something there:)

So, I thought of a thousand ways to respond and then decided that no response was probably in order.

Ok, here I go with the superiority thing again, or perhaps he would say condescending attitude, but I really do feel sorry for him. I don’t even know him, but his words were really seething with anger, he responded in a manner that I perceived as anger to the woman who was simply stating her understanding of the issue, he responded to me in anger (And I am certainly not saying that I don’t deserve it) but, past experience tells me that there is always a better way.

I really do wish him the best, he is facing a very long and difficult road ahead, the people in his churches are not always going to agree with him, and somewhere in his journey he will have to learn that lashing out in anger isn’t the best option, and I will tell you that speaking from experience it has never worked out well for me.

Hopefully he will learn these lessons along the way, I know he won’t learn them from me, He thinks I am a……… Well, I will let you fill in the blank on that one:)

Blessings!

Maybe I should hit the reset button...

Yesterday was a very challenging day. To begin with, after I left the YMCA, I had that feeling that you get when you feel like you are beginning to come down with something, but you really aren’t sure what it is yet. (Thank goodness I feel much better today)

Then, when I got home, I had a phone call from someone who was experiencing a personal crisis, followed immediately by someone else whose 18 year old daughter suddenly dropped out of college and moved to Ohio with a boy she just met on the internet. (It is times like these that you understand why some of the animals in the animal kingdom eat their young.) Please keep this young girl and her family in your prayers.

Yesterday afternoon was spent at a car dealership with Terri as she is looking to buy a car. My past experience with these places is that you better hold onto your wallet because they will do everything they can to take advantage of you, and yesterday was no exception. So, a couple of hours later and still no car, we left to regroup for another day.

I am also struggling with the apparent inequity in one aspect of the changeover of insurance as we merge from two conferences into the one Indiana Conference. There is an issue which seems very unfair to those who are on the bottom of the United Methodist pay scale and it seems to be something that will potentially continue to affect those families for years to come unless it is addressed.

Then, last night, in the middle of working on about 3 different projects, the internet suddenly went down. Then I realized that our cable TV was out as well. Uh oh, did the bill not get paid? LOL That was my first thought anyway:) But, the bill was fine, there was some sort of outage in the area, that didn’t get restored until sometime in the night.

So, I am hoping for a better day today, perhaps even a quiet day would be nice. Oh and while I am at it, I will share one joy with you. I mentioned that we had 25 at Bible study last week at the Oak Grove church, well Fountain church, not to be out done, had 61 in worship on Sunday, which was by far their best Sunday since I have been there. In addition, we now have 2 baptisms scheduled. So, maybe I shouldn't hit the "reset button" after all :)

Blessings!

I'm on my way...

Today I officially resumed my quest to “Swim the Ohio.” After a 2 week hiatus because of the maintenance work being done on the YMCA pool, this morning I resumed my journey. I can’t believe what a difference two weeks made in my conditioning, or should I say lack of conditioning. Two weeks ago when I walked out of the pool, I actually felt pretty good. This morning, it was more like, when I dragged myself out of the pool, I thought I was going to die:(

As I was doing a little bit of math on this quest, it breaks down this way: To complete 31 miles I will have to swim 1023 Total Laps, 2046 Total Lengths, 51,150 Total Yards.

So far I have completed 81 Laps, 162 lengths, 4050 Yards. So far, so good:)

If all goes well, I will complete my swim sometime around the first week in December!

Blessings!

The Chubb Chubbs are coming...

Ok, on a much brighter note from yesterday, I was at a friend's house this evening and they shared this video with me. I thought it was really funny and I hope that you can take the time to watch it. For my Star Wars/Sci-Fi fans, count and see how many references to your favorite Sci-Fi movies you can find.

This is definitely a departure from some of my more recent posts! Enjoy!

Blessings

PS: Don't miss the end of the film after the credits:)

Parting: Remembering 9/11

Today is indeed an important day to remember. I will never forget, I was just waking up, listening to the morning news on the radio, perhaps beginning to think about motivating and deciding what this new day would bring, when I heard the words over the radio that there had been a small plane crash into the side of the World Trade Center. My only thought at that time was, how stupid could a pilot be, and then I thought that surely if I turned on the "Today Show," they would be covering this event right in their own back yard.

Just moments after tuning into the "Today Show," I watched with horror as the second plane flew right through the frame shot, into the side of the second tower. Once again, in my naivety, my only thought was how could a professional pilot be so stupid to make such a terrible mistake. My mind simply could not grasp the idea that this could ever be intentional.

That was truly one of the worst days and one of the best for humanity. People from all over the world grew together, if only for a brief time, giving us perhaps a glimpse of what we as a world are capable of, while at the same time in all of its horror, showing at its worse what we are indeed capable of. I will never forget going to a community worship service that night in a large church, packed with people who in their darkest hour, indeed turned to God.

For me, what was sad to see was that over the next few years, as we gathered as a community to remember this day, we watched as the numbers of people attending the worship service slowly drifted away until the services were terminated completely after only a few years. How quickly we forget!

The picture at the top is the cover of a song that our HandBell Choir played in remembrance of 9/11. To this day, it is one of the most beautiful, haunting pieces I have ever heard. I only wish that I had a recording that I could play for you. It was composed by Barbara Werner and is simply titled “Parting.” On the cover is the haunting picture of the two beams of light emanating from Ground Zero.

The words on the front read:

“In memory of my father, Kermit Anderson, who was killed in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

His office was in the impact zone on the 97th floor, North side of North Tower, One World Trade Center.

2400 miles west we slept, not realizing a parting was upon us…”

Today we remember Kermit Anderson and all who lost their lives on that tragic day and in the subsequent wars which were the result of the events of that day.

Today as we mourn our loss and remember, let us also remember to praise God for the strength we have received and the healing that has taken place since that time.

God Bless the victims and their families, God bless our nations leaders as they continue to deal with the fallout of this event, God bless our young men and women who serve in our military and God bless our nation.

Amen

Mama said there'll be days like this...

For some reason I just haven’t had much to talk about recently. Or, perhaps it is just the fact that this has been a difficult, long, emotional week. Saturday night at 11:10 the call came that my parishioner that I had been to see so many times down at Jewish Hospital had passed away. Breaking the news to the congregation was especially hard on Sunday morning. The visitation was held on Monday and it began at Noon and ended at 9:00PM (which is a very long visitation from my experience, but it is apparently very common in this area)

Tuesday was the funeral and I have to admit that I was very nervous on multiple levels. Terry was a beloved member of the church and this was to be my first funeral in my new appointment and I really wanted to do a good job. It seemed to go well, so I give God all the credit:)

This morning I was up by 5:00 AM for a trip to Jeffersonville (which is near Louisville) to be with a family for a surgery, and then back home to prepare for Bible Study and Choir practice tonight.

I do want to share a special blessing with you. We had 25 people at Bible Study tonight. I have never in all my put togethers had that many people for a Bible Study. Last week we had 22 and I thought that was way above even my greatest expectation. I know that the members of the church seem thrilled to see that many people coming for a Bible study, and I am simply humbled by it.

These past few days have been fun, challenging, difficult, humbling, tiring, emotional and rewarding. I think that I would be happy to settle for a day or two of relaxing:) Naaaaa probably not going to happen!

Blessings!

Lucky thing that I only have to work one day a week:)

I don’t think I have been doing such a great job lately in keeping up with my blog posts. Of course, some of that could have to do with little details like not getting home until after 1:30 this morning because of a parishioner fighting for his life at Jewish Hospital. So far he is still hanging in there, but now it is in his hands and God’s, so we continue to pray.

I will also mention that we started two Bible studies this week, one at Oak Grove and one at Fountain. We also began choir practice at each church. Oh and there was that pesky things called Charge Conference that I finally downloaded the forms for and began to look at what needs to be done for that.

We also had the hymn sing on Tuesday and the meeting with the pastors in my cluster and the other hospital visits and the preparations for Sunday and the… well you get the picture.

I am really beginning to wonder how I ever found any time for seminary at all. Good thing that pastors only have to work one day a week, and then only for a couple hours:)

Blessings

God Lives at the Post Office

Ok, I know that I am a real sap for a dog story, and I usually resist the temptation to subject you to my dog obsession, but this one was just too good not to pass on, especially with the thought of Mimi so fresh in our hearts.

Enjoy:)

This is one of the kindest things, there's no way to know who sent it, but there is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service.

Our 14 year old dog , Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:

Dear God,

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith

_________________________________

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, "To Meredith " in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called "When a Pet Dies". Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope.. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

_____________________________________

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away. Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart.. Abbey loved being your dog.. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by..

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.

By the way, I'm easy to find, I am wherever there is love.

Love,

God

Paddle-To-The-Sea

I think by now you know how much I enjoy being out on the water, especially when I get a chance to go kayaking. I think I discovered one of the sources of that love a few days ago. Do you remember, or did you ever read the book or see the movie called "Paddle-To-The-Sea?” I have no doubt that the movie and the book had a tremendous impact on me as a young person. I was probably 9 or 10 when I first saw the movie in school. I even remember participating in a mini version of the book one day when I put a stick down in the rain gutter of the street outside my house and followed it all the way to school. (I was almost late, don’t tell Mom:)

If you aren’t familiar with the story, it is about a young boy living in the heart of Canada that knows that he will never be able to visit the sea. So, he carves a boat and puts it on a snow covered mountain top and waits for the Spring thaw. The story describes the odyssey of “Paddle-to-the-Sea” as he makes his way through Lake Superior and ultimately to the Atlantic Ocean. It was a great story and one that has stayed with me for many years.

The link below will take you to a web site where you can read the original book online, and see the beautiful artwork or you can watch the movie that I saw as a young boy, it is about 30 minutes long and well worth the time spent. Take a little time today to experience “Paddle-To-The-Sea,” I know you won’t regret it:)

http://www.nighttrainfilms.net/NTFWEB/NTFPages/PaddleToTheSea/index.htm


Blessings