Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts

Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Episcopal Church Welcomes You!

I have the attention span of a gnat. Our priest gave a beautiful as well as relevant sermon today, or so they say. My mind, left to its own devices, wandered all by itself to some other place. Where? I really can't say. I only know that I felt the calm and the peacefulness from just being in church. The comfort I receive from that place is amazing! Following the sermon is not what I do well. I love the choir! I can't sing a lick, but they can and do lifting the service to heavenly levels. Bless all who make our service special as well as beautiful.

I know that I should listen and take away a lesson from the sermon, but I can't seem to focus! It is a shame that those guys spend all week working and re-working the sermon only to have someone (me) fail to pay attention. Does God care? Probably. Does God listen? Yes. How do I know this? I just do.

Sitting in the pew, knowing that all over the world others are saying the same prayers, kneeling to ask forgiveness and offering the peace is enough for me. The comfort is enough. It carries and sustains me. The sermon, if and when I can focus on it, is gravy. God's love and the serenity I find in church are the meat and potatoes. All in all it is a full plate.

Welcome to the table! Come back real soon. We'll save you a place.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Struggles

Whoopsie doodle. We've stumbled again. Just when you think that you've wrestled with a problem and at least dealt with it internally, it comes back to bite your fanny. Sometimes, thoughts about how to solve a problem run through my head like a dog chasing a cat. There was once a time when I could mentally balance my checkbook and prepare dinner at the same time. Now, not so much, as they say.

Back then, during the two brain days, I was so focused on getting it done and keeping our collective heads above water, that the effort became almost second nature. Again, now, not so much. Today, that is the here and now, there is less to worry about, so each issue or problem seems to take on a life of its own. Funny how that works. I am not laughing.

This week has been one of those stumbling weeks. Life and living bring surprises; not all good ones. If that were not so, we'd be pushing up poppies, as my mother was fond of saying. A life without surprises is boring, however, this week I'd have welcomed boring with open arms. Boring can be comfortable.

I read something a long time ago that I've never forgotten. It was an African quote by someone I'd never heard of, but it has stayed with me. In times of trouble and struggle I call it up from the graveyard of my brain. Paraphrasing here it is; Facing God on your judgement day. God sees you as un-blemished and asks if you have no wounds. If the answer is none, he asks 'Why? Was there nothing worth fighting for?"

I plan to face God as battered and beat-up as possible.