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five minute friday: what mama did

Here we go again with another “Five Minute Friday” post!  To learn more about “Five Minute Friday” (FMF), check out the linked image here.  Basically, each week there’s a word given for you to write about.  You start writing, no back-tracking, editing, etc.  At the end of 5 minutes, you stop.  Then you post it, and share in the community of words that were birthed during these 24-ish hours.  It’s cool stuff.
So here’s this week’s response to the phrase: ” what mama did ”  (That’s what I went with, at least….because it was hard to pick “a word” without doing a buncha thinking ahead of time.)

What to choose from?  What to write about?  My mom will totally end up reading this, because that’s the kinda mom she is.  Even at 31 years old, she still keeps tabs on who this young boy has become.  That’s what mama did.   That’s what mama does.

She never allowed my lot (or hers, or ours, for that matter) to be chosen by what life handed us.  As a single mom of 5 for many years, she had humility to know there was something we needed that was beyond what she could offer.

She was a “Mama Bear”, and the kind that gave it a definition.  Yet she knew her cubs wouldn’t be whole without something larger.  She kept us involved in the Church and life-transforming liturgy (the work of the people).  She connected us with opportunities that called greatness into, and out of us.  She even found a man who had a lot of experience calling that greatness out of people, and he invited us to be his children as well…as he made her his bride.  Certainly she was capable of much – going back to school, starting a new career, caring for a large family at the same time.  But one of the greatest things that mama did?  She pointed her children to a bigger picture of Hope for tomorrow – based not in human accomplishments, but a solid Hope in something Christ-ish. 🙂

Done.

There ya’ go mom.  And it’s not even Mother’s Day.  😉

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skiing is fun. :)

856663_10151252852416339_539075622_oMy girls wanted to record a Christmas song like the Chipmunks a while back, and I’ve been waiting for a good place to share it. This past Monday my wife and I were able to spend the day skiing with some young people from our church…see if you can find me…:)

 

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five minute friday: beloved

Here we go again with another “Five Minute Friday” post!  To learn more about “Five Minute Friday” (FMF), check out the linked image here.  Basically, each week there’s a word given for you to write about.  You start writing, no back-tracking, editing, etc.  At the end of 5 minutes, you stop.  Then you post it, and share in the community of words that were birthed during these 24-ish hours.  It’s cool stuff.
So here’s this week’s response to the word: “ beloved  ”

“Dearly Beloved” – the words I speak at the beginning of some very important moments.  A few months ago, at the beginning a marriage ceremony, uniting two as one.  Tomorrow morning, at the beginning of a funeral service, gathered with friends and family to mourn and celebrate a life together.  Moments that bring me to a place of awe, and humility as a pastor.  I love what I do.

I love these moments of illustration.  These moments wrapped around something divine.  These specific times, of marriage and mourning, do not guarantee those in attendance love God.  But these occasions of marriage and approaching the topic of death together – are incredibly important to the life of the body of Christ.

We are the bride of Christ.  We are frail humanity in need of something beyond ourselves.  We are joined in life and love to Him, and are called to be faithful.   Our bodies are limited, prone to disease and eventually to death itself.  But God has promised there is a wedding feast yet to come.  There is a resurrection in store that has taken away the powerful facade death itself once held.  We scoot a little closer to each other in the pew.  We invite our neighbor over for coffee, and our kids run together down the sidewalk.

We have hope, and live out this loving hope in the midst of an anxious world where there is no guarantee of what will happen tomorrow.  And why?

Because we are a community that is “Dearly Beloved”.   We live out as God’s beloved, proclaiming to a world unaware that they, too, share this identity.  May our lives, and the out-going of our family into the world this week declare to those we live with….YOU are dearly beloved…

Done.  I like it. 🙂