Tuesday Tea Time!!!

This Tuesday Tea Time leaves me thinking about graduation season. Just one year ago Z & I graduated with our Master of Divinity degrees from Luther Seminary. Here's an action shot of me receiving my diploma & hood right after my dear friend JMC & right before Z received his diploma & hood. I am grateful for our friend STH who captured this amongst other great moments from the day.

A little bit about the day, it was rainy - just like today - & therefore humid & the air conditioning unit in Central Lutheran Church - where the ceremony is held each year - had decided to take a rest that morning. There was a thick layer of discomfort because of the humidity & a thick level of mixed emotions. It is most often a sense of relief to be to this point in a degree program, but many people did not know what the future held for simple things like housing, health insurance, & work. Not to mention the dynamics of everybody's closest family members & friends being present as an added piece to the day.

One year later we have all figured out some form of housing, most likely health insurance of some sort, & some pieces of work. Is it what we'd hoped for, what we imagined? Yes & no. However, at nearly 30 years old, I learned at a young age, very few things in life happen/exist/turn out exactly as one hopes or imagines. We don't have this sort of control over each other or the world. We do have control over what we do & how we act with the fact that we don't have control though!

In the last year I have had 9 job titles of some kind. That is a LOT! You can imagine the joys & frustrations of such constant change & lack of stability I have experienced. Currently I hold 5 of these jobs. A colleague recently said to me, "Wow, you graduated over a year ago & you don't have a call yet? That can create a lot of anxiety!" I countered that comment with, "Yes, it can dwell up some anxiety, but it also provides a lot of time to dwell in scripture which happens to be good treatment for unsettling anxiety."

I have always found excitement in the unknown. I am a bit of a dreamer & love feeding my imagination. I find comfort knowing that the Spirit is breathing each breath in & out of me & leading me into whatever comes today. I control to be joy filled & aware of my opportunities to continue living a life worthy of the calling to which I am called (see Ephesians 4).

Graduates, recent or past, life will be new, changing, hard, exciting, & challenging. Take your joy from this great accomplishment & share it in the day-to-day adventures. Hold on to that joy & remember the hard work that got you to where you are today. This stamina & perseverance will do you good through the rest of life in all of your calls & titles.

Sunday Snippits!

It's Sunday Snippits with

GOOD: A week ago today Z & I graduated from Luther Seminary with our Master of Divinity degrees. We were blessed with many of our family members being able to join us in person & several cards from those who were not able to travel. We really encourage more travel for our Ordination & Consecration service(s). Monday morning we got up bright & early (3am CST) to travel to MI for synod assembly & to meet the Bishop & his staff who help place us in our first calls as ordained pastor & consecrated Diaconal Minister. I even got to catch up with my good friend LK from college! He's doing his pastoral internship in MI this year & it had been nearly 3 years since we had seen each other. Upon our return to MN we've been working. I got to hang out with WOK both Thursday & Friday this week. Friday night some friends came over to hang out & Saturday night we hung out with some other friends to celebrate SS's b-day (one of many people I know born on May 28).

BAD: We still dont know much about our future, but we have hope in what's to come. Our energy is low due to the consistant cloudy skies of MN.

UGLY: The tragedies around the country & world are the ugliest pieces of life right now. Tornados in OK, landslides burying kids on a field trip in St. Paul MN,  & the homelessness of so many people in this unpredictable weather.

COMING UP: Tonight we're celebrating JHM's birthday (also on May 28), Wednesday is my GOLDEN birthday, Thursday is camp day, & J&K WT are getting married over the weekend!

TILL NEXT TIME: So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh - for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.  For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abby! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and join heirs with Christ - if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. NRSV Romans 8:12-17

Friday Foto Fun!

Congratulations to the Luther Seminary class of 2013 & their friends & families!

Believe it or not, I don't know every person in this photo, but I know at least most of their names. The two young men in the front are our friend's & classmate's boys who were present to receive an honorary diploma for their dad (see Dec. 2012 posts). You can barely see me standing behind & in-between the two of them. What you can see is celebration. 

I have no doubt that every person in this photo is going to do fantastic things through the Spirit and for the church each & every day of their tomorrows.

How are you celebrating graduation season?

Thirsting for a Thursday Special

You've most likely missed Sunday Snippits & Tuesday Tea Time, those are everybody's favorite pieces of me sharing Life, Spirit, & Sparkle. So here's a Thursday Special to quench your Thursday Thirst!

The topic of the day: ambiguity

As I sit quietly listening to see if WOK will wake up from his nap, the 6 fingered cat Ernie (yes, after Hemingway) is howling from the basement. 

This is not ambiguity, this just is.

Now that graduation has come & gone, Z & I sit in a time of unknowns. Maybe today's topic should be hopeful unknowns. Ambiguity still fits though because we know that we have been assigned to serve in the North/West Lower Michigan synod & we know that the synod staff is working to give us potential placements. We know so much & at the same time, so little. 

Last week we celebrated 4(+) years  with friends & shared how we have been impacted by each other & our time at seminary. The next day family started arriving & Saturday afternoon we had all of our immediate family in our apartment except for my brother (who was camping in PA). At baccalaureate we were reminded to let the Gospel surprise us & at commencement we were given a pep talk to not be boring. Living in ambiguous unknowns is NOT boring.

It is the working of the Spirit that keeps us hopeful in the unknowns & the ambiguous "answers" to our questions of "What's next?!"

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.