Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: It's Easter Sunday! My favorite holiday that represents so much promise for tomorrow. Weather you celebrate Easter as a Christian & the fact that Jesus has defeated death once & for all, or because it's Easter & that's what you do this time of year, it is Easter! Easter is so much more than any one thing. This is me being church nerdy on you & a little unchurchy too. Easter means warmer days ahead & flowers & green grass & leaves on the trees & gardens & fresh produce & new life! What is good is I believe that we are a both and sorta people. We are both sinner & saint. We are sinner & saint together, & sinner & saint on their own. I sit comfortably & yet uneasy in this paradox that I believe in - thank you Lutheran theology! Knowing all this, this past week has been a blessing to walk through the steps of Holy Week as I've been more than ready for Lent to be over for a few weeks. I was tired of sitting in the despair of Good Friday.

BAD: Comparisons. To be fully present in mind, body, & spirit it is best to avoid comparing oneself or others. At the same time it seems only natural to do certain comparisons in life. Many times comparisons are not fair to oneself as it is not sitting well with who one is & allowing oneself to be simply their own self. So as bgeg says, "just LOVE."

AWESOME: In the last week 2 colleagues & friends have shared that we were in their dreams. Both people, who as far as I know have never met one another, took it as they must've had us on their mind lately & just wanted to say hello. However, then we saw this quote, "Did you know that when someone appears in your dreams, it's because that person misses you?" While it is nice to know that both friends had us on their mind, I guess it really means that they have been on my mind. Crazy how that works!

WORD: Jesus' Radical Politics

coming up: A day of rest after a busy busy week. Then onward full steam ahead into the middle of the month! Jesus Christ is Risen Today! Alleluia!

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & awesome!

Credit to The Telegraph

GOOD: Today is Installation day! Some have joked that all these big churchy terms like consecration, ordination, & installation should really just be regal & therefore like a coronation. While consecration made life as a Diaconal Minister that much more real, this will set our current calls in stone (the sword in the stone?!). This week we have experienced the quiet of January, so it is nice to celebrate the church with so many people today. Christmas is put away at the JZ Parsonage with a few remaining wintry decoration pieces filling the shelves. And in place of the Christmas tree now sits a bench we were gifted (by gifting others we were able to gift ourselves) that is really for our front porch. In the middle of January in northern MI it is not so much fun to put things on the front porch, so in the living room it sits for now. Though we think it'll be alright outside year round. It was a decent accomplishment simply to take the pieces out of the box & assemble the bench to start!

BAD: The other day we decided to check out our local Family Video - yes we live in a town without a Redbox & a classic video rental store instead - & it appeared that the majority of the films that were on the wall considered "New Release" were about warfare on a broad spectrum. This could be warfare in history, spiritual worlds, or made up worlds. What's the deal? We don't have enough warfare in our day to day living or world that we need to infiltrate more through media. No thanks!

AWESOME: Sharing in the joy of our friends' ordination & commissioning services happening across the country. While I sincerely wish we lived close enough to each event to be able to attend - & let's be honest, that means living somewhere in Z's part of the mid-west (Minnocentric Midwest) - that is not the case nor the need of the church. We are where we all are because we are called & set apart to live as leaders in the church.

WORD: So I've realized that I've stopped receiving a daily devotional that I often relied on to share something here. I tried to switch the e-mail address it went to & now I don't know where it's actually going. I'm working on starting something new.

coming up: Living the life in the winter wonderland of Pure Michigan!