God our Mother

The first assignment for our class on prayer is to pray every day using a different name for God.
This morning I prayed to God our mother.

Which I don't usually do - I usually use the word "Lord" or "Loving God"

I am finding that it makes a big difference the names with which we address God. Often times I will say that "God is more" - more than you know, more than you can express, more than you can expect and so it does make sense to use different names to apprehend all that God may be.

Yesterday I started to read a book "A Problem from Hell" - America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power. Just reading the first 30 pages was disturbing as it described genocide through the ages and the way in which our country says we are against genocide in principle - but when confronted with it in reality - we call it something else and not our business.

I also continue to pray for and think about my sister Ellen and her family. It is hard to struggle with cancer and it is hard to be with our loved ones and not be able to do anything to help except to be there.

There is comfort in praying to God our MOTHER. Our compassionate and comforting mother. Our mother who is with us in the darkest times and weeping with us. Because I am a mother who deeply loves my children, I understand mother love that often cannot fix the problem, but can offer presence and unconditional love.

And so, this morning I pray to my mother God and pray for all who suffer that they might know that God, their mother is with them - loving, caring deeply, consoling.

There are so many things in life I do not understand, but I have the faith that in the midst of it, God is there.

The Media comes to KRCC

Last night Fox News came into our church!
How strange it all was.

We have our gospel praise service at 5:00 PM. When I drove in there were 2 Fox TV trucks in the driveway. Unbeknownst to me there was a big accident in front of the church and they were there for that.

We had our service and at the end (after Charles preaches) I stand up and do sort of the conclusing remarks and invitation as we get into a circle and pray together. I saw some people in the corner and could not figure out who they were. We ended the service.

So, I came out into the narthex and there are 2 young guys with a TV camera. I asked them who they were and they were from Fox News. They were doing a story on people praying for the city budget that is going to be voted on today. And did I want to be interviewed? I thought about it and declined. I had not prayed about the city budget and the truth is - coming home from a cruise - I had not really thought about the city budget. I did not feel any desire to speak about this on camera. Even though yes - I do pray and Yes - I do care about the budget cuts.
However, if other people wanted to speak to them, that was their choice. Both Kerry and Charles did.

They told me that someone had given them permission to come into our service and they filmed us there. I found that to be intrusive but did not say anything because it was already done.
We will probably discuss this at our board meeting.

Last night I watched the footage on both Fox news at 10 and channel 6 at 11. It was okay, I guess. Charles and Kerry both spoke articulately. They did film part of our service, which I did not like. It almost implied that we were having a service praying for the city budget. But maybe somebody saw it and thought they might try out our church.

But mostly, I feel like these guys had a story that they made up and they were looking for a church that was open for business to hang the story on. I wonder how many "news stories" are like that.

Home from the cruise

It is Sunday afternoon and we got home yesterday at 4:30. We had a Wendy's hamburger on the way home, I worked a little on my sermon and was in bed last night at 9 PM and slept 10 hours straight. Today at church people told me I looked rested - and I said I had to come home to get the rest.

The cruise was wonderful - better than I could have even imagined it would be. Here are some of the reasons why

1. My siblings were all there! Including Ellen and Tom. Ellen was weak and in a wheelchair to get around. But she was there and we were able to eat together, play cards and spend time with her. I was so glad they came.

- Wayne and Gail were amazing! I wondered if they would like the cruising thing and thought maybe they would spend a lot of time just reading quietly. No! They immediately got up and were dancing for the camera the first night. They sand Karaoke and even sang in front of a thousand people one night in the Universe Lounge! ("Let's fall in love") They took yoga every morning, and the spinning class in the afternoon. They were up for anything.

- Geoff and Karen came. They played cards with us and also Karen spent time in the Casino. Geoff has a beautiful voice and we got to hear him singing in Karaoke. My favorite was when he sang a solo Firday night. But he and Wayne sang together and he and Chuck sang together and Tuesday night - memorably - the 4 of us sang together - "You've got a Friend." We will never forget that!

2. My kids were all there. And they make me happy and they all make me laugh. I cannot overstate how much joy and jokes I get from being around them. Kacey and I won a prize for trivia and Kacey won a prize for the Limbo contest! What a kid! All three of them sang many songs in Karasoke - and they are all great dancers!

3. Friends came - friends from Bowling Green and friends from here. And some friends - the Muellers - brought their kids who partied with my kids. It was fun and there was always someone to do something with. We ate together, played together, sang together, danced together, and ate together (yes, lots of eating!)

We are already saying - we need to do this every year! We'll see. I have to get this one paid for - but it was truly a once in a lifetime experience for me.

I am a blessed woman to have such a wonderful family and such great friends.

getting excited - part 2

Well, it is Saturday night and I am doing that last bit of laundry and putting that last items in the suitcase and getting ready to go to New Orleans - tomorrow!

We are celebrating my birthday 2 months early by going on a cruise - with the girls, my brothers and sister and other friends. There will be 24 of us in all!

And I am excited - almost beyond words. Almost.

I look forward to all of it.
It was a couple of years ago that I realized that nothing makes me happier than watching people be happy. And so - with all of us together on this ship - I think we are going to have a great time.

This is what I like about going on a cruise

1. You unpack your clothes and move in to your own (little) room.

2. You never have to think about what to eat and what it will cost. You have paid and there are lots of choises

3. I never have to worry about Chuck finding something to do - there is always something going on.

4. I like the casinos - for a while until I get frustrated (you know what that means)

5. I love just wandering around the boat - maybe stopping for a cup of coffee or a glass of wine

6. I like to sit on the deck and play cards and listen to music and watch people

7. I love coming back to the room and the bed is made

8. I love the calendar of events - even though I don't do half of what you can do

9. I love finding a place on the ship that is "my place" where I can sit and read

10. I love looking at the ocean!

Getting Excited - Part One

The last two days I was at Wellstreams in a little retreat as we are beginning our new term in school. And it gets me very excited.

We are a class of 19 and we are going to be together probably for 2 and a half year. The program ends in May of 2011! Wow! It seems daunting, but I bet when it is done I will be sorry it is over.

Now I am talking two course -
The first one is in prayer is it is going to be mainly experiential. We are going to have prayer journals where we record when and where we prayed and what happened when we prayed on a daily basis. Should be interesting and a great discipline for me.

Today we spent time talking about all the names of God that are found just in the Psalms and our assignment for the next two weeks it to pray with different names for God.

The other course is in human, personality, and faith development. It too is going to stretch me and teach me some new ways to look at myself and the journey that I have been on. We are reading four books - the first one is "Healing the Eight Stages of Life" about Erikson's developmental stages. I truly can't wait to get started on it all. As we were learning about the class today, I found myself leaning forward and not wanting to miss anything. This is all the stuff that I love to learn about.

So, happy to be learning something new. Happy to be in a place where I am being forced to have a real discipline about my prayer life. And curious about what will come out of this term.

We spent quite a bit of time Friday night talking about what happened to us in the first term - and all I can say is that I do feel like I am experiencing an internal shift. I feel like I trust God more and more, feel greater peace and really feel - for lack of a better word - Happy.

God is Good, All the time

Facebook Confession

I am on facebook.
My sister Ellen set me up on facebook at least a year ago and I did nothing with it. I would occassionally get notifications that someone wanted to be my "friend" and I found it irritating.
And I just let it go.

Marnie has now come back to facebook and so I thought I would too and I find that I am getting hooked.
It really is another way to connect to people from my present and my past. And I love it.

I love reading about kids from Bowling Green who are now adults and I see these statements (sometimes 25 random statements) about what they are doing and it is just so interesting to me and satisfying.

I love reading about my own kids and what they are doing and getting a little window into their lives.

I love reading about other people from different parts of my life and my family. This year I celebrate 60 years of life - and that is a lot of people over the years.

And facebook gives me a snapshot - literally -in what some of them may be doing at any time.
It is great! But can kind of hook me into spending more time than I originally planned.

Snow Day

It is a snow day here in Columbus Ohio - although I am thinking about walking to church this afternoon to clean my office up. Why not?

A snow day means that Marnie, Addie, Reagan, Chuck and Margot (Ogram) are Home together.
We have had snow, ice and now snow again. It is level 2 and that means that driving is discouraged. Chuck is not going to be discouraged however, he is out feeding the Merlyn's dogs in her absence. And I bet he drives around just to see what is happening. He loves that.

Before anybody got up this morning I had worked on my sermon for when I get back from the cruise, written a letter for the newsletter and exercised! A great beginning

We - the girls - have done some shoveling, fed the birds and had some hot chocolate.
Reagan has been in time out once for rolling her eyes at me. (You would think she is 13!)
Addie has gotten in trouble once for telling on her sister for calling her a dork.
But other than that the girls are wonderful. Really. It is great to watch them play together. Later on I know I am going to get to play Sorry and Rummikub with Reagan.
And we may watch a movie together.

I feel blessed to have a day like this. And a house big enough that I can be with my family and get away from them!
And to know that next week - at this time - I am going to be on a cruise ship!