Holiday Time

According to my contract, I have 3 weeks of holidays to take within a year.  One of the perks of working for a small organization like a church is that often there is no policy on numerous things.  Like whether or not the holidays accumulate or not.  I am going to assume they do not, rather than trying to build them up for a long time only to find out that I wasn’t allowed to.  Thus far this year I have used up less than a week, and the contract is up for renewal in July.  Which means I have two months to take two weeks of holidays.

The plan is for family to be here for the first week, and then back to work for a week, and then travel to BC for the next week.

Now I just have to find someone to fill in for me in the office.

Chill

HIghlight of the last few hours: we received a hand me down fridge from my in-laws.  Granted, it is even older than the fridge we had.  And it is almond, which is not really an upgrade from the white one that we had.  But it is a full size fridge.  I am sure we gained at least 5 cubic feet of space.  Also, we found four different bags of frozen wiener remnants, along with a lot of other miscellaneous things that were on the verge of becoming micro-ecosystems.

I fully expect that the bigger fridge will be just as full as the old one, given mostly to the fact that at any given point there are aging items that don’t need to be in there, so that amount should just increase.

Unfortunately the doors are not quite big enough to hold a jug of milk…

Buying a new fridge is the pits, since you are hard pressed to find a deal when you are in a rush to replace something.  And who is looking for a deal when the fridge works?  Cause it could last a long time, for all you know.

Here’s hoping that it lasts, as it would be the pits to have gone to all this work and then have it die right away.

Spiritual Leadership

Every now and then I am a part of our local ministerial meetings, and it often makes me reflect afterward.

Most people that are working in a church these days are doing it for noble reasons.  It is not something you get into for the money, and not so much the power, though perhaps there are people that chase those things in this role.  I often wonder what motivates others.

To be a spiritual leader does not mean that you are perfect, or should pretend to be.  But as I think about what really matters in this regard, you cannot effectively lead people where you are not going yourself.  Leadership within the Christian church is all about servanthood.  So some leaders try to out-serve everyone else – and then burn out.  Too many families feel that ministry cost them what was given to the church.

My first congregation is my family.  That is one of those quotes I want to keep coming back to.

Some spiritual leaders try to know the most.  As if knowledge is what gives them legitimacy.  There are many ministries that serve to equip and teach the body.  Probably more today than ever before.  And some could argue that the church is in a worse place than it has been in a while.  Knowledge does not bring about change.

I think good leaders need to ask themselves hard questions: am I changing?  Am I growing in intimacy with the Lord?  Would my family think I am humble?  Am I leading them as well as I am trying to lead the church?

Unfortunately, pastors are not always people that love others well.  And that seems weird to me.

Unfortunately, I do not always love others well.  And that pierces me.

Crazy

In our church, just before Easter we had two deaths in three days.  Both people in their sixties, one after discovering cancer, and a very rapid deterioration of health over the next two months; the other after beating cancer a second time a year or so ago, and then coming down with pneumonia, which became a lung infection, and in two days he was gone.

Heavy week.

Often, we don’t really feel free to mourn and respond in ways that reflect what we felt inside.  Culturally, we don’t handle grief very well.  I think partly it is because we are uncomfortable with pain.  So in church circles we skate right past the pain and talk about the hope we have.  So we laud those that “keep it together” at funerals, and can’t wait for funerals to be over when someone displays emotion.

Which is bizarre, when you think about it.  What is more fitting at a service acknowledging the loss of a loved one: to keep a stiff upper lip, or to weep and display the anguish of loss?

How can we respond in helpful ways?  People want to know that we care.  We don’t need to give the right answer to their pain.  People need space to feel whatever they are feeling.  It is okay to feel it, whatever it is.  Grief is what we feel, not what we do.  We move towards hope when our actions match what we feel and we give ourselves permission to process our loss.

At some point, we find comfort in the only One that can comfort us.  But that takes time.  And space.

Just Do It

Go and get Draw Something from the App Store. Then put “ramyck” in as a user name for an opponent. Quite fun. Essentially you get to play pictionary with your friends. Only it is turn based, not real time.

Guitar

A few years ago I was given a guitar as a Christmas present.  For a while I tried to learn myself, using a “how to learn guitar” booklet.  I learned a few chords, and a song or two that I could play using those few chords, but somewhere along the line I stalled out.

So this year, I noted that a local student was trying to earn his way to Europe by (among other things) teaching guitar lessons.  So for the minimal fee of $10 a week, I have a reason to practice, and a more experienced eye to evaluate my technique and whatnot.

But this weekend I am going to a convention.

Do I take the guitar along?  It is big and bulky and there are four of us going in a civic.

Oh the humanity!

Perhaps I will not take it, and hope to play on someone’s guitar that is there.  But what if there is not one there?  Then what?

Flixering Pickels

I have been reading a book about how technology impacts our faith.  I am halfway through it, and have stalled out a little in reading it, but it is bringing back ideas from the fall that I thought I would think through here.

Technology is one of those things that for the most part, we blindly accept.  Even to question whether technology is beneficial or not will have people looking at you with raised eyebrows.  When I was taking the seminary course last year, we talked about technology and its power to alienate.  Technology promises a few things:

1. Increased Efficiency – if it saves us time, money, or energy (or at least we think that it does), it is always better.
2. Increased Satisfaction - people with the latest gadgets are happier and generally enjoy life better.
3. Increased Connection - so many of our devices promise us greater connection with the people that really matter in our lives.

Each of these promises is partly true and partly a lie.

Efficiency is the ultimate evaluation tool for our decision making.  But newer thinking is coming out that is replacing efficiency with sustainability as the key measurement.  Does having a fancy new device actually change our lives for the better?  We assume it does.  But we rarely consider the drawbacks.  It is now commonplace to answer a cell phone or send and receive text messages while engaged in conversation with others.  By doing so, we demonstrate that electronic communication is more important than real life connection.

Each of us is wired for connection.  It is through deep and meaningful connection with God and one another (we need both) that we actually find satisfaction.  Not through owning the newest technology.  Electronic connection is at best a shadow of real life connection.  But a whole generation is coming up that prefers electronic connection.  And this is the irony: we are driven toward connection because that is how we find satisfaction (deep, healthy, meaningful relationships), and we buy into the lie that technology will help us do that.  But technology cannot replace intimacy, and often leaves us feeling isolated, disconnected, alone.

Exercise

Since I have been a part of another healthy lifestyles competition the last couple months, I have been ruminating on something I heard once.

The ultimate in irony is someone sitting in a traffic jam so they can get to the gym and ride a stationary bike.

Our society is pretty ridiculous sometimes, and exercise is one of the ways in which we are most ridiculous.

The competition this time around had a few bonus points categories added in so that there would be some uncertainty about who would come out on top at the end. A few big weeks and you could pull yourself into the lead through the bonus points. One of the ways was to shovel someone else’s sidewalk. I realized at some point that if I needed to get an hour of cardio in, I might as well get some bonus points at the same time. Now, let me tell you, shoveling snow is no easy hour of cardio. But compared to walking by myself on my treadmill in my basement? I would way rather be doing something that benefits someone else at the same time.

Why pay hundreds of dollars to go an exercise in a gym when we can accomplish the same thing by serving?

Granted, I can only do this on days after it has snowed enough for sidewalks to need to be cleared, but perhaps there are other ways that this principle could be applied. Could I walk with someone and invest in a relationship at the same time?

Nicknames

One of my children, the one that is about to turn three, is definitely a rascal at this stage of life.

For some reason, she has latched onto the concept of calling people names.  Sometimes going for the reaction, and sometimes just to to be funny.  Here is a sampling:

• Pappy
• Doody
• Tatety
• Poody
• Dane-Marky
• Dane-Marka
• Kate-a-boy
• Broomhilga (this may have been one that I planted)

At her most bored, we’ve heard this conversation with herself:

“Hi Pappy!

Don’t call me Pappy!

Mom, K called me Pappy!”

***

Definitely a sassafras.

Chocolate On My Face

Perhaps it is because I have three small children.

Perhaps it is because I am not all that observant.

Perhaps I eat like a horse.

Or perhaps it is because my wife has been experimenting with homemade chocolate (so as to be sugar free), and I have been sampling, but…

I spent more than 8 hours today with chocolate on my face.  Granted it was hiding behind my glasses a little bit (?), so I wouldn’t see it right away if I glanced in a mirror, but still.  I was out in public.