Well, I've been out reading a few blogs on this cold morning - 24 on my patio thermometer which for some of you isn't all that cold, but for this place it is. Broke out some of manBoy's stocking stuffers - hand warmers for running - before he left for school this morning. Figured giving him what he needed now was more important than a surprise he might not need in a few days.
I'm teaching the Disciple I Bible study on The Book of Job tonight. That.will.be.interesting. All those questions about innocent suffering... Lord, help me. No, really - I'm trusting you Spirit to give me what I need for this.
ManBoy has been driving himself around for about 10 days now. So far, so good. G&T and I attended the neighborhood progressive party (3 houses) on Sunday evening. For the first time in 4 years, we didn't have to leave in the middle to pick him up from youth.
It was wonderful to go to that party and not be in the middle of a crisis (as the last two years have been). I was even asked to offer the blessing. In the past that has always fallen to a man. This year someone said, "Hey, we have our own pastor on the street." There may be a time when I wish that wasn't so acknowledged, but since I taught school in the neigborhood elementary school before I went to seminary, this was a cool acknowledgement of my career transition being complete.
The other cool thing about this annual party is that it also involves collecting gifts and funds to provide Christmas gifts and food for two families who would not otherwise have them. These families have children attending above mentioned elementary school which serves two lower income areas as well as our fortunate neighborhood. We don't know their names. The school nurse provides us with age, gender, size information, but keeps the names private. I live in a great neighborhood!
I have many things to do at the office this week, and to prepare for the kind of Christmas celebration I'm hoping to have (fun, relaxed...), and my January calendar is absolutely nuts - chock full. So, my current spiritual discipline is to catch myself when I fall into "dread mode", and pause to enjoy the here and now. Today my goal is to live that out in relationship to tonight's class.
I should be ready for work by now, but I'm sitting here in my flannel bathrobe and jammies and slipper socks. So, this is the end of this blog entry.
Update: Disciple class went really well. Lots of good discussion participation. Now on to the next thing.
2 comments:
Job will be good. I remember teaching Disciple I and coming to Job this time of year and thinking "What the heck!?" and then being surprised by all the good discussion.
So glad you are NOT in the middle of crisis this year!
Thanks for stopping by to check on me! I've been out of the loop too.
It sounds like you have some really neat neighbors.
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