Thursday Thoughts - Random Exits

So, I discovered something about myself yesterday while driving home from Atlantic City.

Before I left on Adventures to Atlantic City

I don't like driving aimlessly with someone else in the car.

Also, I don't like that some major roads don't have signs where one can find food and stuff.  Which leads to driving aimlessly with someone else in the car.

If it is me by myself it's no big deal to take a random exit and see what I could possibly find if I need something like gas or food or just a break from driving.  I travel with a multitude of map programs on my phone and battery packs to make sure I have enough power for my phone.  So, where ever I go, I can find my way back where I need to go.

But when I'm driving with someone else in the car, I like them to think I know exactly where I am going and what I will find when I take a random exit off a major road in search of something like food.  Because I don't want them to think I'm getting us lost or am confused or I'm not a safe driver or something.

I took a random exit yesterday in search of food with a friend in the car.  And at first we thought we were out of luck finding food.  We did find a Wawa (yay French Vanilla Cappuccino!) and a Methodist Church.  Then when it seemed like it was an unsuccessful random exit (which started to stress me out that it was unsuccessful) I turned around and while waiting at a light we found a diner.  Which wasn't too busy and had great food.

This whole experience made me think a bit about how sometimes we have random exits in life too.  Some literal and others not so much.  It can be scary taking the random exit.  It can be nerve wracking.  It can make one anxious. But you may be surprised at what you find along the way.

My random exit was a nice break from driving major highways with trucks and lanes that seemed a bit thinner than the ones I'm used to.  And it did provide a well-needed meal.  I'm glad it worked out the way it did.  And hopefully I won't be as nervous about taking a random exit the next time I'm driving someone else in the car.

Merging is an Ongoing Journey - Sometimes There is Laughter

Before every worship service the service participants gather in the choir room for a prayer led by Pastor Jody, or whoever is leading worship that particular day.  Sometimes we gather a bit early and have some time to fellowship before we pray and have to move into the sanctuary.  And most times this extra time leads to laughter.

Worship isn't meant to be stuffy.  It can have lighthearted moments.  There can be laughter at any point in the service.  But there is also some seriousness in a service too.  Especially since we are gathering to worship God.

But, at least for me, I really enjoy having the laughter before moving into the sanctuary, especially if I may be struggling with something.  It helps me enjoy things a bit more, even if we have something very serious to do.

Sometimes there is a reason for the laughter.  Like someone did something funny or told a joke or funny story.  And we did have some of those moments yesterday.  But yesterday was also the first day we could not only go through service without face masks on if we chose to, but we could also sing without face masks. So some of us were a bit excited about that, I guess.

Whatever the reason behind the laughter, it is such a good feeling knowing you can laugh with people through good times and bad.  Even though we all have our own things going on in our lives or our own feelings about things going on around us and around the world, we can still laugh in God's presence.

The Hudson River on Fri. 6/24/2022

Thursday Thoughts - Lemonade is Back!

Yes, it is that time again for Annual Conference.  And yes, it is time for more lemonade.  Because I can't seem to feel like it's Annual Conference without it.

Unlike last year when I bought a ton of different lemonades, I'm going to stick with a larger bottle and just drink small cups of it over Friday and Saturday.  I found, after last year, that my favorite turned out to be one that I didn't drink over the course of last year's conference.  It was weeks later when I found in a grocery store Turkey Hill's lemonade, which I loved.

However, when I went to the store last night to get my lemonade, the store I was at didn't have any. They had a type that I had tried last year and thought was okay.  And they had a lot of "light" versions which usually means artificial sweeteners that tend to give me migraines.  (And honestly, after several months now of NO MIGRAINES for random reasons except for overheating myself which is expected, I don't want to risk it.)  So I bought store brand.

Lemonade for 2022's Annual Conference

And yes, I did write on it so people wouldn't accidentally think it was for general use and open it and drink it.

We'll see how it is.  My sister says it is pretty good, so I'm hopeful.  And also, for 99 cents, it was a great deal!  This may be the lemonade I choose for the summer!

Merging is an Ongoing Journey - Far Away Yet Not

Night (yes night!) sky 6/19/22

 

Yesterday while reading a rather lengthy portion of scripture (1 Kings 19:1 - 15a) during the contemplative service, we were considering times of feeling far from God and times when we have felt close to God.  The scripture focused on Elijah fleeing from people who were going to kill him and him calling out to God to die.  Yet God provided him with food and drink, and if you think about it, safety.

I started to write that Elijah must have felt far from God because people had ill-intent against him.  Yet, God was always present.  God made provisions for Elijah in many different ways.  Elijah may have felt far from God yet God was not far from Elijah.

I didn't get to write down that this was the same for us.  Even though we go through things that make us feel like God is far away from us, God really is not.  God is always there for us, providing for us, even if we can't see it or recognize it right away.

We can not go anywhere away from God's presence.  We may not feel that God is present in the moment or situation or whatever else it is.  But, I have faith and know that God is truly there.  We are told that God never leaves us or forsakes us.  Even in Jesus' last moments when the cry went out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" God did not forsake His Son.

I have had times when I felt God was far away.  Or if not far away, not as responsive as I would have liked.  But God has always been close to me even when I thought He was far away.  God may not have responded as quickly as I would have liked.  But God responded or didn't respond in the way that was appropriate for the situation.

God is never far away from us.  And I am so very glad for that fact.

Merging is an Ongoing Journey - My Stewardship Moment

So, first I have to apologize that this is a day late.  I was at a conference on campus most of yesterday and while I had my laptop, I spent most of my time on the laptop doing work things and other times listening to speakers.

What I share below is the stewardship moment that I gave on Sunday.  Because it truly is why I give and do what I do for the church.

I wonder if the simple act of me standing right here for this Stewardship Moment let you know exactly what I was going to talk about.   Or maybe not.

For a number of months, we have heard from different people or groups talking about what matters to them and what gets them energized and how that energy leads to their stewardship within the church.

And here I am, about to tell you what now gets me energized.  If you didn’t guess it already, it is music.

When I first walked in through those doors at the back of the sanctuary, I was anything BUT energized.  I was the complete opposite of the Energizer Bunny.  I did not want to keep going and going.  I was like this for several months.

Until mid-October, Laity Sunday 2020, when the unthinkable happened.  The whole service was filled with scripture and prayer and a lot of music.  And if that wasn’t enough, the service ended with this… (If you wish to hear, go to this YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/bLI2SGp2Fdk?t=3528  - I tried to get it right at the exact moment you need, but if it didn't quite work, it is at 58:48 in the video.)

(I might not have physical props, but I have audible ones!)

You ever watch one of those medical shows where they use a defibrillator in order to shock someone’s heart? And the patient’s heart starts beating regularly again?

That is what THAT piece did to my energy.

If before I was the opposite of energized, I was now SUPER ENERGIZED.  Like someone who had too much caffeine or sugar or both.  But instead, music came alive for me.  And I regained my love and, okay, a bit of an obsession, of music that I had somehow lost.

Music is what energizes me and recharges me.  It energizes me in my daily life.  It helps me stay focused while working on projects at work.  It helps relax me after a stressful day.  It cheers me up when I’m sad.  It brings life back to me.

And that, in turn, has led to giving back to this church.  Yes, in a monetary way.  But also, in other ways.  It made me want to be more involved in music in any capacity possible, which was difficult at the time because we were still in 2020 where singing opportunities were limited.  But over time it led to helping lead music during services to being part of the PUMC choir. 

It also made me speak up when there seemed to be a gap because there I was opening my mouth offering to chair Church Council when I was still trying to find my way among the congregation.

Music energized me not only to be involved with music but to give back to the church in many other ways. 

I do not know if it was just the wide participation that day, or that I started to feel like part of the church family, or it was all the music that day that caused a chain reaction that ended with that organ postlude and made me almost jump out of my seat and start dancing around.  But I know it returned a love for music to me which then led to wanting to give back to the church in any way I could.  It made me a much better steward as I continued my journey as a member of this church family.

Me on 6/12/2022

 

Thursday Thoughts - The Hibiscus

If you follow me on social media or have for any length of time, you know that for the past who knows how many years, for Mother's Day I buy my mom a hibiscus plant.  This year was no different.

Well, sort of.

The past few years I have been getting mom a bush, which is easier to transport home in the car and what I learned this year was one of the reasons it would stay where we put stick the plant without having to put it in the ground.

This year I bought my mom a hibiscus tree.  Adam's (where I get all my hibiscus plants) did have bushes but I liked the colors of the trees a bit better.

Here is the problem with the tree.

When we had some really bad winds associated with fronts and things moving through,  the tree tended to fall over.  A lot.  So the tree was moved to in front of our porch where it seemed to be protected from the wind.  But didn't seem to be thriving - at all.  Before long all the leaves turned yellow and we barely had any flowers on the tree.

So I decided I would put it back where we always had the hibiscus.  But I planted it.  I dug a hole for it, put it in, and packed not just the dirt I had removed to make the hole but also some potting soil.  It started to do better.

Then I remembered something.  We get a lot of cold stuff sent to our house between medication for my dad and my niece.  The coolers that are sent always have those gel ice packs that we either save or throw away.  Well, something that came had a different type of gel pack.  If you let the pack thaw out, you could either dump the remnants down your sink without fear of it being bad for the pipes or environment or anything OR you could use it as liquid plant food.  Yes, you read that right.  Liquid plant food.

So, I used one of the packs and gave the hibiscus tree some liquid plant food.  And I am happy to say it seems to be really thriving now.

The hibiscus as of 6/8/2022

There are a lot of flowers on it.  There are no yellowing leaves.  There are buds and leaves starting to come back.

I am glad that I made the effort to plant the hibiscus.  And that I remembered about that plant food!

Merging is an Ongoing Journey - Some Thoughts from Contemplative Worship

 Yesterday morning we spent some time considering Romans 8:26-27, which reads, "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words.  And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." (NRSV)

From my journal with my thoughts from the contemplative service

There was a prompt we could use, but I spent the time thinking on the set of verses.  I wrote, "Do I ask the Holy Spirit to intercede when I don't know what to ask?  Or how to ask?  Probably not.  Should I?  Probably so.  But sometimes it is hard - it seems almost selfish because there is SO MUCH else going on around the world that needs more intervention, action, etc. than my cries."

For me it is easier to consider the Holy Spirit interceding where words fail in situations like the recent gun violence or when a natural disaster causes problems or if a country has been facing war like in the Ukraine.  Because in all of those situations, words fail, and sometimes it is just so heartbreaking that all I can do is feel emotions and I just do not know what to say.  But I know that in addition to trying to do something if I can, praying can also be done.  I just sometimes don't know how.

I do have my own struggles in life.  But they pale in comparison to so much out there.  I almost feel I should have words for those things in my life because they are known to me and they are not as overwhelming as other stuff.

I was always encouraged by this set of verses.  But now I find myself thinking more deeply about them.  I guess that is a good thing and possibly one of the purposes behind the contemplative worship service.

Thursday Thoughts - Size Amazements

A few years ago I had the opportunity to go back to my old elementary school to do a reading day with my niece.  While I waited along with the other family members who were going to read with their young people, I was looking at the stairs to go to the second floor of the building.  They seemed like short stairs, ones I could definitely take 2 at a time and possibly even 3 at a time.

When I come home from my (almost weekly) sunset viewing, sometimes I take a longer way home.  This way takes me by the space my former Girl Scout day camp, Camp Foster, used to be at.

Camp Foster as it is today (5/29/2022)

The picture I share is the lake we used to swim in until it was deemed no longer safe due to something in the water.

But what amazes me is that I drive by the space and I still see some of the structures up that were there before.  They may have been renovated or refitted.  But I look at the space and feel like the camp is much smaller than it was when I was a camper and a counselor there.

I see where the lake is and remember approximately where two sites were in relation to the lake.  And I feel like either the space shrunk or maybe it just seemed a bit bigger when I was much younger.

I would love to be able to get in there and walk the grounds once again.  But I haven't quite figured out how to go about doing that.

So I continue to just drive by, take pictures every once and awhile, and look at the space wondering if I really was so unaware of the space while I spent many years there.  Or if it just looks different with all the trees cut down and the area more like an open park than a camp site.