I visited someone’s blog whom I met recently. Unfortunately, I met them because I was officiating their mother’s funeral. While it was a sad way to make someone’s acquaintance; nevertheless, I feel blessed to have met this person and their family. I feel blessed for a moment to have vicariously met her mother.

Moments, like these, moments of remembering loved one’s with a family, give pastors an opportunity to regularly reflect on the fragile and fleeting nature of life. It is a mixed blessing, but undoubtably a blessing. This blessing that comes with watching life pass was punctuated this evening as I went with my wife to watch a stage version of the wonderful book, Tuesday’s with Morrie. For those of you who don’t know Tuesday’s with Morrie is an endearing story of a professor’s life who is ending and precious moments spent each Tuesday with one of his students from his past. Many life lessons about what is truly important are passed on during those Tuesday sessions.  Morrie, says something to the effect of, “I wish I had been more aware of death, during my life.”  I don’t think that’s the quote exactly, but that is the essence of what he says.  I also think this is the blessing that comes with watching people’s lives end.  Watching life passing helps us value life so much more deeply.

Tuesday’s with Morrie is a story that will almost surely prompt you to examine your priorities and/or stir up any regrets lurking beneath your surface. I don’t have a mountain of regrets. Frankly, even at only 44 I think I have lived a rather rich and diverse life with a lot of love and limited hardship. Of the things that I regret the most, are those moments when I have filled my plate too full and allowed life to pull me into a place where I am not happy with myself.   Specifically, the times where my threshold has been surpassed so that with my family, friends or most importantly my children and wife I have failed to be the best John I could be. Don’t get me wrong I haven’t been some intolerable ogre, nor am I prone to being ugly toward people, but I regret those times when I didn’t manage my life well enough to be a patient, kinder John.

“LOVE IS PATIENT, LOVE IS KIND”

These words from 1 Corinthians 13 are only a small fraction of the description of love within that chapter. Yet, I find that even just these two small qualities could possibly be a life time of homework.  I began this post mentioning that I visited a blog of someone I had met recently.  Her name is Mary Jane Ballou and she has a lovely blog called Sacred Miscellany. I would love to know how she finds the rather eclectic mix of links and media she shares.  The video at the top of the page is one of those heart nudging pieces.  To me it is a quiet reminder that “Love is patient, live is kind.”  I hope it stirs you to patience and kindness as it did me, for these are the things that matter the most as life passes.
p.s. Check out Mary Jane’s blog

Ash Wednesday is just two weeks away now. Tonight, our church launched a new discipline for people to adopt during Lent that I am very excited about.  We have 17 members who are homebound or in nursing homes.  Our Evangelism Committee asked people to consider adopting one or more of these members during the six weeks of Lent.  We have a very distinct mission for our adopters.

At the beginning of Lent we are giving each family in the church a decorative handmade wooden table cross that is about 12 inches tall with a devotional guide.  Each week during Lent we will give out a symbol to add to the cross.  The symbols are relate to Jesus last hours and crucifixion. There is a devotional thought for the week associated with each symbol explained in the devotional guide.  We want to include our homebound members in this congregational activity.  So some people are adopting a shut-in and bringing him or her a cross and then returning each week with the next symbol.  We hope that the symbol will be a tangible reminder throughout the week of God’s love for them and our love for them as part of our church family.

Even if your church isn’t doing anything like a cross project it doesn’t mean that you couldn’t adopt an elder in need of some companionship.  Lent runs from Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17th until Easter Sunday, April 4th.  During those six weeks imagine the joy that a visit would bring someone.  You may enjoy it so much that it continues far beyond those six weeks.  Or perhaps, you could just decide to visit a different person each week.  You could be the grace of Jesus Christ to them.  You could be the love of Jesus Christ to them.  It’s something to consider.

If you want to know how we set it up at our church it was quite simple.  I printed out a half sheet that explained the project and at the bottom it said, “Yes, I will adopt….___________________”.  We put the name of a different shut-in on the blank line of each sheet.  We grouped some together that stayed in the same nursing facility that we thought people may want to adopt together.  People just picked up the sheet of the person they wanted to adopt.  We recorded the names of the adopters next to their adoptees on a list we had of our shut-ins.   We did that to make sure that we didn’t miss anyone and also if we have to recruit a few adopters I didn’t want to be needlessly asking a bunch of people who already had someone.  I think we only have few left but we have two weeks to find someone willing to adopt them.

I placed a two copies of our handout on the Lent Page.  If you would like to see or adapt one just click here.  I saved it both as a PDF file and as a Word Document.  The PDF is to make sure that anyone could access it.  The Word format is for anyone who would like to adapt it.

I have a couple more ideas for Lent that I am working on posting before the weekend.  I would love to hear from other people about things they give up during Lent or spiritual disciplines that they take on.  Even if you are from a church or denomination that does not observe Lent I would encourage you to look at the disciplines on the Lent Page because they are all spiritual exercises that benefit someone at anytime.

Blessings to You

Most of us know the story of the prodigal son.  A young man, probably full of late adolescent angst or early twenty know-it-all syndrome, tells his daddy.  ”I can’t wait until your dead to get my money.  Give it to me now.”  Forgive me for the tremendous paraphrasing but you  get the idea.  Dad gives him the money.  The young man then heads out on his own.  He squanders his money and finds himself yearning to go home.  He realizes that even life as a servant at home would be better than the life he has made for himself.  When he comes home his dad is exuberantly overjoyed.  Dad kills the fatted calf and has a big ol’ party much to his other son’s dismay.  The other son feels very slighted.  He has stayed at home and been a good obedient son.  He feels passed over to say the least.  Dad and the good son have a talk and the dad tries to explain his extreme joy.

THE PRODIGAL FATHER

We almost always refer to this as the prodigal son.  The word prodigal according to one online dictionary is defined as: