Saturday Morning Ramblings (A Rough Draft done on 5.26.12)

The Seasons Of Our Life

In late 2010 I began doing an in-depth study on the seasons of our lives.

All the properties of seasons, how they come in cycles and how they change. Sometimes predictable but not always. Each season has it's pros and cons.

I did this in order to be better pastor to the people in my church who were going through their own seasons of change. Some were getting older and having to give up routine activities. Some were dealing with the sudden onset of disease or sickness. Some were dealing with family changes - marriage, problems with children, etc. Some were dealing with financial issues, loss of jobs, accumulation of debt, etc. And of course some were dealing with the loss of friends or family, through death, or divorce, etc.

Seasons are cyclical, but our life seasons come and go in different ways than the normal seasons of the year.

New relationships can be forged. Broken relationships can be mended. Wounds will heal. Recovery from surgery will take place. Sometimes God removes sickness from us, but sometimes God removes us from sickness by taking us on to heaven.

Little did I realize just a year later how much I would need the benefits from this study..

But it was good that I was prepared. Preparation makes all the difference in the world. For some time I had longed for some "downtime". I had worked all my life, beginning in junior high. I always felt I was on some body else's time clock; that others were in control of my agenda, and I eagerly awaited the day when I could spend my time as I wanted, when I could write, and read, and work on my scrapbooks.

So when I became so overwhelmed with pain by the end of 2011 to the point where I could no longer pastor a church or work in my Avon store, I was ready for that season of rest and relaxation, reading and 'riting'.

The most major change in my life, of course, was seeing a lifetime of church activity and ministry come to a close, at least as I had known it for the past sixty years or so.

As a little girl I had always gone to church. I never missed a service, sometimes walking across town by myself to attend the Free Will Baptist church where I was saved at age 10 and baptized in 1953. Good church people usually provided transportation for me since at that time no one else in my family attended church.

In 1955 or thereabouts I made a change to the Taylor Avenue Church of God where I met Milan and decided to marry him when we were old enough.

Throughout our marriage, we rarely missed a Sunday unless due to sickness and in those days sickness just wasn't a part of our lives, thankfully. We never took a vacation from work or from church. Mila Jo first went to church at 10 days of age and there was never a question on Sunday morning but what we would be in church.

Church days were busy days. I began leading the congregational singing in my late teens, and about the same time I began teach Sunday School classes. I was singing solos in church from age 8 on, and my sisters and I had a trio in the fifties and sixties until Kay was killed in 1964. I began preaching in 1978, and was ordained in 1986.

During my five years of pastoring at Farmington I never missed a service.

The first 10 years of pastoring at Oakland, I might have missed a couple of services due to having the flu, etc.

In 2009 I have surgery and was out of church for six weeks.

Other than those few times, Sunday morning church has been a part of my life for six decades.

I am writing this in May 2012 and I have not attended a morning church service since December 18, 2011. My pain level is worse in the morning hours and I am unable to move beyond getting out of bed and going back to my office to sit until around noon, when I am able to shower and get dressed.

I now attend Sunday evening services with Milan, but the ministry activities of teaching, preaching, and singing are no longer a viable part of my life. I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to get out on Sunday nights, but for now I am content.

Will there be another area of ministry opening up to me, perhaps through my writing? I don't know right now. I only know God is in control and "He knows the way I take", Job 23:10.

COMMUNION ON THE MOON

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. (Melody Beattie) Americans need a day dedicated to gratitude. I have noticed that in the lineup of most of our holidays that Thanksgiving is perhaps the one least given over to secularism - the one we still observe in a traditional fashion. We need it to keep our focus clear and to teach our children what it means to be thankful for family, friendship and faith. We need a time to gather around the table with extended family and enjoy turkey and dressing and gravy, two kinds of potatoes, cranberries, hot rolls, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie and whipped cream. We need it, not for the calories, but to create an awareness that there are those who don’t have those blessings, because in the hectic pace of our everyday lives we tend to forget those in need. Family and food are important, but above all else, Americans need a rededication to our faith. Faith brought the pilgrims to the ne...

Passion

“Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age”.. (James Joyce) I’ve often been accused of being too passionate, of caring too much about certain things. But I believe that passion, also defined as fervor or zeal, is one of the essential core values of human life, along with the Apostle Paul’s Biblical list of the virtues of faith, hope and charity. Passionate people have strong opinions and usually articulate them very well. We are also perfectionists, and we don’t handle incompetence in the public arena very well, all of which tend to preclude us from being the most popular person in the room. I long ago accepted the fact that I won’t have the largest funeral in Lebanon, nor will my obituary make the front page. But not everyone seems to care that much about anything other than their own lives. T.S. Eliot once said, “It is obvious that we can no more explain pas...

THE TASTES OF SUMMER Tender green onion blades, tipped at the end With a white marble bulb, their flavors do blend With soup or a sandwich, I do recommend For these are the tastes of summer. Cucumbers growing green, awaiting their turn For slicing with vinegar and sugar, I yearn So cool and refreshing, my praises they earn These too are the tastes of summer. Sun ripened tomatoes, So juicy and sweet A smidgeon of salt, such a heavenly treat Just thinking of them makes my heart skip a beat A favorite taste of summer. Hot corn on the cob with the tantalizing name Of peaches and cream, it’s in my hall of fame From one end to the other of the cob I exclaim That this is the true taste of summer. Green beans, new potatoes, cooked up in a pan Just simmering slowly all day is my plan Some salt, bacon drippings, there’s no better than The taste of fresh beans in the summer. Green lettuce wilted down with some crisp bacon bits Add some vinegar, and sugar, it’s always a hit I have to a...

Straight From The Hart

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