I'm Still Game (Part 3)

This is Part Three of a game that began with Robin's invitation to play.  Here are my Part One and Part Two.  It took me a day or so to respond to Part Three, which got a lot more contemplative:

Third Question:  What do you consider to be the big question or conundrum of your life?

My answer:  "Am I doing the right thing?"  

Which brought up even more questions:

How do you know "when to hold 'em" and "when to fold 'em"?
Is there even a "right thing" anyway?

Is the right thing always the loving thing, and vice versa?

Why do some decisions seem so easy for me and not for others? (and vice versa)

Why can't people get along?

Is choosing love the same thing as choosing God?

Just because it's easy for me, does that mean it's good/right?

Just because it's painful/difficult for me, does that mean it's time to stop?

And wandering off to other things:

Why am I so blessed?

What is my responsibility to the world?

Why does God's way seem to lose to other ways?

Am I on God's way or in God's way?

Is "introspective" the same thing as "contemplative"?

Will I ever find and make a recipe for really good gluten-free bread?

And it goes on . . . and on . . .

Robin's disclaimer:  I should probably warn you at this point that there is absolutely nothing behind these questions other than my own imagination.  I dreamed them up a couple of days ago when I was trying to work something out for myself, and they produced what seemed to me an intriguing insight.

It's OK, Robin.  I'm hooked!  I'm still having fun with it.  You've made me think.  And even more, you've reminded me to celebrate some things I had forgotten were even hanging around.

I look forward to the final part that -- my guess and my hope -- will produce my own intriguing insight. Or something else entirely!

Ten Questions on a Tuesday

Here are some questions I have seen around the blogosphere.  A very wonderful woman inspired me to answer them today:

1.  What simple pleasure would you miss most if it was no longer a part of your life?

       goofing off

I just liked it!

2.  What was one of your prized possessions as a child or teenager?

       As a teenager, I had a cat named Charley.

3.  Name a book you've read (or a movie you've watched) multiple times.

       Several, but the one that might surprise people is Legally Blonde (the movie)

4.  What is your current career/vocation?  
       Pastor of a UCC church  
If you could try another one, what would it be?
A residence hall director or children's home house parent

5.  If you could take a six-month sabbatical, where would you go and what would you want to do/learn/study?

       A trip around the world by as many slow means as possible to learn, study, do, goof off!  "Goof off" in this case would be taking pictures and eating and talking to people!  In a perfect world I would take a few of my wonderful relatives and/or friends who could buy into that agenda.

6.  In your opinion, what is the quintessential comfort food?

       Mexican food -- specifically, family enchilada night!

7.  What was a formative moment or turning point in your life?

       The seminary years -- the whole process of it all.  Life was never the same after that.

8.  Do you have any regrets that are particularly difficult to shake?

       Yes.  

9.  If you could be really talented at a skill of your choice, what would it be?

       Talk show host or guest

10.  If you had to choose one word to describe what you hope your life is like in 10 years, what would it be?

       Green.

Wanna play?

Happy Birthday to me!

Three year old me

For those who wished me a great day, your wish came true:

• A beautiful card and a great gift to wake up to

• Celebrating worship and communion with a congregation who sang "Happy Birthday" to me and enjoying some very good-natured kids of the church

• Hanging out with my easy-to-hang-out-with son

• An amazingly good Mexican food restaurant in our neck of the woods -- great find!

• A bookstore browsing and two new quilting magazines

• Enjoying cooler weather and noticing leaves tinged with fall color

• Happy birthday calls from sweet daughters and hearing from dear family and wonderful friends -- far and near -- all very special people

• Gluten-free chocolate cake (thank you, Betty Crocker!) with dark chocolate icing and vanilla ice cream -- for supper!  That, plus a multi-vitamin and some de-caf coffee sounds plenty good enough.  

• And I am pretty sure there will be a Netflix movie to end a perfect day!

Life is good!

Advice from Me to Myself

Dear Self:

Great Salt Lake (July 2009)

Have you read your own most recent pastor article?  Why, look, it arrived at the post office just yesterday.  How timely!  Take another look at what you wrote.  Remind yourself, again, how very tempting it is to think that *everyone else* could use a holy attitude adjustment and how "helpful" you are with always-just-right advice for other people.

So, now you have stumbled -- yea, fallen flat! -- again.   And somehow it always seems so unexpected!  Do you really need yet another reminder that ordination did not inoculate the Rev from looking for love in all the wrong places, or from forgetting to look for love at all?  Your well can dry up, too, you know.  It's better to notice when the level reaches "low" before it's all the way to "empty."

"Hindsight is 20/20," of course, and so are all the other cliches that involve "a new leaf" and "heal thyself" and, most definitely, "eating humble pie."  Here, have some.  Yours is gluten-free, of course!

These things you know; these things you preach; these things you write.  So, here it is, your most recent newsletter article, appropriately entitled "Good News is for Sharing."  You wrote it.  Now live it.  Today.

Love you still,
Me

GOOD NEWS IS FOR SHARING

August 2010