Lenten Photos Day 1: Who Am I?

As part of my Lenten practice this year, I have decided to participate in the Lenten 40 Day Photo Challenge at rethinkchurch.org.  The idea is to take a photo that is about the word or phrase of the day. It is supposed to require paying attention and being intentional, which sounds like a spiritual discipline to me!

Who Am I?

Today I am:

• Starting the day a concerned mom and grandmother 
• An early riser in Baton Rouge; commuter to New Orleans
• Interim Pastor at Central St. Matthew UCC in NOLA
• In need of a hair cut and a massage
• The recipient of ashes twice in one day
• Offering ashes from the (covered) Carrollton Ave. campus front steps during cold rain at noon (pic taken there)
• Singing and praying there, too, with some who came by.
• Enchilada cook at lunch (nothing new there!)
• Relieved about good medical test results for a loved one
• Messaged and encouraged during sermon prep
• Preacher for our NOLA clergy-sponsored service tonight
• Face-to-face with "the Chicago thing" . . . again.
• Peaceful about "the Chicago thing" . . . really
• Reasonably satisfied about the preaching tonight
• Gluten-free in a gluten-filled Communion world (it seems)

Dream Job Part Two: What This Pastor Wants

Yes, it's supposed to be Hogwarts.  Makes sense to me!

Following up on yesterday's Friday Five post, I had to write more about what I want in my Dream Job:

I'm a pastor.  I do have a dream job. Given the biological reality that my baby-making and child-rearing years have been fully completed, my other dream job is indeed serving the church.  It's where I breathe; it's what I was made for.  I have had amazing experiences of God active, visible, available and working miracles in and through what we Christians call the church, the body of Christ.  Where else would I be?

I don't even like calling pastoral ministry a job.  Not that there's anything wrong with so-called regular jobs.  I've had a few of those, from my very first job at Kentucky Fried Chicken -- kids, it wasn't always called "KFC" -- to my first career as a medical technologist.  Even jobs are never "just" jobs, depending on the approach and the motivation.  Still, with those jobs, there were defined expectations, finite hours, and definite job descriptions.  It wasn't a life-style or a life commitment.  You didn't have to relate significantly or authentically to co-workers, bosses or customers.  And you could go home and be done with that job at the end of  the day!

I don't expect people in my congregation to understand fully what I do, how I do it, and what it costs me and mine.  They just never could really see it all.  They also can never grasp the deep satisfaction and the incredible joy and the thrill of the "a-ha" moments that are all part of "the job."