It was really good to be with some of you at the Spiritual Life Experience on Saturday (THANKS, Spiritual Life Team!), and some of you during Church Chat yesterday. If you haven’t worshiped yet this week, I highly recommend yesterday’s worship: David Shaw (our Ministry Intern for the past 6 weeks) offered a number of insights that are worth holding onto! Bottom line: when one has been gone for a bit, returning – just showing up to various offerings – is a gift.
To be honest, my recovery is slow, and I am tired today. (A migraine doesn’t help, but I’m seeing a doctor for those next week…) Anyway, I’m writing to you from my couch once again, and the scene before me is actually sort of interesting. It’s the same thing I’ve been looking at for nearly a month now, but today, THIS is what I see:
From where I sit, I can see a home improvement truck in our driveway. We contracted to have the siding on our garage replaced last October. Pandemic meant there was a delay. No worries! The person doing the work is meticulous and an absolute delight to watch when one is quarantined due to Covid exposure (and likely even when not quarantined!). I think I’ve learned a thing our two about patience and how important it is to love what one does while being laid up these past few weeks.
From where I sit, I can also see two birds trying to build a nest in our gutter and alternating between gathering nest supplies and mating. It’s fascinating, really. They built this nest prior to all of the rain and snow of recent weeks, and we tried to tell them it was a bad idea, but they are determined. We’ll see how it plays out. I’m not convinced it’s going to be pretty. I’ve learned (again) that the process is sometimes more important than the final product; the experiment and the failure can be more important than the success.
From where I sit, I can see the sunshine and the trees swaying in the wind. It’s calming. When I have a thousand thoughts in my mind and heart, watching the trees calms me. And so… I sit, and I take it all in. I also just learned that tonight we might be able to see a SuperMoon. Honestly, nature – God’s creation – has so much to offer us if we will just take a moment to notice it. I wonder how much the world is trying to teach me that I am missing, and I wonder how much slowing down we need to do to learn the finer points of community life.
Truth be told, I am beyond thrilled to be able to sit here. I continue to recover (slowly) from various health issues, and I’m happy to report that progress is being made. Our child has returned to daycare, successfully making it through a positive Covid diagnosis with very few symptoms. We are grateful. My spouse and I still need to be quarantined for a bit longer; his work follows the CDC guidelines of beginning his quarantine after our child’s ends. And thus, we find ourselves in the same place we’ve been for a number of weeks now, and that’s ok.
I am happily returning to pastoral care duties this week and am thankful to Don Kaufman and Ben Keckler who stepped in when I wasn’t able to respond to pastoral needs and life-cycle emergencies recently. I am SO humbled to serve with the safety net of such great retired pastors.
My health is not yet 100% and am continuing to work with doctors to solve the mystery of my numb leg. One (literal) step at a time. I will continue to focus on Worship, Livestream Team, and our Capacity Building Team as we are moving into a new season of life in our congregation. So much fun to be had and so much loving to do in this world!
I look forward to reconnecting, so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, thoughts, or ideas. I have chosen to be transparent in this process and am happy to be returning to you with a humble heart and various insights on how this experience has changed me.
I pray that you are receiving this Monday Meditation with an open spirit, and I look forward to all that God is calling us to. May we listen to one another the world around us, and may we be open to change… just like Jesus was.
