Retreat

Tomorrow is the very first "Retreat" that I have ever organized and led. It is, also, the kick-off for my doctoral project. Needless to say, I have been agonizing over this thing. I'm pretty laid usually, so I hope that kicks in tomorrow and I don't stress over little things.

In Memory of:

Being in ministry is never an easy task. We make friends in a local church and then have to bury some of them. I know this is not something unique to clergy but it seems to come in cycles. I had a funeral last week, another tomorrow and another Saturday.

I did a lot of funerals over the Christmas holiday but they weren't for people I knew. Mostly is was for people who had no church home, sad in its own way, because we didn't do something right to pull them into the life of the church or sad because they rejected the grace offered to them.

I know that I'm going to miss the woman I'm doing the funeral for tomorrow. She was almost 92 and hardly anyone knew it. She was so very active. She learned to play the viola at 85 and she learned how to paint last year--hummingbirds. She started a handbell choir at the church last year, tutored at a local elementary school and was a fierce bridge player. I hear that she couldn't cook that well, however. My kind of woman.

Prayer's

My 22-year old neice called me this week to tell me she reported, her mom my sister, into CPS for neglecting her 11-year-old brother. She said that my sister is abusing prescription narcotics. The family has tried interventions, but my sister keeps denying having any problem.

Please keep my family in your prayers. I'm not sure that my neice chose the best option for dealing with it, but she felt she had no choice.

Dream

I had a dream last night that I was with a large group of people and Jesus. We all had to choose between two stories and then tell Jesus why we chose our story. I remember that I chose a story that was about grace and forgiveness. The other story was more technically correct but it was about judgment.

I'm in line to tell Jesus the reasons why I chose my story and a girl in the line starts complaining to Him about a grade that she got on a test. All I could think was "For God's sake He is the Son of God and you're complaining about a grade you got"!! Finally after several minutes of her complaints he asks, "Do you really want me to give you what you deserve?" I'm screaming in my head, "NO".

Then it was my turn to stand before Jesus....but I couldn't find my story in the book and was panicking.

About that time my dog woke me up...........I must have made a noise or something because he had his big, old head stuffed right against my nose.