It's been a very good day again today. It was communion Sunday (we have communion the first Sunday of each month in my congregation). Besides being a time of spiritual refilling, there's another reason many of us look forward to first Sunday -- for selfish reasons. Our choir, which normally sings in two services, the first of which starts at 8:30 a.m., only sings during the second service on communion Sundays. That means another hour of sleep, usually, which we can all appreciate. I know, I know. That's not a highly spiritual attitude, but it's the simple truth.
We had a great Sunday school lesson, another in a series of discussions on seeds being sown on different types of soil. There's a lot of fodder in that passage in Matthew 13, the parable of the sower. True to our nature, our class shared ideas of all kinds, from discussing our willingness to sow the seed, to questioning what our mission field is, to recognizing that our vocational callings may be the seeds we sow. Do we necessarily have to turn away from our homes and jobs and go to the victims of the tsunami, for example, to obey the instruction to share the Gospel? I think not. Among our group we have several teachers, a school counselor and others with "regular jobs" who certainly have the opportunity to serve an important mission field right in our own city. There is need everywhere in the world, not just in Rio Bravo, Mexico, where we are dispatching a team of 66 high school students and adults over spring break to build four casitas.
Our church is a strong supporter of mission work, with frequent trips to Mexico, Belize, Alaska, Appalachia and other locations far from home. We also recognize the needs in our own back yards and work to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, teach the uneducated, visit the sick and imprisoned and house the homeless right here in Oklahoma City. I'm not bragging about our work, because I truly expect no less from any of us who have been given so much in this life. It's a matter of simple human responsibility.
So, after a stirring morning getting my spiritual energy recharged at church, 12 of us in our singles group went to lunch together, which was great. We went to Applebee's and enjoyed a couple of hours of good conversation and food. Leaving was a difficult matter for many of us who sat so long we were getting the Sunday afternoon drowseys.
I finally got home about 2:30 p.m., then had a long phone conversation with a friend who had left a message last night about wanting to go to a movie. We talked for more than a half hour and decided nah, it wasn't a great movie day. Then I gave it up and went to take a nap for a few hours. It was glorious! I hadn't had a nap since I started doing the treadmill thing, having been so charged up by the exercise. But today, being Sunday, was a true day of rest and I treasured every restful moment of it.
I did get a movie in this weekend, but it was a TV movie, Oprah Winfrey's production of "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Good story, and I love movies set in the time period of the 1930s in the South. I used to dream and believe, as a 10-year-old, that I should have lived in that era. I was certain that my previous life involved running a 1930s boarding house. I easily could have been a character in the old parts of "Fried Green Tomatoes" and I've got the collection of aprons to prove it.
It's good to see so many of my blogging buddies posting again. Too many absences for some of them over the past month or two, but the updates more than make up for the wait. I wish I could say all their news is good and happy, but life isn't all just good and happy. I would rather read painful truths and know what's really happening than to read a candy-coated fiction. Even though I want to know the truth, I still hope better for those in hard spots in their journeys.
Speaking of which, I have several encouraging prospects which have arisen this week. I won't say any more about them now, except to ask for your prayers for wisdom and fulfillment as God wishes. There are about four different opportunities before me, any and all of which would be great, either short term or long term.
Gloriously, it's 11:17 p.m. now, and I'll say goodnight. I'm also working on developing the habit of a "reasonable" bedtime, trying to break the habit of staying awake until 3 a.m. It's taken me decades to understand what my college roommates seemed to know back in the '70s -- since I was a journalism student working nights, I couldn't "get it" when they were in bed by 9 p.m. Maybe it's age, maybe it's just that my body is tired of running on a sleep deficit. Heck, maybe I'm just sleepy.
Y'all have a great and glorious week, y'hear? Nighty-night!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Ya know, I didn't go into the news business JUST because I could sleep in most of the time, but it sure helped grease the decision! Working from around 10 in the morning to around 7 at night would still be perfect for me -- if I were single. And, with Bird having flown and Dr. ER traveling so much right now, I find myself naturally drifting back to the 10-to-7 routine, which gets easier as the days get longer. .. BUT, We ERs apparently have a latent farmer gene, because as often as not anymore, I'm up at 5 or even earlier, with a twitch in my long-unused feedin' muscles, my back searching for the low back of a tractor seat, wonderin' what the corn, bean and feeder markets are doing! :-) SIGH. My suburban kingdom to hear the sounds of calves bawling and a rooster crowing first thing in the morning.
Post a Comment