Patience and Dreams

Ever feel like giving up?

Sure, we've all been there, and sometimes it right to give up and change course, but I suspect a lot of good things have been lost by quitting too early.

If there's ever a lesson about hanging in their and following the dream, it's this fine little story from the September 14, 2010, LA Times - "There Reward Is a Long-Time Coming" ... about long-term minor league ball plays who are finally called up to the majors. Click HERE to read.

Reminds me of something Jesus said: “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest ina very little is dishonest also in much" [Luke 16:10].

So hang in there friend ... keep the dream alive ... you may have to slug it out for years in the minors. But who knows when the time will come for you're call to the majors.

Tom

Merciful God, I pray thee to grant me, if it please thee, ardor to desire thee, diligence to seek thee, wisdom to know thee and skill to speak to the glory of thy name. Amen (Thomas Aquinas)

Remembering the Fallen Firefighters

From my very good friend and fine writer, Bob Orr - a tradition that began for him on 9/11:

Yesterday I got my bunch of sunflowers and prepared.  This morning (pre-dawn at 5 am)  I drove to our Canton Fire Station No. 1 and placed the bouquet outside their front door with a simple card "Remembering the Fallen Firefighters of 9-11 - Thank You".  I've done this for nine years now.  The memories are vivid of that day for many.  One of the things I remember is other fire departments (some many states away) sending firefighters to New York city to assist.  I remember my Dad and his career of forty plus years of service as a firefighter in my hometown in northern Indiana.  It's hard to imagine someone trained to race into a burning fire when our natural human instinct is to flee.  We can't thank them enough.
Peace and prayers, 
Bob

Remembering 9/11

Nine years ago today, the Twin Trade Towers in Lower Manhattan fell to the ground, and with them, 3000 lives.

Today, we remember.

And we learn … as Lewis Carroll noted in Through the Looking Glass, “It’s a poor memory that only works backwards.

From Terry Jones, we learn the sad lessons of remembering backwards.

From Susan Retik, we learn the lessons of remembering forward.

“In the shattering aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, Ms. Retik bonded with another woman, Patti Quigley, whose husband had also died in the attack. They lived near each other, and both were pregnant with babies who would never see their fathers.

Devastated themselves, they realized that there were more than half a million widows in Afghanistan — and then, with war, there would be even more. Ms. Retik and Ms. Quigley also saw that Afghan widows could be a stabilizing force in that country.

So at a time when the American government reacted to the horror of 9/11 mostly with missiles and bombs, detentions and waterboardings, Ms. Retik and Ms. Quigley turned to education and poverty-alleviation projects — in the very country that had incubated a plot that had pulverized their lives” [“The Healers of 9/11” - By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, Published: September 8, 2010, New York Times op-ed].

On ABC this weekend, a remarkable story of some 9/11 children, who were only infants when they lost their fathers, now left with only their father’s DNA and mementoes of a man they will never know.

Yes, they grieve, as only a child can, with a remarkable degree of depth and innocence.

Their grief is holy, and we must not sully it with the debris of only a backward memory.

With you today, I remember – but more than what was, we best remember what will be, with decisions made like that of Ms. Retik, and millions of others ,who choose their better angels and build a better world.

California Statehood - by Garrison Keillor

From Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac" ... for Sept. 9, 2010


On this day 160 years ago, California became a state. It was the 31st state admitted to the Union, just after Wisconsin and right before Minnesota.

It was a state born of the Compromise of 1850, an elaborate bargain between the North and the South over slavery. Under the compromise the territories of New Mexico and Utah would decide for themselves whether slavery were allowed, and California would be admitted to the Union as a free state.

In the late 1700s, California was settled by Spanish priests, who built missions up along the coastline. Mexico went to war against Spain to fight for independence, won, and so in 1821 got their independence. California was a part of the Mexican empire.

A couple of decades later, the United States was on its roll toward the West. In 1845, the U.S. annexed Texas, and California the year after.

The U.S. Congress declared war on Mexico, and sent in the U.S. Army and Navy to northern Mexican territory to crush resistance. The Mexican-American war lasted about two years.

When the badly defeated Mexican military gave up, and it was time for them to sign a peace treaty, the American troops occupied Mexico City. The U.S. more or less dictated the terms of the treaty to Mexico — the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo — and Mexico ended up losing a full 55 percent of the territory it had before the war.
The Gold Rush began in 1848, the population skyrocketed, and California became a state on this day in 1850, as part of that Compromise of 1850. It's now the most populated state America. And California's Central Valley is one of the most productive farming areas in the world, growing fruits, vegetables, and grains, and keeping a lot of dairy and meat cows. It's where about one-third of America's food comes from.

Non-California writer Truman Capote said, "It's a scientific fact that if you stay in California you lose one point of your IQ ever year." Comedian Fred Allen said, "California is a fine place to live — if you happen to be an orange."
Novelist Alison Lurie said, "As one went to Europe to see the living past, so one must visit Southern California to observe the future." San Francisco poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti called Southern California the place "where the American Dream came too true."

Garrison Keillor

Be of Good Cheer

Dear Friends,

Be of good cheer, because you belong to Jesus Christ … we all do … the whole of humanity, and all creatures great and small.

Today, you will face challenges – it’s the nature of life to challenge us, even frighten us, because life is so large and we all know how tiny we are. The best way of meeting such a challenge is to be honest about it – life is huge and we’re tiny. And all the bravado in the world, all of our huffing and puffing and chest-thumping doesn’t change it one lick.

Huffing and puffing, we get red in the face.

Chest-thumping, we hurt ourselves.

In reality, we can only be truthful, and that means God!

And what God has given to us in Jesus Christ …

A cross in which the worst is met … and the empty tomb, in which the worst is overcome.

In Christ, we have our daily hope, our daily bread … in Christ, however the worst may come our way, whatever its dimensions, it has already been met in the cross of Christ, and overcome in the empty tomb … the risen Christ takes us by the hand through all of it.

So, be of good cheer.

Face your life with the faith of Christ – that Christ is faithful to us, no matter what … in all of life, and in all of death … in the best of times and in the worst of times … in body and soul, here and now, then and there – all of it, the whole of it – nothing overlooked and nothing beyond the work of grace.

Face your life with honesty … for we are small.

Face your life with faith … for Christ is good.

Live your life with good works … for this is the way of Christ.

Live your life for others … for this is the love of Christ.

Tom

August 18, 2010 - Cream for Your Coffee

The courage to think outside the box!

Dr. Thomas C Peebles isolated the measles virus, and it was his discovery, early in his career that led to the vaccine now used so successfully.

Later in his career, Dr. Peebles wrote:

I am sure, as is often the case in scientific endeavor, that much of the successful recognition and isolation of this virus lay in perseverance, newness to the field, and failure to be bound by the preconceived ideas that caused others in the laboratory to miss this new effect.  ~ from the LA Times, August 13, 2010.

Thinking outside the box is a hallmark of the heroes of our faith and the God whom they serve.

Folks like Sarah and Abraham think and live outside the box ... and Moses and a Deborah ... the prophets who dreamed the dreams of a just and faithful world for everyone ... the Apostle Paul who thought and lived outside the box and built bridges where others dug chasms ... and down through the centuries, the women and men who dreamed big and thought far and wide.

Sometimes they were called heretics and trouble-makers. Sometimes they were imprisoned or burned at the stake, as they followed the biggest out-of-the-box thinker of them all - Jesus of Nazareth. I always envision the moment in heaven when God announced that God's Son would be born in our midst, like one of us, and born humbly, in a stable in a small town in Palestine. I can only imagine angels, with their jaws dropped, hands held tightly to the sides of their head (Do angels say, O my God?) - because it was such a daring move on God's part.

When Jesus walked this good earth to announce that the Kingdom of God was close at hand, close enough for us to grasp it and begin to live it, some folks though he was nuts, or even dangerous, and when he suggested that it was possible to love God without the temple in Jerusalem, the temple-folks got hot and bothered and collaborated with their enemies, the Roman overlords, to do Jesus in. Because he dared to think outside the box - just like God. But those who thought they knew so much God couldn't stand the real God at all.

Because love is infinite.

The temple-people said, "No, it's not that big!" And Jesus said, "Yes it is, and bigger still."

It takes courage to live and think outside the box, but thank God for those who do.

Chances to think outside the box come our way infrequently (thankfully), but when they do, and today may be day for you, at work, with a friend, a new idea, a challenging opportunity - who knows - to think and live outside the box.

Others may advise caution, but sometimes we have to throw caution to the wind. Others may shout "tradition," but we may have to say, "Shed the shackles of tradition!"

Jesus did ... and so did Dr. Peeples.

We worship a God who always surprises us with daring ideas, and to everyone reading this today, live your courage!

August 4, 2010 - Cream for Your Coffee

I may not be totally perfect, but parts of me are excellent!

~ Ashleigh Brilliant

Our lack of "perfection," whatever that may be, keeps us humble with others, and keeps us learning and growing. The excellent parts bring us joy and help us make a lasting contribution to our world.

Enjoy the day, it's the day the Lord has made for you.
You will meet people who test your spirit.
You will meet people who surprise you with their love.

You will meet yourself, coming and going.
You will read something good.
You will eat something delicious.

You will hear a bird sing and be delighted.
You will see a face and see the face of God.
You will say something profound and wonderful.

Someone will thank you.
Someone will bless you.
Someone will give you a helping hand.

Such is life ...
To God be the glory ...
And to all, a good day!

Pastor Tom