In Colorado for my brother's memorial service, I am awash with gratitude for the church; both for those organizations and individuals who poured out their particular gifts and graces at our 12th year celebration, and for the institutional church which held steady at the foot of the Rocky Mountains; ready to serve in our hour of need.
In this information age, attention is a limited commodity. We work to focus, to scrape together some leftover scraps of attention for the task at hand. Perhaps the attraction of a work of art is that it has captured not only an object, but also the attention of the artist. A leaf is only a leaf. But a drawing of a leaf holds both the leaf and the artist's attention.
It's only a gatehouse, this little church, the manse is up ahead. The gatekeeper lumbers out, creaks open the iron bars, and with a half salute says, "I'll call ahead and let them know you're on your way.
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I bought an iPad, much to the disgust of several geeky Toastmasters. I could give you all my clever reasons, like not having to haul a dozen books to Europe, but the bottom line is that I wanted one. The last few days have disappeared into the alluring screen. Like Alice stepping through the looking glass, I have discovered another world at the touch of my fingers.
I'm sure there was some reason why I wanted a puppy. I just forget at this juncture exactly what it was. What I do remember, is that I also got a puppy in early January some 16 years ago. A sudden flash of familiarity struck me while standing in the rain muttering entrepreneurial encouragement, "Good girl, do your business..." You would think I would have remembered this before driving to Madera in the middle of the storm of the century to pick up our mail-order bride. But noooo....
I wasn't thrilled to discover 5 boxes of books waiting for me one Monday morning. Even I can get tired of slogging through piles; sorting, pricing and--the worst part--trying to figure out what to get rid of to make room for the incoming books. Fortunately these boxes were full of Christian books beyond the normal run-of-the-mill. I usually take out the most interesting books first. In these boxes I found lots of C.S. Lewis, T.
The difficulty in making significant progress with the complex issues we face, is that we are in collusion with the oppressors. Like Zacchaeus who collected taxes from his people for the Roman occupation, we are trying to carve out a living in the midst of a less then ideal situation. Most of us would be totally in favor of medical care for everyone, living wages for workers, adequate housing for all, welcoming immigrants, peace at home and abroad etc., as long as it didn't negatively impact our personal medical care, wages, prices, housing, schools, hospitals, streets.....
I like the new Episcopal Bishop of this diocese, despite myself. Lest you get too misty-eyed over this, I should point out that I also like President Bush. Now that I've offended three quarters of my newsletter list in two sentences, I will remind the remaining six readers that I don't have to agree with someone to like them. Truth is, I like an odd assortment of people and I'm never exactly sure why. No, I'm not one of those people who "just loves everybody." I'm as convinced as you are that the world is fraught with idiots and jerks.
I started writing this newsletter and realized I had three paragraphs in a row that ended with "let me know if you're interested." Last weekend I figured out that I'm spending well over 40 hours a week on The Word Shop. Even worse, I realized that those 40 hours are insufficient. If I were determinedly diligent, more efficient, less given to tossing several hours into individual conversations and would stop coming up with brilliant ideas and grand schemes, it might be different.
I bounced around the country most of June--Texas, Seattle, Oakhurst--all the while accompanied by persistent ear trouble that kept me in a wooly echo chamber dominated by the sound of my own voice. Yurg! Delighted to be back home, I lay in bed all morning--left ear down--and stared at my bookcase. Lots of good books there. I could happily spend the rest of the summer rereading them.
To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition. ~Samuel Johnson
It's been ten years since I read Isaiah 49 and walked out of church, the wind slamming the door behind us; ten years since we left and walked into a church down the street just in time for the Gospel: "Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world." Since then I have bounced around, sometimes feeling like a kid who's left home to go off to college, sometimes rejoicing in the unity of those beholding and sometimes experiencing the heart ripping anguish of divorce. "Great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart," Paul said in regards to his people.
I received an email advertisement about a hot new program that creates canned tele-conference calls. People who earn money doing workshops by phone can now devise one that "sounds live." They can run it every Wednesday night, making millions while eating steak dinners and watching reality TV.