We will always remember and never forget

I spent several Saturday mornings in the middle of June on the Capital steps in Lansing, MI over the years saying those words...

We will always remember and never forget and then a list of names...regular ordinary names like John, Sally, Tom, Helen, Carlos, LaKeisha, etc. I spent time reading names of people I had never met and because their life had been claimed by HIV/AIDS, I never would. People who had families, friends, jobs and hobbies just like you and I. People who could have been and in some way are you and I.

Today, we honor and remember them. We pray for a cure. We work for more education, better funding and larger awareness of this global pandemic that knows no race, creed or orientation.

Today I remember you. I honor you. I pray that this would be the last year I have to do so. I commit that I will never forget. I promise to tell others about you.

back in the grind

So once again I am horrible at keeping this updated...be that as it may, a quick word that I am back at seminary in Columbus for god willing, my final year. I have been keeping pretty busy and am in the midst of trying to get all kinds of homework done before Fall Break happens next week.

Hope all of you are doing well and I will try to get started on a semi regular posting schedule...that being said I leave you with a couple random pictures of summer adventures.

The one on the top is from some where in the UP on the banks of Lake Michigan following my brother(and most of my earthly possessions in a Uhaul)who came to Wisconsin and helped me move..Thanks Bear!!! The other is of funky storm clouds near a farm not far from Bear's house in Michigan

Chilling in Michigan waiting to get back to school. Thanks to my brother for helping me move....the pic is what I was looking at for the 10 hour trip from Wisconsin to Michigan. Oye

Need to get over to Muskegon to see the Vore's. Happy to be in Lansing where there is a lot of internet access. However, I am housesitting and my friends new roommate is here and wasn't supposed to be here til August so that's a little weird...

Harry Potter 7 is good...My theories proved correct =)


am really tired so I will try to write more later....

Your Score: Question mark

You scored 53% Sociability and 29% Sophistication!

You are the soul of the inquiring mind--you are the glory of the scientist and the bane of the pseudo-scientist. But, more than that, you, more than any other, can indicate changes in pitch in dialogue. What other punctuation mark can do that? Yes, you are one of the "common herd." So? The problem with that is . . . ? You get along well with others, because they all respect you. You have no natural enemies.

Link: written by Gazda on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Mother's Day

The following really isn't a sermon...but it was what I was led to speak Mother's Day Sunday...feel free to comment.... Happy Mother's Day Mom.

John 14:23-29

Have you ever had one of those Sundays….those particular Sundays where you sat in church, you listened to and sang the hymns, you heard the words of the Bible read…and you listened to the word proclaimed from a pulpit….and sat and thought…Holy cow…this sermon was meant for me. This pastor knew exactly where my head was this week.

As I reflected on the lessons for this week…as I thought about world events…as I look back on the last month, let alone just the last week here in this place…as I look at the calendar and think…wow, I only have about 8 more weeks here…and as I look at the calendar and see the date…and see the Holiday written there…It was and is a Holy Cow…I was meant to read this lesson this day…

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

17 years ago today…this very day…a Mother’s Day much like this one, I was confirmed at St John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lake City, MI. It was a big day…not only was it one to celebrate Mom, but it was the day that if I really think about it, it is the first time I was conscious of the nudge that God was giving me. A nudge that led me here eventually…well after many more nudges a few shoves and perhaps even a zap with a cattle prod or two…that led me here to being in a pulpit, heading full steam toward the end of internship in my third of seminary…edging closer and closer to life as a full fledged pastor.

I can remember a lot about that day…what I wore, the necklace that my godmother gave me, my 3 classmates and I standing at the altar rail and answering I will with the help of God as Pastor Rich asked us if we now were ready to fulfill promises that had been made at our baptism. I remember what the choir sang and I remember having a lot of family in church for and with me that day. Much like the day at the middle school in October for all of us.

I can’t say I remember what the lessons were for that day…nor would they have the same meaning to me then as they do now…But these certainly would be appropriate…a gospel that brings us peace and a second lesson promising a place...a holy city where all will walk by light and gates will never be shut… What wonderful visions both of those are. Wonderful and marvelous…good for confirmation students to hear and good for all of us to hear. Great promises that God gives us…and particularly wonderful on Mothers Day.

Now, if I were a cynical person, I could say that this Mother’s day we are all celebrating is just another holiday created by Hallmark, Godiva Chocaliteers and every florist in the world. We should be celebrating our mother’s each and every day…although since we don’t, mothers certainly deserve a day especially for them. Today happens to be the day. Today also happens to be a day with lessons that fit right in with the spirit of today.

What mother wouldn’t want a day with these lessons, one’s filled with peace, welcome and openness. I would imagine dreams that virtually all mothers would have for their children are ones where peace will be a way of life, where their child will be welcomed and loved no matter where they go, and the world will be a place where barriers are no longer necessary. I realize I am making an assumption with that statement but it seems to be a pretty safe assumption to make.

I would imagine some of you have already had a pretty big day today…perhaps you woke up to breakfast in bed…with a kitchen that didn’t resemble a disaster when you saw it. You may have been greeted by cards, gifts or flowers. Sometimes my brother and I didn’t have a whole lot of time or money to get our mom anything for this her special day so we would try really hard not to fight today and do all of our chores and maybe even a few extra ones without being asked.

Perhaps you have plans to go with your family after church to go to lunch or spend the day out on a boat soaking in the sun or catching fish. You could also be planning a trip to so see grandma. Or potentially you just want to spend the day with your loved ones not doing much of anything at all….and that is exactly what you will do. Others of you might be planning on calling your mom later today because she doesn’t live around here. For some, this is just another day like any other on the calendar, and you are glad that all the crazy only 2 more days till mother’s day commercials will no longer be in the paper, TV or radio…

For others, for me…you look at this day and wonder what the blazes you are going to do with it…because you no longer have a mother to share it with. Sure…you have pictures, you have stories, you have memories…but that doesn’t really compare to picking up the phone, dialing a number and say hey Mom, Happy day!

So this day….this Mother’s day, the confirmation anniversary day, is a bittersweet one for me. I look at Mother’s day on the calendar and don’t a clue as to what to do with it. I am too far away to go put flowers on my mom’s grave. I don’t have a yard to mow the lawn in or flower gardens to weed or new plants to put in like mom would often spend the day doing. Bear and I as we grew older and then Rebecca as she became a part of our family had sort of made it our mother’s day tradition to take mom to one of the local nurseries after church and buy her some plants. Sometimes we would spend an hour or more with her just going to various places, looking at plants and flowers and then wind up buying the very first ones we had seen at the very first nursery.

So my mother’s day becomes one of sharing stories and memories like the time she flipped our riding lawnmower in our ditch, and became quite indignant with me when I told her if she did it again, she wouldn’t be allowed to mow it anymore. Her response was...Christina(which told me I was in trouble) you are 2.5 hours away, you can’t stop me…to which my response was I can’t stop you but a well placed phone call and a 5 mile trip from town to your house by your son will…

My last memory of my mom was one of our favorite things…she had been hospitalized for a couple days but was bound and determined that would watch the super bowl from home…in her words… “on my own couch, eating my own food, laughing as loud as I want at the commercials and falling asleep if the game was boring” She was released from the hospital on Super Bowl Saturday and we spent part of the afternoon watching the Michigan State Spartans men’s basketball team together on the phone…Michigan State had a habit and still does to some extent of trying find a way to lose a game even if they were winning by 20 points. I think we were playing Michigan which makes the game all the more important; in our family…we could lose every other game all year if we just beat the wolverines. MSU won and in our celebration we decided that we had been on the phone long enough and that I would call her tomorrow. I told her I loved her and that we could talk about all the stupid commercials when I called. Bear and I would later joke that she had the best seat in the house to watch the Superbowl…a view from heaven….

So this week as I looked at the calendar…and looked at the lessons….and wondered what I was supposed to do this Sunday, I was greeted by the words… Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

I have been given peace…a peace that passes all of my understanding… but peace none the less. I have been given the words I needed to read this week…the peace I needed to feel this day and this week. I have been given the peace that I know that even though my heart is troubled this day, it will not be forever.

I can’t tell you what the future holds for me…I have plans for my summer after I hand my keys to Pastor Halaas/Lorna, get in my car and follow my brother back to Michigan. I have plans and hopes to keep up with the happenings here at Augustana/Barronett and be able to remember birthdays, graduations and the like. I hope to be assigned to someplace cold like Northwestern Minnesota like Melissa… given God’s sense of humor I’ll wind up in Texas…but I don’t know that any of these things will really happen.

What I do know is that I have been given peace…and some day my heart will not be troubled or worried. I know in that peace the light of the Risen Lord will reign forever. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Alleluia. Amen

ug....it has been way too long since posting current here(the interncicle story is from the winter)....course that means I have been really busy....Easter...well really all of Holy Week, traveling to Michigan, and then Dedication of our new addition at Augustana...Holy buckets of craziness.... I will try to get some sermons up here tommorrow or the next day as well as my class schedule or something or perhaps even an intelligent thought and or rant about something... i have a few things I could rant about...lol

later all

Chrisy

Adventures of the Interncicle

So one day here on internship, the church secretary came into work, only to find that she couldn't get the door open.

We had a water pipe break and literally ice the door shut...so that was fixed and all returned to normal or so we thought...I had been at an meeting most of the frozen shut door day(a Monday).

When I returned to my office Tuesday, I noticed that it was a bit chilly there, but I figured no big deal haven't been here for a couple days, the heat had been turned down etc... It progressively became colder in my office batcave, but I chalked that up to being in a cinderblock office in the ground when the temp outside had a high of 0... I think actually temp was a balmy -10 that day. By Wednesday...even I was cold(Note the pic above), so we called the heating repair guy, who came to the church and spent the better part of a day trying to figure out why there was no heat in my end of the building....only to finally figure out that when they turned off the water to fix the pipe to prevent the door from being frozen shut...well they neglected to turn the hot water back on that travels to my office and provide heat....

So it was turned on and I am no longer and Interncicle...yeah...

Hello out there

so it has been way too long since I posted anything...i have pics of my latest adventures as the Interncicle that I might post here or on Blogserflections but I don't think the puter here in the office has the memory card slot to pull the off so that will have to wait til tonight

It's been an interesting couple of months...lots of traveling...which was both fun and very tiring and I am most certainly keeping busy. I head to Michigan at the end of this month for a synod capital campaign that I have been asked to speak at. It's Lent which means I continue to have weekly sermons to write but now I have added weekly Bible Studies and mid week services.

I'll try to get more up on here tonight before the weekly golf game!

later

Complications of Life

So...11 years ago today...my life became way more complicated than your average 19 year olds. 11 years ago today my father died. Which led to taking a semester off of school, trying to help run our family farm, my mother being diagnosed with post polio syndrome, and ultimately selling the farm.

Don't get me wrong I am in the place I need to be these days but I wonder how life would have been different if Dad hadn't died on this day 11 years ago...I wonder if life would be more or less complicated. I wonder...