...the more things stay the same

a href="http://wanderingpilgrim.mypersonality.info" target="_top">

Another blog I read fairly regularly had a link to this personality type test and I was just curious to see if I still tested at what I did five years ago.


I do.


The Pilgrim is really a routine loving turtle.

macro skies

We had a youth camping event last night at the church. My son was the only youth there--and I thought I was going to be disappointed about that. But something very cool happened. John brought his telescope out to the big field behind the church and as the sun started setting, he said, "See that bright dot right there above the tree?" "yeah," I said. "That's Jupiter. Check it out."


So I peeked in the viewer and there it was. Jupiter. And four of it's moons. As he increased the magnification, the stripe in the northern hemisphere became visible and so did the movement of our planet.


The earth is moving, rotating, at about 1,000 mph (at the equator...probably faster the farther away you get from the equator..but I'm not sure about that). Add to that the fact that we're revolving around the sun (not sure of the speed) and suddenly it seems we're riding one of those tea cup rides from a carnival and somehow, managing not to puke!


So as the magnification increased, the speed of our rotation was more noticeable and the bright dot with the stripe and the four moons zipped across the viewer pretty quickly.


I'd never seen a planet through a telescope like that. It's pretty cool.

August 7

Today is a special election. We're voting on a school tax levy. I'm always uncomfortable voting on these issues because our state's chosen method of funding is through property taxes. I live in a church owned parsonage, thereby not paying property taxes (directly anyway) and so I'm not always comfortable participating in these elections. Jennifer and I usually collaborate and vote in opposite ways so that we cancel each other's votes.


It's difficult because our state supreme court has declared this form of school funding unconstitutional several times and told the state legislature to fix it, but they won't. And so school's are forced to keep doing what they have to do to keep the school's funded and the home owners don't like it too much. I feel for them. But I also have very good friends whose future relies upon the passage of the tax levy.


I have friends who moved to the U.S. from Colombia 5 years ago. Dani is a high school teacher (Advanced Spanish Language) and Henry is my associate pastor (Hispanic Ministry.) They've finally reached the point of being able to apply for permanent residency, but when the last levy wasn't approved, Dani was laid off. If the levy doesn't pass today, Dani's job loss is permanent and her visa will not be renewed and they will likely have to return to Colombia. I'm not so much worried about the ministry--we'll find a way to keep going if we have to--I just don't want my friends to have to leave the country.


I can see all kinds of avenues for how God might be at work, but right now I'm being selfish and I want it the way I want it.


I'm frustrated because the parents and the kids are making this an "extra-curricular" issue, and I could care less about extra-curricular activities right now. Music and the Arts have been pay to play since I was in Jr. High school and no body cared about that. But when sports gets put into the pay to play category, everybody's all freaked out. Deal with it. Pick a sport and excel at that sport. Make a choice instead of deciding that you want it all. Nobody gets it all; so decide what you want to play and live with the choice.


I'm frustrated because nobody is talking about the teachers and the staff people who are losing jobs. Those opposed to the levy are "making a point" or "making a statement" to the board of education that they're fed up with bearing all the burden--if you want to send a message write or call your state senators/representatives and tell them to get off their asses and fix the broken and unconstitutional funding system--but don't cost people their jobs because you want to make a point. Tell your legislators that if it doesn't get fixed you'll grassroots their rear ends right out of the legislature because they aren't doing their jobs.


Today is a special election to decide the future funding of our schools. But today the issue has faces, and those faces aren't cheerleaders, or football players, or basketball players, or baseball players, or softball players, the tennis team or the swim team. The faces today are teachers and their families; staff folks and their families. The faces are those who lost jobs at the end of the school year and care very deeply about the children they teach and serve. Today is about Dani and Henry and Isabella.

making the most of it

So, God is good (all the time)--

In my opinion, my message at our early worship gathering was a train wreck, a great massive train wreck--I wanted to go hide in a dark place and cry and suck my thumb and wonder why it happened that way--and then Bob comes out and says, "I know you think it didn't go very well, but your honesty really touched me. You did well."

After all the glad hands and "nice sermon's" I needed to hear Bob's word.

The 10:45 gathering went much better in my eyes and I think I conveyed what God wanted me to--but it's a bit of a struggle right now. The summer breaks have gotten me out of the rhythm of sermon prep; the repeated funerals are keeping me out of the rhythm of sermon prep; and I'm at this point where I think God wants me to just chuck the manuscript and go with the outline, and that leaves me feeling like George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou? ("Damn, we're in a tight spot!"). And it makes me feel like a beginner all over again.

I don't know. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe I'm taking the task a little more seriously, a little more humbly. Maybe it's good that I'm nervous again when I step into the pulpit (or away from it, for that matter.) My friend in California told me, "The day you stop being nervous is the day you need to retire." So at least I'm still nervous.

I'm worried about my friends not having their visas renewed because she's lost her job and it hangs on a "yea" vote for a school-tax levy--and the state's view of "what makes a pastor a pastor" versus what the church thinks aren't in agreement when it comes to handing out religious workers visas. (For those of you who think we have separation of church and state, ask yourself why I need the Secretary of State's permission to preside at weddings to visit people in jail, and why the INS wants the state's seal of approval on an appointed pastor to offer a religous worker's visa.)

Tomorrow I'm presiding at my third funeral in four weeks--fourth death, though. And to top it all off, I'm living a little bit of Psalm 42 right now, and that makes caring for others a little hard (being that I'm thristy and hungry myself.)

We went canoing yesterday, which was a nice break. Being on the water--getting into the water's rhythm, studying the flow of the river so as not to get caught on rocks in the shallows. It was a really nice break.

So now I'm back in the fray. Maybe my emptiness is a good thing because it's all God at this point.

Pacem,
The Pilgrimm