A Labyrinthine Journey

As a pastor, I see the great toll fear and anxiety brings to every member of my church. As someone who breathes I know how pervasive fear is in my life and my family. As a member of society, it distresses me to see how fear is a motivator behind most of our business, church, and personal decisions. Fear clouds even the strongest person’s point of view and it damages bodies, hearts, minds, spirits, and relationships.

In his book, Fearless, Max Lucado examines 13 ways we need to hear Jesus’ invitation to “fear not.” He makes real how we experience fear and then brings meaning to the hope and comfort Jesus’ words bring to us. I have enjoyed many of Lucado’s books, yet this one touched me most personally. I am deeply thankful and recommend this book for that reason alone.

As a bonus, the end of the book contains questions for group discussion that can brings Christ’s invitation to “live without fear” to many people in my congregation.

It is time to free ourselves from the power of fear in our lives. This book points us to how Jesus can bring us that freedom.

Occasionally, my mind follows strange pathways (my family protests at the use of the word “Occassionally”). Last night, I was playing with puns and rolled together this story. It left my teenage daughter literally rolling on the floor laughing so hard she couldn’t breathe. (this is a tightened up version of the story)

On the edge of a forest lived William. He was known for many things. He was an artist when it came to ceramics and he specialized in pig figurines with delightful little bumps all over them. He had a marvelous beard that he never cut, but kept clean and unsnarled. The entrance to his shop was decorated most beautifully and was a tourist attraction itself. And, he wasn’t very smart.

Everyone in the village knew that if they ever wanted Hog Warts figurines, they would find the Hairy Potter behind Dumb Bill’s Door.

Well, maybe you had to have been there.

Seems a bit odd to think I need to mark something as just personal, but I feel I need to do that here.

We announced this last Sunday that the Bishop has appointed me to serve the First United Methodist Church in Emmetsburg, Iowa beginning July 1, 2007. Let the packing begin.

In a couple days I will catch my breath a bit and get back to the desert fathers (in fact there is one directly related to the decision to move, but I misplaced the book).

Nothing shameless about this plug. I want to invite and encourage you to do something great (selflessly and selfishly) for my family.

Click on this link to the PKD Foundation and make a gift toward my sister’s Team.

My sister and her daughter and grandchildren will be walking in the Kansas City PKD fundraising walk in September. She has set a small goal of $1000. I would love to blow that away with support from the family and anyone who might follow my blog.

Why is this great for my family? My mother had Poly-Cystic Kidney Disease when she died almost 5 years ago. So did my grandfather. PKD is a genetic disease where descendants have a 50/50 chance of contracting the disease if they have a parent who has it. Of the four of us in my family we hit the odds: one sister and I have been tested and are clear, my other sister (Pam) and my brother have been tested are have the disease. There is currently no cure for it though research has found some hopeful leads lately. We are hoping that something can be found within our lifetime for my sister and brother (and all others who have it) and for their kids and grandkids who might or might not have it.

If you do go and donate, please leave a comment on this thread so we know who we can be grateful to.

Blessings,

David

My daughters gave me a belated Father’s Day present: personalized license plates. For quite a few years, revdave has been my username at various places, so that makes sense to use it. I’ve been thinking about doing it myself for a while, even Linda thought about doing it, but never got around to it. But that’s okay because now I can enjoy it as a special gift from my girls.

The down side is that I have to watch how I drive now. (Hopefully it will be better than the grammar in my title.)

A little funny from tonight.

We were driving through town and noticed some of the houses with Christmas lights up. One had one of those inflatable lighted Snowmen in the front yard. But this snowman was having trouble, he wasn’t standing up straight and was half bent over even though he was activated.

My wife felt sorry for him.

I just looked at her and said that it was too bad he was suffering from Frosteoporosis. She just looked at me and laughed.

Some days I get lucky.

Today is our Second Anniversary!

I find myself thinking that it seems so much longer than that. And realizing how that is a wonderful thing.

Let me put in my plug for True Love. It isn’t easy. It isn’t automatic. We both still have many things from the past that we want to hide from the other but that we must bring into our relationship to keep it wondrous and exciting. But we keep on facing our own selves and finding that we can be truly loved and can truly love in spite of our frailties and struggles.

I don’t think it is any accident that growing in love with my human Beloved, feeds and is fed by growing in Love with the Master Beloved. Loving can only lead to more Love. Really sharing my life with my wife and really sharing my life with God is frightening, but oh so wonderful and oh so sweet.

I give thanks for my Beloveds! The One I call God, the one named Linda and the loved ones that God has blessed my life with.

Spent an enjoyable time yesterday afternoon on a canoe. About 25 people from our church rented a bunch of canoes and took a few hours to ride on a river nearby. Linda and I had talked about doing that someday. We stayed away from the wild and crazy paddlers who just wanted to get wet and get others wet. I’m glad they had fun. We just had fun being together. No phones, no computers, no paperwork to do. Our only task was to try to figure out which path held the deepest water and the least amount of rocks.

Just like life we made a few wrong turns, but we were always able to get ourselves back on the path. The river was the path. Reminds me of walking the labyrinth. The only way to miss the river path was to get out of the water. The only way to miss the path of the labyrinth is to step out of the path.

I have a little sunburn on my knees, but other than that, it was a wonderful afternoon.

Late last night, Anna and I were driving home after a trip to the airport. She was accusing me of being a bit wierd (I don’t remember what I was doing at the time). So I asked her if she wanted me to be serious. She protested, becuase usually that was a segue into something seriously wierd.

But it had been too long since I had done that, so I struggled. I did the serious beard-stroking thingee. I did the serious pursing of the lips and brow, but still nothing came. I finally gave up.

“I can’t be serious it has been too long.

What a Tragedy.

Or is it a Stregety.

Or maybe a Strategy.

–pause a couple beats–

Or it could be foot odor.”

At this point Anna was gone. She was laughing so hard that she was crying. I was just hoping that she was still breathing.

I love making my family laugh and that makes me laugh and life is good.

Maybe you had to be there.

As I wrote last week, we found ourselves at the Humane Society in
Boone last weekend and put in for a cat adoption. Yesterday, Anna and
I made the trip to bring her home. In the meantime, we have been
trying to come up with a suitable name. We ended up deciding on Chloe
as the odds on favorite. But decided we would wait until she is home
to really decide. Well, we decided. So here is Chloe sitting in one of
her favorite perches looking out the window.

It didn’t take her long to make herself at home. We are still working
on getting her winter coat thinned out. We are making progress. We
don’t know much of her story, but it is obvious that she has been a
house pet before. She is declawed in the front, so that is one
sign. She is also very much at home with people and liking to play and
wanting attention. She goes into the vet tomorrow for her physical and
vaccinations, but she seems to be healthy.

One of the places she likes is my computer desk. It sits right by a
window and she can lay here and watch out the window (she is very
interested in birds). She also likes to walk across and even sit on my
computer (good thing it is a laptop that can be closed, I will have to
keep it closed more). She really perked up when I walked into my
office with a cup of hot Chai tea. I finally carefully let her see if
she liked it. It didn’t take much for her to realize it was very hot,
then she wasn’t all that interested in it anymore.

Growing up, we always had dogs (my Mom and my first wife were allergic
to cats). And after one day, I must confess, having a cat is pretty
nice. And she seems to like me (except when I take her off the kitchen
counter).