Space to write, space to create and space to let the spirit speak.
Write Now!
This blog started as a 'Lenten Writing Project', where we wrote each day in Lent. Now that Summer is here, let's keep up the discipline of writing with a weekly writing challenge! A prompt will be posted each week and anyone is welcome to join in and post their writing here or participate just by reading it.
Every writer has their own special light to add to this blog and all of your writing offerings are appreciated, whether poetry, prose, essay, thoughts, lists or comments and encouragement.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
I AM
Today, one of our hymns at church was "Here I Am, Lord" What are some ways that you feel the spirit stirring in you...can you describe the feeling? How do you live out your calling and what is your work for the great I AM?
....“Here I am Lord”. I was ordained during a Sunday Morning Worship Service at our local church. I wanted it to be a part of the regular life of the congregation we were attending. I picked this song “Here I am Lord” to be sung and Suzanne and a cousin of mine sang it. I have had a crazy, unexpected, unusual, unpredictable journey in the ordained ministry. ....“Here I am Lord”. I turned down a call to a congregation after I had been waiting for three and a half years because it didn’t feel right – even though I liked the congregation and it was the kind of work in ministry that I had wanted to do. As I told them “no thank you” I was asking in my brain “WHAT are you doing?” Then just a few months later Holy Spirit Lutheran called on the phone. That was 1989. ....“Here I am Lord” During the interview process at Holy Spirit Lutheran the call committee couldn’t decide between two of us candidates. At the second interview someone asked what I would do if a young man came and told me he thought he was gay? I told them that first, I would be honored that he would trust me enough to talk to me about this. Then after a much longer response about pastoral care issues, I told them I disagreed with my church and didn’t think that homosexuality was sinful. I thought the issues in relationships were commitment and faithfulness. I went home and sadly told Suzanne that this “call” was not going to happen. Two days later I was proven wrong. ....“Here I am Lord”. I was in fulltime ministry for almost eight years and loved it. But it seemed important to leave it to have different kinds of time to be with family. So I went back to accounting. I thought I was clear in my mind that ordained ministry was then and this is now. Then I was invited back to the congregation to ‘consult’ and then to teach. Then it was suggested that Suzanne and Gabe and I should come back to the congregation as lay people. All the time I was correcting people that I was simply ‘Larry’, no longer ‘Pastor Larry’. It seemed to be working. Then it was suggested that I do the work, writes the papers, complete the application, do the Psych eval, be examined by the committee and get back on the clergy roster. I’m still surprised that I did the work and that it happened. ....“Here I am Lord.” I lead our writing group at the church and I have people, usually women’ sending me prose and poetry, good writing, and asking me what I think. I tell Suzanne and I laugh. (English was not my favorite subject!) The group publishes a book once a year and I am so proud to be published with them. I am often amazed at the ministry we have through writing. No one would have guessed when I began in ministry that this writing group was in my future! ....“Here I am Lord”. Today we had our annual Art and Lit Show at the church and a small group of artist’s began to talk to me about wanting to have a monthly gathering for our growing ‘artist community’. They are wonderfully creative people. And in the middle of the conversation ,I hear my inner voice saying “How did you Larry, not an artist, become a part of this artistic community?” I chuckled out loud! ....“Here I am Lord”. I teach confirmation to 7th and 8th graders. If any of my students are reading this, I apologize but you are all crazy! Really! And part of my job is to live with you through that part of your life, to help you have faith in the midst of it and to help you hang onto some of the craziness for when you grow up. I love that you still listen to me – at least enough. I’m 57 and I still love working with these kids. I’m still a little crazy too! ....“Here I am Lord”. I have no idea where this life or this ministry will take me in the years to come. I’m not sure I would believe it even if someone told me. With that in mind, I remember all of the wonderful opportunities I have had to serve and I continue to sing and pray: “Here I am Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night (again).
Called into Being
ReplyDeletePerhaps it’s harder to misunderstand the relationship
when we come to understand
that we were called into
"Being"
by the one who calls herself
"I AM"
Here I am Lord
ReplyDelete....“Here I am Lord”. I was ordained during a Sunday Morning Worship Service at our local church. I wanted it to be a part of the regular life of the congregation we were attending. I picked this song “Here I am Lord” to be sung and Suzanne and a cousin of mine sang it. I have had a crazy, unexpected, unusual, unpredictable journey in the ordained ministry.
....“Here I am Lord”. I turned down a call to a congregation after I had been waiting for three and a half years because it didn’t feel right – even though I liked the congregation and it was the kind of work in ministry that I had wanted to do. As I told them “no thank you” I was asking in my brain “WHAT are you doing?” Then just a few months later Holy Spirit Lutheran called on the phone. That was 1989.
....“Here I am Lord” During the interview process at Holy Spirit Lutheran the call committee couldn’t decide between two of us candidates. At the second interview someone asked what I would do if a young man came and told me he thought he was gay? I told them that first, I would be honored that he would trust me enough to talk to me about this. Then after a much longer response about pastoral care issues, I told them I disagreed with my church and didn’t think that homosexuality was sinful. I thought the issues in relationships were commitment and faithfulness. I went home and sadly told Suzanne that this “call” was not going to happen. Two days later I was proven wrong.
....“Here I am Lord”. I was in fulltime ministry for almost eight years and loved it. But it seemed important to leave it to have different kinds of time to be with family. So I went back to accounting. I thought I was clear in my mind that ordained ministry was then and this is now. Then I was invited back to the congregation to ‘consult’ and then to teach. Then it was suggested that Suzanne and Gabe and I should come back to the congregation as lay people. All the time I was correcting people that I was simply ‘Larry’, no longer ‘Pastor Larry’. It seemed to be working. Then it was suggested that I do the work, writes the papers, complete the application, do the Psych eval, be examined by the committee and get back on the clergy roster. I’m still surprised that I did the work and that it happened.
....“Here I am Lord.” I lead our writing group at the church and I have people, usually women’ sending me prose and poetry, good writing, and asking me what I think. I tell Suzanne and I laugh. (English was not my favorite subject!) The group publishes a book once a year and I am so proud to be published with them. I am often amazed at the ministry we have through writing. No one would have guessed when I began in ministry that this writing group was in my future!
....“Here I am Lord”. Today we had our annual Art and Lit Show at the church and a small group of artist’s began to talk to me about wanting to have a monthly gathering for our growing ‘artist community’. They are wonderfully creative people. And in the middle of the conversation ,I hear my inner voice saying “How did you Larry, not an artist, become a part of this artistic community?” I chuckled out loud!
....“Here I am Lord”. I teach confirmation to 7th and 8th graders. If any of my students are reading this, I apologize but you are all crazy! Really! And part of my job is to live with you through that part of your life, to help you have faith in the midst of it and to help you hang onto some of the craziness for when you grow up. I love that you still listen to me – at least enough. I’m 57 and I still love working with these kids. I’m still a little crazy too!
....“Here I am Lord”. I have no idea where this life or this ministry will take me in the years to come. I’m not sure I would believe it even if someone told me. With that in mind, I remember all of the wonderful opportunities I have had to serve and I continue to sing and pray:
“Here I am Lord.
Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night (again).