The Things that Make for Peace

Yesterday, Will, Joyce and I went to the Oklahoma City Memorial. The museum, the chairs, the crains,the reflecting pool, the Jesus' weeping statue by the Catholic church and the survivor tree (pictured here) are all spectacular sites. (Please excuse the crazy looks on our faces...look beyond us, though and see the momument that has 9:01 on it, the moment before the blast at 9:02).

It is a must see for any person of faith. I had visited the museum a couple years back and was most moved by the children's choir singing "let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me" at the exit. This was not part of it this time, but the message is still clear that this memorial is about what each and every single one of us can do to promote peace and reconciliation in our world.

The statue of Jesus weeping refernced the shortest verse in scripture, John 11:35. Jesus weeps at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. It is a moving passage and one that reminds us of Jesus compassion (suffering with others who suffer).

Jesus weeps at other times in scripture. The one that I was thinking of when I saw this statue was Luke 19 as Jesus approaches the city for the last time. He is facing rejection and death. v. 42-46: "And he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, 'if you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God."

I often ponder the things that make for peace. What exactly was Jesus speaking of here? Was he weeping because he longed for the pompous religious folks to admit that they did not have all the answers? Was he weeping because they and many others did not recognize Him as the Christ? What causes Jesus to weep as He looks over our neighborhoods and world?

The trouble with flowers

Today my mother in law Joyce and I planted lots of wonderful flowers.

The only trouble is that we left the water running on them for at least 2 hours longer than necessary. Now they are floating down the ditch in front of the house.

The soil here in Oklahoma is very interesting....I think it is part sandy clay and part, well something unidentifyable! It has been very wet and when we were putting the soil back in the holes after planting, it globbed together so much that it was like cookie dough.

The other trouble we had with flowers had to do with changing my profile picture here on blogger. I changed the template of my blog and now I needed a picture for my profile that matched. So, we wanted something like flowers. Now adding this was an ordeal. This blogger for dummies book says that blogger makes it "outrageously complicated...cumbersome and user hostile insufficiency." But it did not get the best of us. As you see, we found flowers and a nice textile background that matches just fine.

Hospitality "Revisited"

Our host and hostess during the last four days of our trip were so wonderful. Greg, our host, we met for the first time on Friday and by our parting on Monday morning, I felt that he had actually become a good friend. The hours we spent with them were rich with conversations about how God works in our world and lives, family, church, and moving. They made a huge move from the Seattle area to the midwest just last year. Though they probably do not realize it, the things that they shared with us about their recent move helped us navigate the complexities of our move. Greg also made the best coffee...."French Press" style. I also loved playing "hand and foot" with them in the evenings. We are so grateful to them for entertaining us. They are truly a huge blessing.

This picture is of three baby birds on the window sil at their house. They are longing for food. For a time, they will make their home precariously perched on a narrow ledge. They too are relying on the hopsitality of strangers. They too have to trust in another....and even many others to nurture them and provide for them. I wonder if trusting and not worrying comes easy to these birds. I wonder about my own ability to trust in the one who says: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them...So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today." Matthew 6:25, 26, 34.

Another Short List of Strangers

A waitress at the IHOP was so kind to give me Splenda out of her personal stash from her purse. I knew by this that she was among the kind strangers that we would meet. I asked her: "is this a nice neighborhood?" and she said "oh, yes, I stay just right over here, close enough to walk, but of coarse I drive." I then said, "is there a lot of crime here, like a crack house every other block." She says: "oh, no definately not. This is one of the best neighborhoods. My kids go to school over here."

Another waitress when asked the same question answered: "I am not trying to sound racist, but this area is really going down hill. My parents want to move because it's gotten so bad....I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I don't think you should move to this part of town."

Yet another person, the cab driver, says "I wouldn't live in that part of town because the police are racist." Then continued, "it's a conservative area of town, lots of people move their to raise their families and they basically keep to themselves....you have to be assertive in order to make friends there."

It is amazing that three different people can have such a huge variety of opinions on one part of town. As strangers traveling through and observing for ourselves, we felt a warm welcome by the locals and given all that we saw thought it may be a nice place to live. They seem rather open to tolerating strangers.

A Short List of Strangers We Met along the Way

Traveling this way makes it necessary to rely on strangers. As we have intentionally become strangers, we realize how fearful our world has become. If we are not careful, we can encounter the stranger with suspicion and we could easily become afraid.

Bob and Karen Paisley are the masterminds of Metrapolitan Ensalmble Theatre (check out their website: www.METkc.org) here in Kansas City. We were enchanted by their production of Tenessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire." Absolutely fabulous acting and directing! The final words resonate with me and sum up well our transition. As Blanch DuBois says: "I have always relied on the kindness of strangers." Although, Bob and Karen are not strangers to us , we have not known them that long and even so during our time away, they used our car. Theirs had been stolen. Examples of such non-sense abounds, but so do examples of great kindness. Now that we are back, they are borrowing someone else's vehicle for a while.

While visiting Chris and Lori at Oakdale Christian Academy in the hills of Kentucky, we were doing a short hike up a trail when we came upon a wild turkey and her young. Kylar, age 4 (in a couple days anyway) and Kaiden, age 2, Lori and I were startled at first. Lori did a crazy "scare the chicken" dance and I stood perfectly still after scooping Kaiden up into my arms. The wild turkey swawked and circled us hoping that we would get the message that we were not welcome strangers in his territory. Those baby turkeys were being protected from possible harm. We took the hint and slowly made our way back down the trail.

Another stanger that made me laugh was the woman taking our order at McDonalds. Clearly Chris and Lori are living as strangers in KY because they have not learned the native tongue and it took 4 tries....at least 10 minutes to order 3 items at McDonalds.

Now, we are back in KC for a couple days then we will go the the Great Plains Annual Conference. Yes, we will say goodbye to a lot of dear people...and even though we still have to decide where we will call home, we are still "going where we're going and we'll get there when we get there." These dear people were strangers six years ago and have become family. It causes me great grief.

Relying on the Kindness of Strangers

"In fact, when we stay in one place too long, we run the risk of holding too closely to the safely familiar centers of our existence. Our everyday life and the assumptions about the world implicit in it become opaque to us." by Roberta Bondi, from Traveling On, Weavings, Nov.-Dec. 1991

Chilly and Windy City

The first three hours of our mega bus journey was so cold! I was not adequately prepared for this. I packed only shorts and a sun dress and sandles. So when we stoped at a gas station Will offered his KC Royals pajama pants and I accepted. After that I actually slept for a while. At five o'clock in the morning the bus approched downtown Chicago and the sun was rising. It was beautiful.

We grabbed out bags and exited the bus onto the side walk. It was Sunday morning and nothing in Union Station was open. There was no where to buy coffee. We were on a search and conquer mission for a good breakfast and hot coffee. So, we hit the side walk and I was back in short again because I didn't really want to be roaming Chicago in KC Royals pijama pants. It was freezing. The few people who were on the streets had obviously spent the night there and they were much more adequately clothed than us.

The resturant that bragged that it made fresh pastries and the "world's best breakfast" was not open until 6 o'clock. Their hospitality was not the best either cause when Will popped his head in and asked where the closest Starbucks was or the closest place to get breakfast they said "we don't know."

There was another little shop around the corner with breakfast and then just one more block down was the Starbucks. So, we finally got hot coffee and breakfast....eight block walk and almost frozen!

Prayer of Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually do so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Fallow Ground

"Sometimes when I'm feeling powerless, I go crazy and color my hair." Responds a friend of mine when I asked her about her new red hair. It looks good that way and I wondered why she did it. I replied back to her, "like when I feel powerless, I want to plant rose bushes."

Really planting anything makes me feel better. It is less than 36 hours until we leave Kansas City and I am baking. What a bizarre thing to do before a 18 hour road trip! Dying our hair, planting beautiful things, and the sweet aroma and taste of fresh baked cookies.....all of these things may be ways to maintain our sanity when we really feel out of control.

I am a recovering control freak. Really trusting that God is in control is not easy. I am frequently impatient and frustrated by the fact that we are virtually letting go of one place before we know what our next place will be. Most people really do think we are nuts. Most days I think we are nuts.

On the other hand, this little time that I have away from pastoring is going to my sabbath rest. It is a biblical principle. Every seventh year, the Hebrew people were told to leave their ground fallow.....that means do not plant, water, reap anything from the ground. Rest, breath, worship and trust that God will take care of your life. This was SO difficult for the Hebrew people that they came up with an extraordinary and exhaustive list of things that one could and could not do during sabbath rest. I think that baking, dying your hair, and planting shrubs are all NOT permissable during sabbath rest. (if you are one who knows for sure, please respond so that we will all be better informed)

Now, I am wondering as I smell the muffin's aroma rising from my oven, how will I handle the next few weeks without an oven to bake in and without a yard to plant. Will I find that God is in fact in control when my ground is left fallow?

Golden Fields and Getting Home Quick

The picture does not do it justice! Last week, I was the temporary receptionist at MacDon in Kansas City, MO. This is the mural in the gigantic entry way of that building. With the four panels together, the thing is at least 25 in length and 10 foot in height.

This company manufactures farm equipment. You should check out their web site (www.macdon.com) to see the first in it's class Dual Direction windrower. The larger engine makes it possible to do work in the field faster than ever and then when you are done for the day, you pull a lever, turne the steering wheel and BOOM, you are facing the other direction and able to make it back home at speeds up to 23 miles an hour.

Maybe you have seen those large tractors that take up most of the the two lane road in the farming communities in Kansas. You know that it is frustrating to get caught behind of one of those going home. Now just think if it were you behind the wheel....you would really happy to be able to now go 23 miles per hour.

In general, farmers have a great appreciation for the land. Most of us know the feeling of being stuck behind one of these machines on two lane Kansas roads. I'm sure that that 2 minutes felt like forever! My challenge to you: next time you get caught behind one of these machines, take that as your opportunity to appreciate the land: soak in the beauty of it, thank God for it and those who care for it, take a moment to pause, breath, and pray. We all could use a little bit more of that.

By the way, I got to sit behind the wheel of one of these machines.....now THAT rocked!

Kansas Beauty

I am a "transplant" from the desert southwest.

The first time I visited Kansas, I immediately fell in love with the endless fields of golden wheat. My camera was filled with over two rolls of film with pictures of these rolling plains. Awe inspiring and awesome is Kansas especially during the end of May when the wheat is ripe and golden.

I wish that those who have live here and taken the beauty of this land forever for granted would be able to get a glimpse of it from an outsiders perspective. Those who print t-shirts and travel suveneers would no longer print things that mimic the beauty of this land such as: "Kansas Road trip...electric pole, field, cow....electrical pole, field, cow...electrical pole, field, cow...Kansas, next time I think I will fly!" Those who see our land this way must be visually or spiritually impared. They do not see the beauty with which God has God has graced us. They really do not see Kansas.

It seems earth day made the news this year more than most. I've been wondering if this recent "greening" of the public conscience is going to be a fad or a lasting appreciation for the earth. The green grass, the rich black dirt, the fields of golden are God's gifts to us.

I will miss Kansas.