"You wake up out of the huge crevasses of the night and your dreaming. You get out of bed, wash and dress, eat breakfast, say goodbye and go away never maybe to return for all you know, to work, talk, lust, pray, dawdle and do, and at the end of the day, if your luck holds, you come home again, home again. Then night again. Bed. The little death of sleep, sleep of death. Morning, afternoon, evening- the hours of the day, of any day, of your day and my day. The alphabet of grace. If there is a God who speaks anywhere, surely he speaks here: through waking up and working, through going away and coming back again, through people you read and books you meet, through falling asleep in the dark."
The Alphabet of Grace, Frederick Buechner.
God is hard to understand. Impossible, actually. God doesn't work the way we want. God doesn't make sense. We wonder what God is up to most of the time. How does God listen to all our prayers? How does God love us so much even when we are terrible? What is God really like?
But the alphabet of grace is simple. The way God comes to us is through ordinary things. Bread. Wine. Water. Words. Flesh.
God uses simple things to communicate with us.
Life can seem boring and repetitive. Where is God in all this? God is there in the simple things. Rest. Quiet. Chance conversations or encounters with friends and strangers. God uses the rythyms of life to bring us Grace. How has God brought your Grace in the ordinary things today?
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
College Tour
Good Monday Morning to you!
What a beautiful day it is. I can't even say how thankful I am that it is November 3 and the temps will be in the 70s! I am soaking up the warmth, sunshine and colorful leaves, cuz all those things are fading fast.
Last week I, along with a couple of other pastors, took 15 high school students on a tour of ELCA colleges. It was wonderful. The kids were all great as were the schools. It was interesting to see the similarities (good education, caring professors, faith based learning, high value placed on community) and differences of each school. It was also really fun to see the students come alive at various campuses. Each one has a different feel, and it is so important that you can "see" yourself at that school. That is how I felt when I first visited Luther College (www.luther.edu) in Decorah, Iowa. I loved it immediately and couldn't wait for high school to be over from that point on. I cherised every visit back there over my senior year. And being back there last week, I still had that same feeling.
Another interesting thing was how the students attitudes changed toward the schools as we visited them. In the beginning, they were all pretty resistent to going to school "in the middle of nowhere" or "in the middle of a cornfield." But when they got on campus, you couldn't say that the colleges were boring at all. There is so much going on- concerts, parties, groups, sports, worship, speakers...you name it!
Also, one of the benefits of going to a private school is that you have a much higher chance of finishing in 4 years as opposed to 5 or more. There are also tons of scholarships available.
But, like I said, it's all where you can see yourself. I hope that if you know someone who is considering college, you'll encourage them to just visit an ELCA school. They are great ministries of our church.
What a beautiful day it is. I can't even say how thankful I am that it is November 3 and the temps will be in the 70s! I am soaking up the warmth, sunshine and colorful leaves, cuz all those things are fading fast.
Last week I, along with a couple of other pastors, took 15 high school students on a tour of ELCA colleges. It was wonderful. The kids were all great as were the schools. It was interesting to see the similarities (good education, caring professors, faith based learning, high value placed on community) and differences of each school. It was also really fun to see the students come alive at various campuses. Each one has a different feel, and it is so important that you can "see" yourself at that school. That is how I felt when I first visited Luther College (www.luther.edu) in Decorah, Iowa. I loved it immediately and couldn't wait for high school to be over from that point on. I cherised every visit back there over my senior year. And being back there last week, I still had that same feeling.
Another interesting thing was how the students attitudes changed toward the schools as we visited them. In the beginning, they were all pretty resistent to going to school "in the middle of nowhere" or "in the middle of a cornfield." But when they got on campus, you couldn't say that the colleges were boring at all. There is so much going on- concerts, parties, groups, sports, worship, speakers...you name it!
Also, one of the benefits of going to a private school is that you have a much higher chance of finishing in 4 years as opposed to 5 or more. There are also tons of scholarships available.
But, like I said, it's all where you can see yourself. I hope that if you know someone who is considering college, you'll encourage them to just visit an ELCA school. They are great ministries of our church.
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