happy new year

12/31/09 For me as a pastor, there is a lot that happens in the church at the end of a calendar year. We had 4 services on Christmas Eve, of which I only preached at 3. I am getting older and wiser, so I let my associate lead the 11 p.m. service. We have lots of reports and financial matters to wrap up at the end of the year. I have a great staff that I can trust most of these business matters to. For me as a person, the end of the year also carries a lot of meaning. Cathy and I have our wedding anniversary on Dec. 30 (can you tell when is the best time for a teacher and a preacher to get married? Over the holidays!). We always try to take off some time at the end of the year. We went out to Big Bend where there are no cell phone towers and no Wifi. We had beautiful weather and wonderful hikes. On our first hike we saw some Auodad sheep. Cathy logged some 70 birds on our trip. I gave over the Sunday service to my intern pastor. I am learning some things as I get older. Over the last 2 days I have made some hospital calls and phone calls. I have also caught up with staff. Tonight, Cathy and I have a very sedate dinner party with some other pastors and their spouses. We will probably be in bed by nine. I wish you and yours a very happy new year.

Love,
Lynn

she remembered the words

12/23/09 Yesterday some of our staff members went out Christmas caroling after we finished our staff luncheon. We went to our homebound members. We asked them, "What is your favorite carol? Do you have a request?" Mostly, the people responded, "we like them all." One of our stops was to the skilled nursing facility of retirement center nearby. An older woman who is in declining health, physically and mentally, lives there. She used to sing in the choir. When we asked what she wanted us to sing, she gave the usual response that she liked them all. We sang Silent Night and Away in a Manger. Although she is not functioning so well on many levels, she sang along with us. She remembered the words. We left with tears in our eyes because we remembered the Word who became flesh.


Love,
Lynn

tuba Christmas

12/2/09 One of Cathy's favorite things to do at Christmas time is tuba Christmas. We went for years down in Corpus Christi, where we lived before here. We have attended the last 3 years here in Austin. Tuba Christmas is a gathering of all the low brass--tubas, sousaphones, basses, euphoniums, French horns, trombones, etc.--in some public place in order to place Christmas music. Yesterday on the south steps of the Capitol, some 200 players came together. Cathy and I remarked that we were surprised that the playlist tended toward the religious, not the secular. They played O Come, All Ye Faithful and Joy to the World, and many others. Yes, they played Jingle Bells and Deck the Halls, but these tended to be in the minority.

We ate our lunch in the bright sunshine and listened to the music. We watched the crowds--people of all ages and stations and races--likewise eating, listening, and enjoying the day. What I like most of all yesterday was seeing children sitting on cannons. It was a metaphor for Christmas. May we turn all of our cannons into resting spots for children.

Love,
Lynn

stature

12/21/09 I have been reflecting today on I Sam. 2:26, "Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and with the people." My first thought was how similiar this sounds to what Luke says about Jesus as he was growing up, when he was in the Temple as a 12 year old. But then I thought deeper about what stature means. I think that it means more than just height or physical size. I hope it means to mature in wisdom, faith, respect, action. I may never be very tall (about 5' 7"), but I hope I grow in stature.

Love,
Lynn

vertigo

12/17/09 On Sunday, I had vertigo. I was never nauseous, but I did feel light-headed and near fainting. I prayed, "Please don't fall down while you are preaching and get all of these people anxious on your behalf." Luckily, my physician is a member of the church, and he told me to go to a website on benign positional vertigo. There I found some exercises to do (they are simply turning one's head to a side and holding that position, and then going the other way, and they sitting up, and repeating.) It was good to know that it was an inner ear problem (crystals form inside there which mess up balance) and that there was something that I could to correct it. The thing that got me the most was brushing up against my mortality. I exercise a lot and eat well and cruise right on through life. I am in great shape for 56. But vertigo got my attention: that this mortal body will not last for ever.

Love,
Lynn

magnify

12/16/09 My breath prayer today comes from Mary's song in Luke 1:46-47, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." The song has long been called the Mgnificat, from the first word in the Latin translation. As I walked in the cold air this morning, I tried to magnify my praise, to enlarge it, to fill the universe with my song of thanksgiving.

Love,
Lynn

fulfillment

12/15/09 My prayer verse for the day is Luke 1:45, "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord." What fulfills you? Work? Money? Possessions? Relationships? Dreams? Worship? Elizabeth is speaking these words to her cousin Mary, who made herself available for the coming of the Messiah. Is that what would bring us fulfillment?

Love,
Lynn