The Inner Child

I did something pretty neat last night. It was a beautiful evening and I was bored at home, so I went for a walk around 8:00. I walked to the local elementary school and headed towards the playground. There in front of me was a row of swings, just waiting to be used, but wait - there were two other adults swinging at one end of the row. So why can't I? I found my inner child, the child that used to fit comfortably on the swing set and escaped from the world. I find that child again and parked myself on one of the swings, took hold of the chains and took an amazing ride.

For what seemed like forever, I leaned and stretched, I pulled and pushed. I was flying in the sky and did not have a care in the world. I was like a child who could not be stopped. My feet were touching the clouds (even though there weren't any) and my stomach was going topsy tervy. It felt innocent and harmless. It felt great. It felt free.

²³⁴⁵Matthew 18: 1-5 says this: "At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."

To have the innocence of a child, the hopes and the trust that lie in their hearts, is the most rewarding feeling. That is what Jesus was talking about. We need to have the hopes, the trust, and the faith of a child or else we won't be able to live. It doesn't hurt to be humbled as well.

I was able to witness not only my own inner child come out but actual children enjoying the evening as well. Three little girls, all from different backgrounds, were playing on the jungle gym. They each carried a little lantern that shined just enough light to make the evening magical. It did not matter where they came from or who they looked like - it matter that they enjoyed the time they had together.

As adults, that is all we need. a little lantern and a little child in all of us that can come out and play, to enjoy precious moments that can be few and far between. Take a minute, or even 30, to escape the world and be like a child. There's no better feeling in the world.

PS - to the two friends who called last night, thank you for being lanterns for me and hearing my voice.

Voice of Truth

What does that mean? Voice of truth? How many voices do you have in your head that tell you all the wrong stuff? Does that happen to you? Is there a committee in your head that tells you everything that you are doing wrong and not saying a word about what you are doing right? If you are baptist - you know that baptist committees aren't the best voices in the world - but that is for another day.

There is a song from a Christian group named Casting Crowns. Their song is called "Voice of Truth". It talks about all these voices that take place and try to take ownership of your life. These voices that are pushing the buttons in the back of your head that say, "no you can't" or worse yet - don't say anything at all. Maybe it's because we are missing voices in our real lives that we would like to hear from. I don't know but the voices that are in our heads can be deathly and down right cruel. They tell you want you don't want to hear but sometimes they tell you what you are believing about yourself. There are people all around that can tell you differently but for whatever reason, they don't tell you. They don't say a word. Maybe it's about relationships. People just assume that you already know how they feel about you. But at the same time, it's good to hear it once in a while.

What is the voice of truth? It is about listening to the one voice that matters. All the other voices can hurt you or can even help you, but those voices aren't going to be around forever, no matter how hard you try. The only voice that matters, the only opinion that should count is God's. So why is it so hard to listen to that voice and so easy to be controlled by all the other voices? You want to hear from the others. You want to hear from the ones that have been a part of your life to say, "hey, we are proud of you," "hey, you are making great strides...you deserve to be proud of yourself too," Or even a simple, "i wanted to see how you are doing". Or they even send an email that says. "i worry about you and want you to know that i love you".
Is that so hard? Instead, we chose to hear the voice of silence. That is a deafening sound and unfortunately, one that we cannot ignore - although we try really hard to.

Then in return, sometimes you scream and yell to be heard and nobody is listening. I got a wonderful package the other day. One of my dear friends sent me a package with a letter, a card, a couple of gifts and pictures that were colored by her two little boys. That just completely made my week. A couple of weeks ago, I got a card from my best friend, a card that says, "I am thinking of you.....so here is a long distance hug." They listened. You have to realize that you cannot change the voices that have been the same way for 37 years, no matter where the voices are coming from. If you have not been able to change them in those years, how are you going to change them now? BUT you do have a choice in which voices you listen to. Everyone has a choice in deciding who they are going to listen to. They can chose what to ignore and what to encourage. The "bad" voices don't know you. They really don't know you. They think they do but they don't know that what you truly need is someone who knows that you can do anything you want, if you believe in yourself and have faith in what God has given you. The truly know when you need some encouragement and a long distance hug. They truly know when you need to hear the truth.

Which voices are you going to listen to today? Below is chorus from the "Voice of Truth"

"But the voice of truth tells me a different story
the voice of truth says "do not be afraid!"
and the voice of truth says "this is for my glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth"

Wow - where did this post come from?

A Day In Maine

Here are some pictures from a day in the life of Maine. I went last weekend for the day with Molly, a friend from church. She is a Duke graduate and a fellow Virginian. Yippee!! We found another lighthouse - Cape Neddick Light.
We went to a town called Ogunquit. I cannot pronounce it or spell it, but the place was awesome. It reminded me of Ocracoke, NC - small town with shops and cute home folk.
Molly's husband Jeff is in Afghanistan. He has this cute little white sports car - that is a convertible. We took that car. It was fun. Top down, sun out, blue sky - F.U.N.

It was a good day. The ocean and the sky were so beautiful. we walked for a couple of miles on a path called Marginal Way. At the middle was a fake lighthouse - so I got another picture.
Then we went and sat on the beach for a few minutes. It was actually very very crowded and kinda chilly.

There is one of the lighthouse and me in the lower left corner. I think I am in deep contemplation - or I am playing with my camera. hahaha

I need to make a trip to Cape Cod. There a lots of lighthouses to look at. I need to go. Need to go!!!!

Barack Obama and Cuba

Ok - I was wavering on who I should support in the Democrat race for President in 2008. I got my answer this morning. A subject and country that is very close to my heart is Cuba. You all know I had the wonderful blessing of being in Cuba in May of 2004 for a mission immersion program with my seminary. I got to work with the best people. I got to see the children. I got to feel their love. I preached to them and the preached to me. I saw what it meant to be thankful for all the blessings that we have been given, even when they are given in the worst conditions.

I was there when our current administration put the tighter restrictions on travel to Cuba for families and tighter restrictions on sending money and medicine to loved ones. I saw first hand the struggles that take place because of the egotistical and controlling nature of our government who wants to control everything that does not agree with them.

I have never met a more loving and caring group of people. They treated us like royalty, despite where we were from. They knew it was not our fault for the so called US "leadership". We talked to a professor at the Evangelisto de teological de seminario who said it best, "we have two arrogant old men, who are set in their ways, who are trying to protect their own, that they are not willing to budge or provide a compromise to make things better."

MIAMI - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is leaping into the long-running Cuba debate by calling for the United States to ease restrictions for Cuban-Americans who want to visit the island or send money home.

Here is the rest of the article http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20369459/

The embargo has not worked in 45 years. Why do people think that it is going to change now? Why do people think it will make a difference to put more restrictions? It is only hurting the people that we are trying to save. It is also hurting people in our own country. And if we want to get selfish, the travel restrictions on our own American people keep us from being a "land of the free" because we DON'T have complete freedom if we are restricted from we we can travel. So how is that for being selfish?

The embargo needs to be lifted completely. At least what Obama sees is that we need to make a change and start supporting the people and not our egos. This can be a start.

Things that Make You Go Hmmmmmm

Things are pretty busy at church now - I am preaching this weekend. So, I am doing a lot of reading of the news, none of which will make it in my sermon. However, the issues of the day are making me think. Things that make me go hmmmmmm. There are three things that have come up just TODAY that makes me wonder about intentions:

1. OJ Simpson's "tell all this is what you would have learned if the cops did their job right" book IS coming out BUT it is the Goldmans who are publishing the book. What? Last year, when the book idea was introduced to the world, the Goldmans said absolutely not - they did not want it published and tried to have it stopped. Why now? Do they think Ron Goldman will return? Ron Goldman will not be back. Nicole Brown will not return. Do they think that the children will benefit in anyway from having this book come out? Wait - there is a $3.5 million contract for the book. And it just so happens that in July, a judged ruled that the Goldman family would get any proceeds from the book. Could that be a co inky dink? The proceeds won't go to the children. And not only do the proceeds go to the Goldmans but the how to murder people and get away with it book will help those wannabe OJs. hmmm.

2. Don Imus is being sued by a member of the Rutgers Team for defamation of character and damaging HER reputation. If I remember correctly, Rutgers reputation was anything but damaged AND not one thing was said to individual players. The team's "character" was lifted to the highest regard and respect after Imus' comments because of how they responded. How was her specific character damaged of defamed? In fact, until now, many people thought that the players had the best character showing how to handle situations like this with maturity and hope.

3. I think this is my favorite is this one - Man sues 1800 Flowers for revealing his affair - the bill for the nice pretty roses he sent to the girlfriend accidentally got sent to his current wife. The man is suing for breach of contract.

I don't know.

Some Ministers just should not be one

OK - I have to say something here. There are "ministers" in this world who give the rest of the ministers a bad name. I won't mention ones that have passed on - may they rest in peace, but please, if you hear the name, Rev. Gary Simons, please don't hold him against the rest of us. He is "pastor" (and I use that term loosely) of High Point Church in Arlington, TX. They have a janitor whose brother died from an infection brought on from surgery to prepare for a heart transplant. The church offered to hold the funeral service, media presentation, and reception afterwards.
They received 80 plus pictures of this man's life to put into the media presentation, when the staff" found out" that he was gay. This is the same church that had been praying for the man for a long time for his illness when the learned of his heart disease. Apparently, they saw a picture of the man and his partner, even though, they met the partner, and knew he was a partner, when discussing arrangements. On Wednesday evening at 6:00 pm, the day before the funeral was to take place, a middle man from the church made the mentally impaired brother get on the phone to tell the partner and family that they could not hold the funeral. UGGHGHGHGHGHGH.

http://religion.beloblog.com/archives/2007/08/another_side_of_the_story_of_t.html#more

The pastor equated his life to a murderer and therefore could not hold the service in good conscious. It would show that were would be supporting this lifestyle and we can't do that. WHAT? Have you not held funeral services for sinners before? I am not saying that homosexuality is a sin any way. Is this decision supposed to be one held with compassion? They are going by scripture from the Old Testament, the same old testament that says put your youngest daughter up as a slave. Do they have slaves in their families? They are also going by scripture that Paul spoke to a particular church about, where men were sexually assaulting young boys. Paul, the same man who said that women should not wear fancy jewelry to their church and they need to wear head coverings while in worship. OK - let's go to High Point and see what women are NOT wearing fancy jewelry and what women have their head coverings on. Instead of listening to Jesus, they are listening to someone else. NOWHERE, NOWHERE does Jesus talk about homosexuality. NOWHERE does the scripture show Jesus rejecting a homosexual or condemning them.

It amazes how people will put the words of Paul above the actions of Christ.

The sad part, something sadder than what they did originally, the sad part is that they did not have the courage to tell the family the truth, nor did Simons have the courage to tell the family himself face to face. He had his people do it over the phone, with the brother's job on the line no doubt.

I have been told that I will go to hell for being an ordained woman minister. I have also been told, by another "minister" that he would not call me to be a minister in "his" church because I do not look like I love God - since I don't have a perfect body. To hear stuff like that hurts and to hear it from people who call themselves ministers makes it all the more painful. But this church went beyond what I have ever witnessed or experienced.

The man was to be memorialized the following day - less than 24 hours after this phone call. No matter what sin, if any, was committed (and I don't think any sin was committed, except by the church itself) Jesus would have loved this family, cared for them, and been their to help the family through the process of burying their son, their partner, their brother, and friend.

Cecil Sinclair, the deceased, was a Navy veteran, served in Desert Storm whose job it was to rescue downed pilots. He knew what it meant to really care for other people - something Mr. Simons and his "church" could take a lesson from. It also sounds like this brother was not the only person who has a heart disease and needs of a heart transplant.

Ok - I will get off my soapbox now.

True Men in Baseball

Ok - I stayed up a little late last night to watch one of our own, Tom Glavine, reach and earn his 300th win in baseball. He pitches for the Mets now but he pitched for a LONG time with the Braves, including the Richmond Braves. Talk about a guy who deserves the recognition and honor, along with the best short stop around Cal Ripken, Mr Hall of Famer and Tom - Hall of Famer to be.
They worked hard, they are excellent role models and will do what they can to keep the good name of baseball in tact.
Cal Ripken and Tony Gwinn were inducted into the Hall of Fame last weekend. They had wonderful words to say - remember where you come from and don't forget the kids - who are the future. They said and they showed how important it is to be role models for the right reasons and showing how it can be done with integrity, honesty, and commitment.
Tom Glavine signed his ticket into the Hall of Fame last night, by gaining his win against the Chicago Cubs = and give a hand to the Cub Fans who were true fans of baseball when they gave Glavine a standing ovation as he left the game and as the game became official.
Where am I going with all of this? We have responsibility, commitment, honesty and integrity that we should be living by. If we can have the commitment to life, to God, and to people like these three guys do, then life won't be so bad. Now, I know what you are thinking. They got paid the big bucks. They can afford to have commitment. Well, don't you think a life is priceless and what we have been given is worth a lot more than a million dollar check?

Trip to Another Zoo

I went to another zoo yesterday - Stone Zoo. I don't think it was as good as the other one I went to, BUT I did have a crow land on my arm. I got to be part of the bird show and a "recycling buddy". A crow landed on my arm and took the water bottle from my other hand and put it into the recycling bin. Unfortunately, nobody could take a picture of it. It happened though! I promise!!
Anyway, I saw some pretty animals, including a couple of kitty cats and one really pretty Bald Eagle. Did you know that they just came off the endangered list?