To be perfectly honest

I don't think I'm ever going to stop missing or wishing for the pastorate. It's my absolute dream job. I love the requirements, the responsibilities, the nature of the job, the set up, everything. I love what it requires and how it blesses.

Nonetheless, here I am called to a writing and teaching service, ministry if you will,completely outside of  the church.

Oh well. Do you know what I love about the pastorate? For me, it was safe and familiar. It was my idea of a spiritual blue collar job. Since God repeatedly calls us outside of the comfort level to which we aspire, I follow.

So God says. 'Write' and speak to the world. Well heck. That isn't very  contained. And what is a person to do to earn money while one accomplishes that?!

Yet I have discovered what I already knew. God is found in times of transition. Big time. God is a teacher. God will help me rise to the challenge. Perpetually.

Yesterday I heard a sermon with two pastors talking about how busy they were. I thought  of the long hours I have in silence, stewing about words and ideas and paragraphs and rewrites and follow through. The silence of my life is overwhelming at times. I'm not very good at being obedient to the Spirit about this. Yet the small obedience I have extended has lead me into places of the deep presence of God.

This new calling, new to me at least, is presenting it's own rewards.

I'd like some company out here so I ask you, are you where you're supposed to be or where it's comfortable to be?
Love,
Deborah

It's a Bright Sunny Day?

The temperatures are soaring here in the Pacific Northwest. For us soaring means it's in the mid to upper 80's . The rest of the country is melting and by our standards, in about three days, people will be longing for our usual rain.

For me, there is incongruity.

This is a spectacularly beautiful summer. That makes two in a row for us. Yet in my personal life I am struggling to step out in faith in ways that feel most decidedly grey  and moist.

It reminds me of the battle of flesh and Spirit. Incarnational, flexible faith means we have to speak of the flesh from our Spirit. authenticity only grows when we are aware of our flesh and yield to  the Spirit.

When I first started teaching preschool, there was a little boy who would declare on sunny days, as we sat at the snack table, 'It's a bright sunny day Mrs. Patterson!!' ( my surname at the time). It's a mantra I have continued.

Extending the concept further, when we are painfully aware of the grey and moist of the flesh, we need to also acknowledge, 'it's a bright sunny day!!' in the Spirit. Both are true.

All that and the cooking and laundry need to be done, jobs are demanding and friends need attending. No wonder this walk on earth is a challenge!
Be blessed. It's a worthy journey :)
Love,
Deborah