For Our Eldest Treasures

Thoughts befuddled, events jumbled

uncertainty your nighttime companion,

Do not fear.

For I remember when you grabbed the dragon by the tail,

taught with fire in your eye,

peeled peaches by the bushel basket,

and beautifully arranged flowing bouquets of God's wonder and beauty.

When the moment comes that you no longer remember

your acts of bravery, strength and fortitude...

do not fear.

For I remember...

and I shall whisper the tales of your heroism

faithfulness

and joy

until your new nighttime companion, peace,

befriends you, again.

Summer Reading- an Update

One goal has been completed! 2002 pages read by me alone. Woo hoo, I am not a complete failure! I know this small victory will not make up for being a complete dork in the 8th grade... but I am thrilled that something this summer has worked out well.

• Winston Churchill by Paul Johnson
• Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo
• Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
• The New Strong Willed Child by Dr. James Dobson
• Forgotten God by Francis Chan
• 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
• Ever After by Karen Kingsbury
• Pastor:A Memoir by Eugene Peterson

My daughter and I are working on her reading goal... She has read eight books by herself for the first reading program. We've completed 1320 minutes of reading for second reading program.

Friday concludes our local library reading program where we are close to our goal, having finished 189 books thus far. But the goal is 200... We can do it!

Ready, set, read!

Where has all the writing gone?

I wish I could say that my lack of written creative effort was a result of being abducted by chocolate loving purple aliens who love to watch re-runs of Star Trek:The Next Generation. But I can't.

It would keen if my lack of writing was a result of a new surgical implant with a bio-computer chip that enhances my dance abilities. Dancing with the Stars, here I come!

Instead, the boredom of housework and home repair, the busyness of care-giving to sick and ill family members, and the exhaustion that comes from spinning my wheels in multiple directions has occupied my time and sapped my creative energy.

In other words, the writing has gone nowhere. Fast.

I guess there is always next summer. Or the fall? Or another yet to be named date in the distant future?

Too busy living to write about my living. It just that I had hoped for better material.

Caring

Whew- what a week it was! In six days I completed five hospital visits, three nursing home visits, and so many pastoral care phone calls that I stopped taking notes! All that plus worship, sending off our missionaries, and a wedding.

One of the hospital visits was to my grandmother who had a lung infection over the weekend and my daughter has been very ill so our home life has been very hectic.

Taking care of the flock this past week has involved a lot of care giving, listening, praying, talking, and visiting. The experience has served as a blunt reminder that what I do is a people business. It is all about caring for folks.

And because my colleague down the hall was on vacation... (I appreciate him at all times!) my heart was overjoyed that we serve a church that is a caring community. What terrific support and help we have among our lay staff and our volunteers who serve as Ministers of Visitation! They helped me do the business of caring for people so beautifully.

Now all I need this week is a little quiet for a nap!

JOSEPH's Amazing Gift to Calvary

Go, go go Joseph... has been lingering in my ear since yesterday afternoon's third and final perfomance of Rice & Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat! Just cannot get that tune out of my head.

I must confess that I am a closet musical junkie. One weekend way back in college my fellow musical addicts and I collected as many musicals as we could find (back then on VHS tapes) and had a marathon weekend of song and dance. During one meal that weekend, I recall being dissappointed that the folks serving us dinner at the college cafeteria did not break out into singing and dancing on our tabletops... what's up with that?! Surely they would have if Rogers & Hammerstein or Rice & Webber had scripted my life.

What a treasure these past three summers Theatre for Christ has been to our young people, community and congregation! I am so proud of these students... who have dedicated a lot of time, effort and talent towards each of these productions. This year was no exception.

Maybe we could say that the church that sings & dances together... serves well together?! Not sure if the Apostle Paul would buy that but, I do know Pastor Todd and I are fiercely proud that over thirty young people spent their summer thinking, praying, working, dancing, singing, and acting their way through a good portion of the Book of Genesis.

What a gift to have a faith family saturated in the Biblical story. Sure made my job of preaching exciting and challenging this weekend!

So, go go go Joseph! Til next year!

4th Memories

Red, white and blue memories were made this holiday weekend in the Knight family! Some were loud, some were proud, some were patriotic and some were not. See if you can guess which one is which...

• charter bus ride, fabulous music, great company, and big guns with fireworks at Conner Prairie!


• over two hours at the vet clinic (ended with 2 sets of pills and lots of suggestions for Duke's on-going medical care. sigh.)


• rainy, humid parade (lots of candy, people we know from around town, and traffic)


• 35 minute lines at the ice cream stand waiting for fireworks to begin in Avon


• 1 hour errands that ended up taking 3 hours to complete because we couldn't find exactly what we wanted


• remember the time the 4th of July watermelon rolled off the kitchen counter and busted onto the floor? Yeah, I remember cleaning it up.


• three nights in a row of fireworks and glow sticks! wow- doesn't get any better than that!


• last minute playdate arranged so Eric and I could lay down 36 cubic feet of mulch


• beautiful afternoon visit with family & friends under shady trees. ahhhhhhhhhhhh....

Those are my July 4th memories from this year...what are yours?

Summer Half Way

Egads- where did the summer go? Because kids go back to school so early in August this year... we are now standing on the edge of halfway summer. And we're not nearly halfway done with all of our summer fun, sunny activities, events, cook outs, parties, projects, reading plans, nor are my goals near completion.

Oh dear!

Summer laden panic attacks are nothing to write home about... sigh.

Either I need to lower my self-expectations, stop getting distracted by other things, go-with-the-flow more, or bear down into high octane mode. Not sure which is more productive?!

Instead, I think I hear my hammock calling me.... gotta go.