Dear Pals,
I'm busy with many things as we move to Holy Week and Easter. I'm finishing sermons, planning worship, designing bulletins and sneaking outside to putter in the garden. I'm using "garden" in the overseas manner so don't be thinking I'm planting collards and squash. The garden is a mess mostly, still rumpled from the Storm but life goes on. I see sermon illustrations everywhere I look from the flower seeds moved twenty feet over by wind and rain; azaleas blooming with broken branches and a charming yellow flower I've never seen before popping up near the brick sidewalk. Life goes on in nature and in us.
I thought Advent and Christmas were special this year because of the situation here. I was correct. Lent presents different blessings this year because the putting aside of distractions (chocolate, alcohol, not picking cuticles, etc.) are not artificial or habitual. Turning our faces from what doesn't matter toward the Big One Who Matters comes easily this year. This is a good thing.
Everything changes. I'm encouraged by this maxim. Change means a different pivot to adapt and I'm all for learning to adapt. C.S. Lewis wrote that the only things we can count on are death, taxes and unrequited love. He's correct that those things are inevitable and rather than thinking he is cynical in his comment, I think he is reassuring.
I think about the constancy of change with politics, usually. Like ol' DeLay and some of the local stinkers we call "Sir" here in the Pine Grove who will be moving on (God willing and heavy voter turnout) come election time.
So, as I said, I'm busy. I have much to do for which I am grateful. My energy has returned and the Spring mornings encourage my spirit.
Always glad to see you,
St. Casserole