The Sales Get Me

 

Sometimes I get a bit overzealous at the grocery store. 

Sometimes I get excited about sales and buy things we really don’t need 

Because I am saving money. 

Sometimes the freezer gets too full. 

Sometimes the fridge bursts at the seams. 

Sometimes the pantry gets so disorganized that we don’t even know what’s in it. 

And then, sometimes, when we clean it out, 

I find myself praying for forgiveness for wasting so much food, 

When I know that food insecurity is so very real. 

 

…..

 

A couple of weeks ago, 

I was talking with Joe the Counselor about how busy my next couple of weeks would be. 

I was feeling overwhelmed and afraid that I would get sick, 

Which I did, 

When he said, 

“You don’t have to do the whole two weeks at once. 

It really is one day, one moment, at a time.”

 

…..

 

A few months ago,

One of my friends wrote in a group text and asked us to help settle a debate:

Do most people go to the grocery store every day or once a week? 

Another of my friends answered, 

Once a month. 

I usually go once a week, 

But, like I said, sometimes the sales get me and I will buy stuff not on the needs list but 

Because mom or dad like it, 

Or because we’ll eventually use it. 

And hence,

The stockpile of stuff. 

 

….

 

It’s tough. 

Finding a balance between living for today and being prepared for the future. 

Going to the grocery store every day doesn’t seem feasible to me, 

Then again, buying in excess doesn’t seem like a good use of money. 

Facing two weeks all at once isn’t possible,

But facing each moment as it comes doesn’t seem plausible either. 

What if I’m not prepared?

And yet. 

Jesus calls us to 

Not worry about tomorrow, 

For each day has enough trouble of its own. 

 

…

 

It’s a practice: 

Living in the moment 

While not dwelling on the past 

Or fretting about the future. 

 

It’s a practice: 

Sticking to a grocery list and 

Not getting sucked into sales.

 

It’s a practice:

This life. 

 

And practice means moving from failing to succeeding to failing again 

As we hone and improve our skills. 

 

Practice means accepting the reality that

We will never be perfect 

But always in process. 

 

…..

 

I don’t know what the future holds. 

There is much mixed emotion and a lot of uncertainty. 

Grocery prices may go down.

Grocery prices may soar and I may not be able to buy extra groceries. 

I may not be able to buy groceries at all. 

But I can’t plan for any of that. 

 

All I know is that 

I must practice living for now, 

And now is a moment for

Love and blessing and care, 

Even if it means going to the grocery store

And shopping the sales. 

 

Amen. 

 

 

Tread Lightly

 

Every yes is a no to something. 

Every win is a loss to someone. 

Every victory is a defeat somewhere. 

Every beginning is an end somehow.  

 

Tread lightly friends. 

We are a jumble of emotions today. 

But we are also sharing this human experience together. 

 

It’s easy to gloat. 

It’s easy to despair. 

It’s easy to celebrate. 

It’s easy to mourn. 

 

Tread lightly friends. 

We are jumble of emotions today. 

But we are also sharing this human experience together. 

 

There are smiles of happiness. 

There are tears of sadness. 

There are feelings of relief. 

There are feelings of deep anxiety. 

 

Tread lightly friends. 

We are jumble of emotions today. 

But we are also sharing this human experience together. 

 

For some, prayers seem to have been answered. 

For others, prayers seem to have been ignored. 

For some, God has ordained this day. 

For others, God, if there is a God, weeps. 

 

Tread lightly friends. 

We are jumble of emotions today. 

But we are also sharing this human experience together. 

 

Yes, tread lightly friends. 

We are jumble of emotions today. 

But we are also sharing this human experience together. 

A Blanket's Comfort

 

When I realized that it was time for me to cull my CD collection, I also realized that there were songs that I didn’t want to let go of. 

 

As a result, I made an Amazon Music playlist called, “Old Favorites.“

 

So many of the songs on the playlist have memories attached to them. I hear them, and I’m taken back to specific times and places, most of which were during my college years and my early 20s.

 

Over time, as my understanding of God has expanded, I have found that a lot of the songs no longer reflect my theology. 

 

And yet. For the past week, I have listened to nothing other than my Old Favorites. 

 

There is something to the space that they hold. Comfort. Memory. A simpler faith, maybe? A belief in God that is steady and true, even when I don’t understand where God is or what God is doing other than living in and through us. 

 

As Sandi Patti says, “There is s Saviour. What joys express. His eyes are mercy. His word is rest. For each tomorrow. For yesterday. There is a Saviour. Who lights our way.”

 

Whatever happens tonight. Whatever happens tomorrow. Whatever happens in the days to come. I’m holding to that Saviour, not because God is going to swoop down and make everything right, but because “God is God, and I am not” (thank you Steven Curtis Chapman) and I have faith in something so much bigger than myself. 

Voice

 

Isn’t it strange how our minds remember seemingly random things?

 

I vividly remember standing in the school gym last October, 

DJing the Fall Festival, 

Starting to feel a sore throat coming on. 

That sore throat turned into my typical cold, 

Settling in on my vocal cords, 

Leaving me without full voice for a month. 

I remember how frustrated I was not being able to talk and sing for so long, 

And I remember wondering if my voice would ever return.  

 

It did.

And it stayed with me until after my program on Friday night. 

 

I felt this year’s cold coming on last Wednesday, 

Tried to ignore it, 

Pushed through on Thursday and Friday, 

Opened my mouth to speak on Saturday morning, 

And bam! Nothing came out. 

I am voiceless again. 

 

Being voiceless is hard. 

Not only does my job depend on my voice, 

But I also like to talk. 

Being voiceless makes me think twice about what I really want to say,

Which can be good,

But it also makes me feel a bit powerless,

Which is not so good. 

 

As we all know,

This week is election week. 

To be honest, 

Election week leaves me feeling a bit powerless as well.

It’s all so big. 

And I’m so small. 

Yet I at least have the opportunity to vote and

Use what little voice I have, 

Literally and figuratively, 

To speak the truth of who I believe can best guide our local, state, and national governments. 

 

May we be a people who appreciate our voices, 

Who celebrate the fact that we have them, 

And who use them wisely to build community through love, hope, and encouragement. 

May we be a people who engage not in culture wars but in culture care, 

Especially this week and in the weeks to come. 

 

Amen. 

 

 

Accidental Car Door Ding

My car door opened too quickly the other day 

And accidentally hit the side of the truck beside me. 

 

Thankfully, it was a white work truck that already had a wrecked front

Because it left a little ding. 

 

A man was in the truck and 

He unhappily looked at me and made an exasperated gesture. 

 

The man had just come out of the gun store 

With a new gun. 

 

I felt uneasy as I walked away and 

Hoped the man wouldn’t be waiting for me when I returned. 

 

He was still there when I walked back to my car. 

I didn’t make eye contact. 

 

I cautiously pulled away, 

Afraid he might follow me. 

 

As I drove down the road, 

I looked in my rear view mirror. 

 

Two cars back, 

There he was. 

 

Fearing road rage or being attacked when I got out of the my car, 

I pondered my options. 

 

Thankfully I was going to be driving awhile. 

And i was going to be arriving near a fire station. 

 

About five minutes into the drive, though,

The man slowed down and suspiciously turned around. 

 

I felt relieved. 

But I also felt sad that I had to consider plans for what to do with a man’s misplaced anger. 

 

I don’t want to live in fear,

But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t carry the fear of guns and violence qnd rage and untreated mental illness and school shootings in my bones. 

 

We have a lot of work to do, friends.

We shouldn’t have to be afraid of accidentally dinging someone’s car door. 

 

We shouldn’t have to be afraid at all. 

Prayer in School

 

Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I did. 

 

I’m practicing in the auditorium with my 4th and 5th graders this week. 

We have a program on Friday night. 

A church meets in the auditorium on the weekends.

Some of their instruments and unassuming stuff is still on stage. 

At the end of rehearsal this morning,

One of my students walked up to the prayer request station 

And quietly asked if he could write a prayer. 

I told him yes. 

So he did. 

Another kid joined him and asked me how to spell Vietnam. 

As the original student walked away, he wiped tears from his eyes.

 

Like I said, maybe I shouldn’t have let them use the church’s materials

To write a prayer during school hours. 

But I did. 

And at least for today, 

I’m not sorry. 

Sanctity of Human Life

 

If I believe in the sanctity and dignity of human life,

Then I must care about not only when life is conceived and born 

But also about what happens to that life once it enters the world. 

I must care about not only people who look and sound like me

But also about people from every tribe and nation, of every language and skin color. 

I must care about actions and policies that not only honor and protect me

But that also honor and protect the least of these. 

If I am free in Christ, 

If I believe in and follow Jesus, 

If I believe that Jesus really did summarize the law and the prophets in one statement: Love God and love others as self, 

Then I must love others not by 

Damning them 

But by welcoming them as God’s child,

Created in God’s image, 

Both to be born and truly to live. 

 

The Archies

 

We had our Fall Festival at school this past Friday night. 

My job for each year’s festival is to be the DJ. 

In preparation for this year’s big event, 

I curated a playlist on Amazon Music. 

It was a mix of Halloween music and upbeat music from different decades.

I even asked my colleagues for song requests so that I knew the music would be relevant. 

 

After I got the sound system set up and tried to connect my phone to the speaker via Bluetooth, 

I realized that I was standing in a dead zone.

My phone had no cell signal

Nor would it connect to the school’s Internet.

The result? 

No access to my carefully curated playlist. 

 

Thankfully, I had packed two computers just in case.

Thankfully, again, both computers would connect to the school’s Internet.

Thankfully, for the third time, a friend let me use her YouTube music account and I was able to access the music with no commercials.

And so, I stood typing in the names of songs from the playlist and using YouTube song suggestions.

 

For an hour and a half, 

All was going well…

Until I played one song.

 

Now. 

I like the song Sugar Sugar.

It’s a cute tune from the 1960s and I have a cup game lesson that goes along with it.

So when I started playing it,

I did not expect the older gentleman who was sitting near me

To jump up and come walking toward me with a sense of urgency,

Yelling, “The Archie’s! No! No! No!  Absolutely not!

Stop that music right now!”

 

Afraid that I had accidentally played a politically incorrect group from the 60s,

Or that I had unknowingly triggered a PTSD memory, 

Or that something was majorly wrong,

I immediately stopped the music. 

My heart was racing and I felt a little sick.

I shakingly fumbled to try to find a new song to fill the sudden silence,

All the while, listening to the man say,

“No bubblegum pop.

Bubblegum pop is terrible.

You can play any other style of music, just don’t play that.”

And then he chastised me for being a music teacher who didn’t know what bubblegum pop was. 

 

After he walked away,

I became paranoid about the music I was playing.

Suddenly, not only was I mindful of trying not to play music with cuss words,

But I was also mindful of not playing music that might trigger someone,

Or in this case, 

Possibly just annoy someone who made a really big, somewhat scary deal about it. 

 

We live in precarious times. 

There is so much deep seated trauma 

That we don’t know how to deal with it. 

There is so much anger and emotion that it explodes at weird times 

And transfers to weird situations. 

An elementary school Fall Festival is definitely a weird time. 

And being yelled at and demeaned for playing a song was definitely a weird situation.  

 

But hey. 

Other than that, I had a nice time. 

And that’s something, right?