Nosebleeds

 

My nose has been bleeding a lot lately. 

The weather changes and the dry air have combined to make daily nosebleeds a reality. 

It’s okay. 

It doesn’t freak me out. 

I’m a lifelong nose bleeder. 

My mom and my sister are too. 

When it starts, 

I just get tissue, apply pressure to the nose, and wait for it to stop. 

No big deal. 

Unless you’re leading worship and all eyes are on you. 

Then it might be a big deal. 

 

Such was my fear this past Sunday morning. 

I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle it if my nose started bleeding in the middle of the service. 

And to make matters worse,

I knew that my sermon was going to be evaluated by my peers in my preaching class

So I was even more worried that something would go wrong.

 

Thankfully, my fears did not come true

During the service. 

But you know what happened on my way home? 

Yep. 

My nose bled. 

 

I think what worried me the most was knowing that I was being filmed.

A nosebleed at home is not filmed.

A nosebleed in my classroom is not filmed.

A nosebleed in my car is not filmed.

But a nosebleed in the middle of a service that is live-streamed every week is filmed.

It is broadcast for the world to see from now until who knows when.

People were watching live. 

People will watch again on a delay. 

To see a regular service is one thing. 

To see a nosebleed is another. 

It freaks some people out! 

And I didn’t want to be the person who freaked people out. 

I didn’t want to be the person known for creating an awkward pause of worry in worship. 

 

Like I said, 

My fears didn’t come true during Sunday’s service 

And I am grateful. 

But my worry put me in touch with my pride. 

Yes, my pride was mixed with humility and the genuine desire not to disrupt worship. 

But my pride made me concerned about how I’d look

And I didn’t want to look stupid. 

Especially on film,

Especially when being critiqued. 

 

I know. 

This is normal. 

And I’m not beating myself. 

I’m just confessing my humanity in a way that I hope will connect with yours. 

 

Because, friends, we are all human. 

We all have fears. 

We all have hopes. 

We all want to be liked and appreciated. 

We all want to look like we have it together. 

We all struggle with pride and 

Many of us have nosebleeds that we don’t want filmed for the world to see. 

 

Yes, we are all human. 

So let’s treat each other as such. 

Especially now when it is so easy to hate. 

Especially now when not only the weather is cold 

But also attitudes and hearts. 

 

Amen. 

JellyCats

 

Some of you may remember my failed Christmas gifts:

Sentimental fancy jewelry for a 3^rd and 7^th grader?

Well, I made up for it yesterday when I somewhat randomly

Sent them JellyCats.

 

What are JellyCats, you ask?

They are stuffed animals.

I have no idea what makes them different than other stuffed animals,

But the girls love them

And hold them in high esteem

And so I went to The Amazon and sent two JellyCat foxes their way.

 

Their mom wrote yesterday to tell me that

She had two very excited girls with new JellyCats!

 

I smiled.

 

Then I asked:

Did they get the gift tags that went with them?

 

They didn’t.

 

To me, it was the most important part of the gift:

The literal reminder of what the gifts were meant to show—

“You are both loved so very much.”

 

To me, that’s what a gift is:

A tangible reminder of an intangible love.

 

We show love by showing up.

We show love by saying it.

We show love by listening.

We show love by taking out the trash.

We show love in the little things,

Day in and day out,

But sometimes we need to show love in an extra way,

And so we offer simple gifts,

Ones meant to shine light in times of darkness,

Ones meant to lift spirits in times of confusion,

Ones meant to bring a smile when it seems that tears are all that will come,

Ones meant to ground a person in reality when it seems that the world is slipping away.

 

I know one day the girls will come to appreciate their Christmas jewelry.

But for right now, in the bleak midwinter of January,

The girls needed to know through JellyCats

That they are so very loved.

 

Friends:

The hurts of this world are palpable.

May we offer soothing balms of love this week

Through jewelry or JellyCats or

Showing up or sending a text or

Making a phone call or sending flowers or

Doing someone’s lunch duty or

Listening when we ask, “How are you?”

Or…

 

Amen.

Anyway

 

“for the measure you give will be the measure you get back”

 

Monday was MLK, Jr. Day.

 

Because I teach about him each year,

I know a lot about Martin Luther King, Jr.

And while I know that he was not a perfect man,

I consider King to be a modern-day prophet.

And like many prophets of old,

King suffered.

He endured multiple death threats,

Jail time, and

Beatings,

For his work that centered on Jesus’s belief that

There is neither Jew nor Gentile,

neither slave nor free,

nor is there male and female,

for we are all one in Him.

 

As best as he could,

MLK did not judge.

He did not condemn.

He forgave.

And he gave.

Yet he was judged.

He was condemned.

Some people could not forgive him for his message of equality.

Some people did not care how much he gave.

And in the end,

His life was taken much too young.

 

The measure he gave was not the measure he got back…

So why bother?

 

Why bother to do good?

Why bother not to judge?

Why bother not to be selfish?

Why bother not to say horrendous things about our enemies?

Why bother to give to the poor and needy?

Why bother forgive?

Why not hold grudges and get even?

Why not amass wealth for ourselves?

Why not slander our neighbor?

Why not mock those who differ from us?

Why not be manipulative and wicked?

Clearly, those things get you far in this world.

 

Why take the hard road when there is a much easier path to follow?

 

Why?

 

Because it’s the right thing to do.

 

The Love of God

Is a redeeming love that is open to all

through the cross and resurrection of

Jesus Christ.

 

THAT is why MLK, Jr. did the work he did.

 

And THAT is why

Those of us who follow in the way of Love

Do the work we do as well.

 

But it is so very, very hard sometimes.

 

Especially when the measure we give

Is not the measure we get back.

 

…

 

Yet we do it anyway.

 

We do it

because we must.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

 

I learned something new yesterday: 

There is a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

And we are currently in that week,

January 18-25. 

I had no idea. 

And I can’t think of a more fitting time. 

 

According to my research:

 

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an annual international ecumenical event whose origins go all the back to 1908. 

 

It is a dedicated time for Christians of all denominations to come together in prayer and reflection, seeking the unity of the Church and promoting reconciliation among Christian communities.

 

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity emphasizes Jesus’ prayer from the Gospel of John: “That they may all be one” (John 17:21). 

 

It serves as a reminder of the shared faith and mission of Christians and encourages dialogue, understanding, and cooperation among diverse traditions, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and other. 

 

I don’t know about you,

But I think we need this week now 

More than ever. 

 

During our prayer of confession yesterday,

We prayed a beautiful, humbling prayer

And then received forgiveness

And the challenge to go and do better.

 

May this be our prayer this week 

And may it spur us to unity 

In the one who is Love.

 

Amen. 

 

—-

 

Merciful God, 

You speak blessing and compassion into the world. 

Forgive us for the ways we act

With judgment, cruelty, or indifference. 

We ignore the needs of our neighbors;

We resist your call to oppose injustice;

We live in scarcity and fear;

We assume the worst about one another. 

Cleanse us from our faults

And release us from their grasp. 

Show us your lovingkindness.

Restore our hearts and repair your world, 

That we may live in Christ’s ways.

Amen. 

Shows

 

I’m fortunate to have season tickets to Broadway Series South at DPAC.

Season tickets encourage me to see shows I otherwise might not see.

Some of the shows,

Like “Hadestown,”

Surprise me and make it onto my list of favorites.

Others of the shows,

Like “Oklahoma,”

Disappoint me and make it onto my list of never to see again.

Most of the shows, though,

Like “Six,”

Just entertain or challenge me and make it onto “Shows Seen” spreadsheet.

Most shows are shows that I’m glad that I saw

But that I wouldn’t necessarily seek out to see again.

(Although I’ll go to almost any show if someone asks.)

 

The latest of these shows was “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical.”

While it was a fun-ish show with lots of recognizable music—

I had no idea how many Neil Diamond songs I knew—

And while I appreciated the normalization of therapy that it presented—

Neil Diamond was a very anxious, somewhat depressed man—

Something about it didn’t click with me…

 

Having season tickets means seeing some of the same people at each show.

But there are also a lot of different people at the shows—

And the demographic of the people changes with each show.

This demographic was Neil Diamond lovers.

And I must say that I am thankful they are not the demographic for most shows…

Because there was a woman sitting behind me

Who talked and sang through the entire performance.

 

At one point, the woman got mad at the person beside me for adjusting herself in her seat.

She said, “I can’t see. The f#*%ing head in front of me.”

At another point, in a particularly poignant moment in the show,

She kept saying, “No! Cancel! No! Don’t go!”

As if her comments were going to change the course of history.

She sang along during the upbeat songs and

She sang along during the slow songs.

One time she sang right through a dramatic fermata.

I about went crazy!

I couldn’t even enjoy the show because

The woman behind me was watching it as if she were at home watching TV.

 

Now, I’ll admit:

Sometimes I make brief comments during shows,

Though I try to whisper them or speak them quietly during the applause,

And sometimes I accidentally sing a note or two of a song as well.

But I hope I don’t make the show miserable for those around me.

Because most live theater is not an active spectator sport

Rather a passive spectator event.

 

What about you?

Have you ever had a bad show experience?

Do you have shows that you hate?

Do you have shows that you love?

Do you have shows to which you are indifferent?

Let’s go for movies, too.

 

And…

Go!

 

I think some fun conversation might be good for us right now.

 

PS. Les Miserables, Ragtime, Rent, Wicked, Annie, Waitress and The Color Purple are on the list that I must always see. And Jekyll and Hyde, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, Little Women, Honk!, and Next To Normal are shows that I especially wouldn’t mind paying money to see again. Everything else, except for Oklahoma so far, is on the “I would see it again if someone gave me tickets” list.

Griffin's Texting Birthday

I’ll never forget that day. 

It was a Friday

And my sister was in labor with her first child. 

I was in divinity school at the time and

I had become good friends with someone who texted a lot. 

Until that point in my life, I had texted no one. 

On that day, though,  

19 years ago, 

At the hospital, waiting for Griffin to fly into the world,

I sent my first text to my text-loving friend,

And I haven’t looked back since! 

 

In those early days,

Text messages had a 130-character limit.

You paid to send and receive text messages

And so texting could be rather expensive. 

But I didn’t care.

It was new. 

And it was fun. 

And it allowed me to keep in touch with people without talking on the phone!

 

Now, I can’t imagine my life without it!

 

It’s amazing what a simple text can do.

An out of the blue thinking of you, 

A conversation easier to write than to say,

A joke,

A prayer,

A meme,

A picture,

From upstairs,

From across the country or world,

A text can literally change the course of someone’s day. 

A text can literally save someone’s life.

And a text is not hard to send.

 

No more 130 character limits.

No more tapping on the number 2 three times to get the letter C .

No more pay as you go. 

Just a qwerty keyboard for most

And an opportunity to influence someone’s life for the better for all.

 

I know.

Texts can be harmful too.

Cyber bullying is real and harmful and must be watched. 

But today, 

On my Griffin’s 19th birthday,

On this day that dramatically changed my life, 

I want to extol the goodness of texting 

And encourage you to use it for good. 

 

God—

You have given humankind the ability to think of cool things like texting. 

It blows my mind that written 

Words can invisibly fly through the air 

And make it to somewhere else

In a moment’s time. 

Thank you. 

Now, let us use those moments and texts for good. 

Amen.