Super Serious But Profoundly Hopeful Dee

 

As I was preparing for Sunday’s sermon,

I had a memory of a song that I wrote in the seventh grade.

Middle school.

Age 12 or 13.

 

When I looked back at the song and its companions,

A couple of things became very clear:

1)  I once thought that songs and poems had to rhyme.

2)  I was very dramatic.

3)  Not much has changed in 35 years.

 

7th Grade Serious Dee,

In all her limited yet somehow profound wisdom,  

Penned the following words:

 

Times are very rough—

Nothing seems to go right,

There are wars breaking out,

Every day and night.

The drugs now are bad

And the criminals are mean,

The people with no homes

Are cluttering up our streets.

 

Well in Africa and Spain,

The US and Brazil,

There are people starving—

Many very ill.

And it seems that no one cares

About anyone else,

And the very few that do

Can’t do much to help.

 

If you take a look around you,

You see many hardships

Everyone’s doing something bad,

Just to make others mad;

They talk about them behind their backs

And tell little lies,

Just because of jealousy,

They’re ruining others’ lives.

 

Oh have hope, hope

You gotta have hope

And maybe someday,

Everything will be okay.

Oh have hope, oh hope

You gotta have hope

‘Cause if you have hope you will see

Everything will turn out better.

 

Almost 48-year-old Serious Dee

Would like to add:

Hope is the holy courage to believe in a better future because God is still at work. 

 

Have hope, friends. 

In these dark, tumultuous times. 

God is still in the business of creating that which is good 

And God is inviting us to join in the work of

Hope in action. 

 

Amen. 

DMV Hyperfocus

 

I’m not sure why I did this,

But I volunteered to teach four different sessions at my county’s professional development this summer. 

 

I’ve taught a version of three of the four sessions before,

And I know that I am knowledgeable about the subject matter of the fourth session,

But I still feel a bit overwhelmed by and uncertain about how to prepare the presentations for July. 

 

Because of this reality,

I feel a looming sense of responsibility to work

Even though I have the motivation of a slug in the summertime.

 

As is my norm,

I feel anxious and restless and unsettled 

Because I have projects that I don’t know how to complete hanging over my head. 

The task oriented part of me is ready for the slideshows and handouts and session plans to be complete

But the process part of me is still processing information and feeling out my understanding of the crowd.

 

So when a friend asked me to help her family get appointments at the DMV office,

I jumped.

This was something I could do!

This was something that I could complete!

This was something that didn’t take emotional or mental energy!

This was something I could accomplish!

 

And I did.

 

I diligently and somewhat obsessively refreshed the DMV scheduling website for hours and pounced on opportunities when they arose. 

I was so proud of myself for the work that I did

That I literally cheered when I secured one of the appointments!

 

Will these appointments help me at all with my presentations this summer?

Absolutely not! :-)

But the thrill of the chase 

And the adrenaline of trying to get the appointments before someone else got them

Gave me a sense of motivation that temporarily made me feel better about my slug self.

 

We humans are weird creatures.

We do strange things in the face of stress

And in the name of feeling accomplished.

 

What is something weird you’ve done recently? 

 

What is something strange you’ve done when feeling overwhelmed? 

 

Please share.  I’d love to hear. 

Put The Past In Front Of You

 

Put the past in front of you.

Extend your arms and

Look at it,

Because the past is complete,

It is known.

It is clear.

It can be glimpsed.

 

Put the future behind you.

Let it come to you.

Do not try to see it.

It is not known.

It is hidden.

It is unclear.

It cannot be seen.

 

The past cannot be ignored.

The future cannot be rushed.

 

Echoes of the past are

Embedded in the future.

 

We must learn.

We must not forget.

 

The past is in front of you.

The future is behind.

 

Thank you, Aymara people, in Bolivia, Peru, and northern Chile

For this reframe of popular American culture and belief.

 

Oh God:

Help us to know it’s okay to look at the past in front of our faces.

Help us to know it’s okay to sit with the mess of hardship and grief when they are here.

Help us to remember it’s okay to grieve.

Help us to remember it’s okay to lament.

Help us to hold to hope—

To connection—

To the joy and struggle—

To the belief of a beautiful future…

 

Amen.

 

--adapted from Hope: A User’s Manual by Maryann McKibben Dana, pps. 14-17

Friends

 

I was talking to a friend recently when she said something that really stuck with me. 

She had gone to visit her sister and they had had a really nice visit. 

When she left, her sister was sad.

 

She and her sister talk every day on the phone and she said that her sister had commented that their daily phone call was the highlight of her day. 

I said, “Does she have other friends?”

She said, “No. She got a friend once but then the friend went and messed it up.”

 

Then she told me the story of how the friend became controlling and manipulative and really did mess up the friendship. 

And that was that.

Her sister has no more friends.

She works. And she goes to church. So there are inevitable acquaintances.

But there is no one she considers a friend, except for her sister.

And it’s not for lack of wanting.

 

So what happens when the need for friends isn’t met? 

What happens when someone wants a friend, 

Or more than one friend, 

And the relationships just aren’t there? 

 

What happens is that 

We face an epidemic of loneliness. 

Even with all the online connections. 

Even with all the busyness. 

Even with all the work and activity. 

People are lonely. 

And the loneliness is killing us. 

Some studies suggest that loneliness can have the same effect on the body as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

In other words,

Loneliness is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, depression, and cognitive decline.

Loneliness is no joke.

 

So may we be a people who seek to combat loneliness through friendship.

 

I don’t have advice on how to make friends.

I don’t have wisdom that will make it any easier than it already is.

I just know that a friendship has to start somewhere

And that it has to be maintained somehow.

This takes time. And effort. And humility. And courage, yes. 

But we are a people who can do it. 

So let us do it. 

Today. 

 

Amen. 

LOVE

 

I had the privilege of preaching this past Sunday morning.

The passage was the passage where 

Jesus challenged his followers to live in unity with one another as he was in unity with God.

Jesus challenged us to do this not through conformity, but through love.

 

As I thought about it,

I began to wonder what love actually meant. 

We hear the word love all the time. 

But how do we actually love? 

 

I came up with a simple acrostic to answer my own question:

 

Listen

Open your heart

Value others as God’s beloved 

Empower others with the love of Christ

 

This is great, I thought. 

Love lived out. 

 

But then I began to wonder: 

What if people don’t want to be loved? 

What if people don’t want to be heard or see or valued or empowered? 

 

Here’s an excerpt of what I came up with…

 

Here’s a hard truth:

We can’t force unity.

But we can still love. 

 

We can:

Refuse to hate even in the face of hate.

Refuse to mock even in the face of mockery.

Refuse to slander even in the face of slander.

Refuse to judge even in the face of judgment.

 

Love doesn’t mean staying close to mistreatment or abuse

Or being silent in the face of injustice.

 

Love means setting healthy boundaries

And sometimes stepping back—

Not to reject others but to protect ourselves.

 

But even in distance,

We can keep our hearts open and

Hold space for healing.

 

Even in distance,

We can trust God to do the work

That we simply cannot do.

 

Oh God: 

Help us to love 

With a love that only you can give. 

And when people don’t want to receive it

Or respond with hate, 

Help us to love anyway. 

Amen. 

 

Four Year Anniversary

 

Well folks. 

Today is my four-year anniversary. 

 

Four years ago today,

Heidi The Librarian walked into my classroom 

And asked if I wanted to do a blackout poem with her. 

 

She said, “You can do one and I can do one and then we can compare.”

After explaining what a blackout poem was,

Heidi and I then wrote.

 

At the time, we only knew of the traditional blackout poetry form, 

Where you go linearly on the page. 

About halfway through that first year, though,

We bought a blackout poetry journal from the Amazon that taught us how to do the bubble style. 

The bubble style allows you to use any word on the page in any order, 

As long as you connect them with a line. 

 

The bubble style transformed our writing, 

Opening the page to many more poems and allowing us to find transition words that often were not there before.

 

Heidi and I have written through 

Joy and sorrow,

Celebration and grief,

Good days and bad days,

Hellos and goodbyes,

Life and death, 

Energy and weariness, 

Pride and shame, 

Political stability and political upheaval.  

 

Whatever has been on our minds and hearts for the past four years

Has come out,

Sometimes cryptically,

On the page.

And each day,

We have shared our poems with one another,

Save for one day when I was extremely sick  and away from home 

And another day when I was in the hospital.

 

This is the only time in my life that I’ve done something like this

And kept it up. 

I’ve tried memorizing scripture and 

Doing daily devotions and

Playing online games and 

Being part of a book club 

With friends. 

But none of it stuck longer than a few weeks or months. 

For some reason, 

This has stuck. 

And today I am so thankful for this journey 

That has artistically chronicled life 

And produced over 2000 poems. 

 

What is a practice that has stuck with you? 

Maybe permanently, 

Maybe for a season? 

What have you learned and experienced through said practice? 

 

What is something life giving that you do with a friend, 

Maybe daily, 

Maybe sporadically?

What is it that gives you life?

 

And…

Go!