We Like Sheep - Wandering Astray

This really has been a wonderful month and with many of the others to already report in, hearing President Elect Obama has been part of that. I don't know why, but on the day of the election I was filled with an sense of dread. Having seen proof that the last two elections had been stolen, I had very little confidence that this time would be different. It was different and that sense of ease has seeped into other parts of my life as well.

I taught a seminar on using the Internet for Youth Ministry that was really well received. As the class was filling up, I was asked to move to a new room, as I was on the second floor and one of the people that had signed up was wheelchair bound. This was not detected until she asked someone how to get upstairs and they realized she could not. So some of the intentional space setting up was lost. However, some of the other pedagogical methods were very popular. The flow of the class was related to the Theological Edge time at the Symposium. I introduced the concept and did a quick (7 minute) talk around the questions we should be asking in how to do Youth Ministry that was an attempt to broaden and define the space we were going to delve into. Then we took time to write down each of the questions that the people there brought to the room and as a group worked on addressing them. Cynthia's insight on exformation was really eye opening for many of the participants. If you are working with students who are bombarded with information every day in school (and in the quickly expanding social spheres of their life) the internet's ability to allow for exformation on a massive scale (blogging, taking tons of photographs, fan fiction, video work, etc) make it a serious draw. I watches as a few parents who could not understand why their kids were so into these forms saw the light come on.

In my work life the one-year review, which had been hanging over my head for 3 months finally happened last friday. The results were quite positive, I was promoted to a full supervisor (as opposed to shift lead) and with that comes moving to salary and an extra full week of paid time off. Part of the delay in the review process was so they could finish a survey of the employees on the effectiveness of their supervisors. So I saw not only how they scored me, but how those scores compared to the entire company. It was nice to have some firm data and highlighted some places I can improve and grow, I think its going to be a good thing.

At my review I was able to get my schedule adjusted slightly. So I will be able to continue the practice I have started this month of attending at least one Nia class a week ( http://niamoves.com/ ). Nia as they describe is: "Nia is a dynamic cardiovascular workout that stimulates and integrates your mind/body/spirit and leaves you feeling recharged, rejuvenated, and fully alive. Nia blends dance, martial arts, and healing arts (including yoga) to allow your dancer, athlete, warrior, and child within to expressively emerge." Our time with the interplay methods brought me to a place where I was able to get into this and I have left both sessions so far feeling sore and thrilled at the same time. So I think its going to a positive addition to my spiritual practices. My goal is to attend a class on monday nights (in the middle of my weekend/sabbath time) and thursday mornings which is right in the middle of my work week. My hope is that some Nia classes in the mornings will tire me out, so I can go home and get right to sleep. Bringing more of a defined shape to my daily rhythm.

My life rhythm has also been stretched in the last week with the presence of a roommate in my apartment. Shannon, one of the guys from our Hawthorne dinners has been staying with me on my sofa-bed for the last week. There have been some touch and go moments. It is surprising how angry I felt about waking up, looking for some orange juice and finding he had drunk the entire bottle in one day. It also has put me up against the questions of how far to go in extending trust, faith, and love in every moment. If I am planning to go get dinner with a friend, should I invite shannon? Is it cool if he uses my laptop when I am asleep? What about my car? If I walk in and he is wearing a tshirt of mine is that a big deal or no? Can I expect him to spend lots of time looking for a job and trying to get somewhere or if he spends all day watching movies is that the rest time he needs? Should I tell him to call me if he needs a ride when I am sleeping or should I let him walk the two miles home? Can I remember to shut the door to my bedroom or should I start sleeping more modestly? I am sure that questions that challenge me to lean into the future are prevalent in the rest of my life, but I have found that in this past week, I am far more aware of them. I cannot report that I have been completely consistent with my avowed goals, but it has been a good stretching experience. The scariest / most surprising thing has been the moments of joy I get when I come home from a day of work and there is someone there to talk to and my own general sense of ease with the experience as a whole. I removes most of the space I had to wonder if I could do this, if I was up to. Shannon is planning on moving into something more long term, but I am confident now that I need to engage in hospitality like this on a deeper level in the near future.

In all of this I have seen the deep wisdom and trust that was involved in Nancy's simple declaration that the way forward here was as a family. Framing the conversations that way gives you a good hint at what a faithful action here might be. In the next month I am going to fly home to see my family for christmas, its been a few years since I have gone to see them and I am aware of both the excitement and dread that comes with these trips back to Maryland.

Our CRC life has suffered this month, we had an end of the books celebration. But many of our members have been busy with trips, projects, and family commitments. We have not met formally for a few weeks and I don't expect we will get back into it again until after the holidays are finished. On the plus side I have been talking to some folks who are interested in trying it out, so we might be able to reform with a few new members. We are also discussing moving it from Sunday nights to Monday or Tuesday nights.

My solitary practices have not been great, but they have been better then before. After the symposium I got serious about blogging again, and while it has not been as frequent as I would like, I am blogging more ( http://welikesheep.org ) and I expect to post at least one more post today. One of the posts this month was the first of my rewrites on the CRC Chatecism that we committed to in Bonham. I am including it below with the promise that I expect to have drafts on the fall and the church in the next month.

Our first core understanding is: God as a Devotional Name for Reality.

I have tried to keep all of the major points Gene addressed in his paragraph, and even cribbed the final sentance pretty much word for word from his paragraph. Credit were credit is due ...

Its advent, the holidays, for some of my friends this is a great season of deep joy. It leaves me uneasy and uncomfortable. For those of you who are not sure they can stand the sentamentality of this season I offer this prayer from Cheryl Lawrie:

we come to worship.
there are no easy answers here,
no sentimental comfort
and no guarantee of hope.
just each other, held together by the need to begin again
and a story that tells us how it can happen.
welcome to worship