For the Beauty of the Earth

One of the great pleasures of being a pastor is the opportunity to perform the marriage cermony of good friends. It's even more pleasurable when the wedding is for someone you have watched grow from youth into adulthood. This was the case this past weekend where I had the pleasure of performing the marriage of Abby Curtis to Joel Zaspel.


I first met the Curtis family in 1988 when my family transferred from a church in the south end of Tacoma to Mason United Methodist Church in the north end of Tacoma. This was prior to my journey exploring my call to ministry. At this time I was still "running" from the call.


Mike Curtis, a warm and gregarious man, was hard to miss and quickly made my family feel quite at home in the new church. Mike and his wife Debbie had two girls - Casey and Abby - who were a little older than our children, but our families enjoyed many church events together.


When I finished seminary in 1998, it was my delight to discover that I was being appointed as an Associate Pastor to my home church - Mason UMC. We returned to serve our friends and were blessed to re-connect. By this time, Casey and Abby were in high school and part of the high school youth group. My responsibilities as Associate Pastor included Youth Ministry so it was fun to be their Youth Pastor.


In 2005, I began serving as the pastor for the Federal Way UMC, but have been blessed to know that my ministry had a positive impact on the lives of the Youth I served. I've been able to perform the marriage for Casey and, this past weekend, her sister Abby.


Abby's wedding took place on Mineral Lake near Mount Rainier. I had never been to Mineral Lake before. It was a beautiful setting and I am still riding high on re-connection of friends, the celebration of marriage, and the beauty of God's creation. Just one of the many perks of this pastor profession!

Life Is Not Fair!

I must admit that I have harbored just a little bit of pride about the fact that I was not as motion sensitive as my wife.

I was the one to take the kids on the rides at the fair. I was the one comfortable going out on the Sound in a small boat to go fishing. I was the one who didn't need to take Dramamine to ride in an airplane. But all this has changed and I'm just a little humbled by the fact.

Karen and I had been talking for a few years about taking a cruise up the inside passage to Alaska. Well this year we decided to stop talking about it and do it. Being the truly compassionate one, I approached the cruise with more concern about how Karen would handle it than how I would do - after all, Karen is the one who can make herself carsick while she's driving.

All this changed the second day into our cruise.

As the ship entered open sea it encountering a little bit of chop with the water. We were experiencing the wonderful up and down sensation of a large ship on a choppy sea and I was not doing well at all. Truth be told - I tossed my cookies! Karen, however, was doing just fine. I ended up spending the rest of the cruise doped up on Dramamine "just in case."

But the most frustrating part of the whole experience were the four days after the cruise I spent nauseated and dizzy waiting to get my land legs again. And how was Karen doing? You guessed it! Just fine.

She is eager to go on a cruise again, but I'm not sure I can endure the "pleasure."

I don't wear humility very well and I just a little bummed about how unfair life is in this instance.

PJ

Me to We

Moving from Me to We.

I picked up this book simply on a whim. I was cruising the book aisle at Costco and it caught my eye. I've only just begun reading it, but would recommend it to everyone.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the founders of an international children's charity called Free The Children that works to raise awareness of global child labor issues as well as empower young people to become involved in social issues.

The book not only has Craig and Marc's amazing stories, but stories from others like them who have been working for change either locally or around the world.

But the main thrust of the book is to help people move from a self-centered life (Me) to one that is focused on reaching out and helping others (We). The premise being that as each of us reaches out to help others we find true happiness for ourselves.

I think this will preach...

PJ

Too Long Since My Last Confession

I have this image of going into a confessional and asking forgiveness because it has been so long since my last blog. "Forgive me father for I have sinned. It has been over three months since my last confession-er-I-mean blog."

I apologize for not blogging in the last three months, and I know of at least one person who has vainly looked day after day to see if I've submitted a new post, only to be disappointed time and again.

So it is out of guilt and love that I dedicate this blog to you!

During Lent I shared a sermon series called "A Way of Discipleship." The series focused on six disciplines that I believe will help Christians more closely follow Jesus' commands to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul - and to love your neighbor as yourself. If you want to know more about the disciplines click here. Hopefully, the sermon series will be on the church web site soon.

The Sunday I spoke about faith sharing I began by sharing in David Letterman style the Top Ten Reasons people don't share their faith. Several folks have asked for the list so I thought I'd publish it here. (No, DL's writers didn't help me with this)

10. All the good street corners are already taken
9. Sharing about the weather and sports are more important
8. Everyone I know is already a Christian
7. If everyone knew I was a Christian, I’d have to behave like one
6. My soapbox is in the shop
5. It’s impolite to discuss religion with my friends
4. People are put-off by knowing that God loves them
3. That’s what we pay the preacher to do
2. I’m afraid I’ll mess it up
1. I just don’t think about doing it

I really have very little excuse for not posting sooner. My story is that I was thrown by Easter being so early and since that won't happen again for another 200 years, I think I'll do a little better...

PJ

Resisting Resolutions

Each time the New Year rolls around people start talking about making New Year's Resolutions. Indeed the start of a New Year is a great time to think about what one can do new or differently in the coming year to improve one's life.

Many of the folks I talk with, however, no longer make New Year's Resolutions. I suspect it's because they've made resolutions in the past and found that after about two weeks the resolutions end up being forgotten or broken.

I confess that I will usually think about making resolutions for the New Year, and I may even come up with some great stuff, but I typically resist committing to a resolution because I don't want to feel guilty about not being faithful to the change. And I never share my "proposed resolutions" with anyone for fear I might actually have to hold myself accountable to a change.

I've found, however, that the flip side of my resisting resolutions is that instead of feeling guilty, I worry that I won't commit to anything. I fear that I'll have wasted another year making no real improvement with my life.

It seems to me that the reality of life is that if we aren't intentional about what we do, we'll usually end up taking the path of least resistance; we'll settle for the mediocre; we'll live less fully than what we are capable of living.

So if you've made a New Year's Resolution I hope that you will find the tenacity to stick with it. If your like me and you haven't (or you've made closet resolutions) think about ways to live with intentionality. Start small - one simple act - and then maybe work your way up to a full blown resolution.

PJ