Embrace Christ

On my way to the post office this afternoon, I drove past a church that had the slogan "Embrace something that gives you hope and joy this season." But what permanent hope and joy can we find in things that will rust, or moths destroy? I find hope and joy in my relationships, true, but the root of my relationships is still God, who is Love itself. Trying to find hope and joy outside of Christ is ultimately an empty pursuit, and sad advice for a church to give.

Where Have All the Lutherans Gone?

Talking with Scottius led me to blog today about something that I think about a lot, which is why there doesn't seem to be a strong conservative Lutheran community. The church Mr. BTEG and I currently belong to is a good distance away from our home, to begin with. While I suppose it would be asking too much to have a solid church actually in my community, it'd be nice to have one closer by. I don't feel any sort of connection to anyone at my current church. In addition, there's not really much of a strong Lutheran presence online anymore. Not only are bloggers gone, but people that I used to see on Google Plus aren't there, and Facebook is dying all on its own. When you don't have a church family, and you don't have an online church family, you can start feeling pretty detached from your church.

Starting Anew

I find that I love beginnings, of the year, month, even week. It gives me motivation and opportunity to look at my goals, and try to improve my habits to get to where I want to be. I've learned over the years not to try to make huge changes, but to move a little bit in the direction that I want to go. Once I get that in place, I can move on to a further step. Although this is the beginning of a new week, for liturgical Christians, it is also the start of a new church year. This is the first Sunday in Advent, a penitential season leading up to the feast of Christmas. It's definitely not the time to make grandiose proclamations about being a saint in future, but if God's mercies are new every morning, then it can be possible to make a new start!

Marking Time

On Sunday the Dancer was confirmed. Yet another milestone for the Evil Genius family. Lots of extended family was there for the event, and three families of confirmands got together to serve a lunch to our families. I'm very proud of the Dancer and glad that she has been received into our church!

The Future

I'm feeling better today. I need to find someone that I can "dump on" when I'm feeling frustrated or confused. Although I should also journal more. Writing things down is really a good way to get things out of my system. Like Karen, I'm starting to feel like I have church issues. Which is surprising. Our church is liturgical and traditional, which I like, and the pastors are great. But is it wrong to want to have friends with some of the people that you go to church with, instead of just everyone being a bunch of people that you see once a week? Distance is also getting to be an issue, with the price of gas, and also because I would like to have some kind of local feeling at my church. We leave at least twenty minutes to a half hour away from most of the people who attend the church. And I am also really not fond of the new location (long story.) I think Greater Cleveland needs more than one confessional Lutheran church!!

Christians, to the Paschal Victim

A friend who does hymn podcasts has come out with his first hymn video. You can check out his blog here. By the way, one of the churches featured in this video is the one where the Dancer received new life in baptism.

Phoning It In

Via Pastor Peperkorn (on Facebook,) an iPhone app for Confession. What do my Catholic friends think?

I enjoy using the internet for keeping in touch with people that live far away, and I obviously enjoy broadcasting my thoughts and ideas via blogging. But I hope we don't start using things like Skype or cell phones to replace the importance of the physical interaction between the pastor (representing God,) and the congregation. Not that I'm saying that this app does that.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Okay, so I know what the true meaning of Christmas is. But like poor Charlie Brown, I didn't really have much feeling for Christmas this year, either in the spiritual or secular senses. I got a nice gift, the warm winter coat I've been wanting for a couple of years. The girls were happy with their gifts, even though they were by no means extravagant. Mr. BTEG even scored himself some free Christmas gifts: a Google TV keyboard and the latest in smart phones. And of course the most important thing was the remembrance that God became man, became incarnate for us and for our salvation. I was rather numb to the whole thing. Not getting to Christmas services due to various health issues may not have helped this, although I was not tuned in to Advent very well either. I am taking two things from this season. One, I need to stay on top of my mental processes, even though I can't twist them into something perfect. Two, thank God that His incarnation and my salvation do not rest on my feelings being "right."

Children and Church

I saw a sign yesterday at a local megachurch that happens to run a daycare. The sign was advertising a reduced rate at the daycare for employees of the hospital directly across the street. I disliked it. Let me tell you first a bit about my feelings about churches and daycare. It is true that the Christian church has a long record of providing all sorts of aid. I'm not an expert on medieval history, but a lot of this help seemed to come from monasteries, from priests and nuns who made it their vocation to live to serve others for the glory of God. Nowadays, everything seems to be a "ministry." In my view, doing things for people in the hope that some of God will rub off on them in some way. This includes daycare at some churches.

If a church-going person feels called to help out a fellow church member, neighbor or family member with childcare, that's one thing. However, I'm not sure a church should be directly running a daycare, anymore than they should be directly running a soup kitchen, a hospital or a homeless shelter. The church is the Church. It is there to give Word and Sacrament. Individual Christians are supposed to help others in need. I also dislike seeing a church daycare being run as a straight-up business, instead of just helping those who need help. This includes running a discount program as an incentive to sign your kid up there. I'm sure some of the people who work at the hospital do so because they can't afford not to work. As always, there are of course other people who work for the extra clothes, fancy house, vacations, etc. The Church should support the family, and that means encouraging a parent be at home when possible.

I'm not sure how I feel about church schools. It is my understanding that church schools started in the Catholic church because of anti-Catholicism. Lutheran schools were started in the age before homeschooling vs. public school, and I believe were started to give Lutheran students some catechesis as well as the education they would have received at a public school. I don't see anything wrong with that, since the children are presumably mostly children of church members and the church is proclaiming God's Word to them. Obviously however, a school is not a requirement, nor something that should take resources from the church that are needed elsewhere.

The Modern Church

Incense kicks off people's asthma (among them, my husband.) Recovering alcoholics would like grape juice instead of wine for the Eucharist. Others need gluten-free wafers for the host. Me, I have OCD, and as I have said before, using the common cup for the Eucharist, for me, is liking kissing everyone in church on the mouth. Fortunately, our church allows dipping the host in the cup. I see the arguments for a common cup, but I personally wouldn't mind individual being an option, because of my own frailties. Obviously things that affect health are more important than OCD.

Where am I going with this? Just thinking how many things are happening in the life of the church that St. Paul and Luther and probably even Walther would never have dreamed of. I wonder what kind of human idiosyncrasies affected the church in their days?

Feelin' the Love

Staring at a blank screen is about as bad as staring at a blank sheet of paper. :) There is a lot going on, but not much of it is good. Oddly enough, though, when I think about all the things that are going wrong, I then somehow realize how much good is out there. Lots of prayers and support for friends who are facing illness and other difficulties. Economics forcing us to look at what is really important, both in our family life and in our church life. The ability to reach out to friends online, and have a dozen friends answer back with support within minutes. The ability to be aware easily of what's going on in the world that might effect us. As Red Green says, "We're all in this together." Or as my pastor says, "This is why we keep our eye on the goal, it soothes the pain of the present. St. Paul says: I consider the present sufferings not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us."

The List Keeps Growing

It seems to me that people used to get together most often in winter during olden times, and barely saw each other in the summer. I imagine that was due, at least at first, to all the farm work necessary in summer, and later, to the Victorian/Edwardian propensity for going to the country in the summer. Now it seems that people hibernate during the winter, at least after Christmas, and do all kinds of things during the summer, at least in the greater Cleveland area where the winter can be long and tough and the early and late summer can be very pleasant.

Tomorrow a fellow church member is having a garage sale to raise money for a youth group trip. I would have liked to be there today so the Equestrienne could help get things ready, but she has school to do, and I am still not feeling one hundred percent. Not only do we have the garage sale tomorrow, but one of the Dancer's friends is having her end-of-year recital right in the middle of the afternoon.

Tonight the Equestrienne is going to a birthday party, with an 80's theme. What fun! I remember years and years ago some girl saying she dreaded having her daughter come home and tell her that tomorrow was 80's day at school. It's the circle of life!

Next Saturday is a work day at church, for which we will not be able to stay very long, because we are going to an Indians game with a tailgate party beforehand. It's a birthday get-together for a local geocacher.

Here's a picture of the Equestrienne from last weekend, which was a busy one also. I really do wish there were close to as many activities in the winter as there are in the summer! Winter is when I am at my bluest and need human interaction!

It's June Already

I spent all of May looking forward to the Equestrienne's confirmation, and the month just flew by. Her big day went very well, with lots of family and good food and talk and baby-holding. I hope to post pictures soon, as well as a few more baseball pictures for Scottius. I was so tired today that I even took a nap. The weekend was so busy that my sleep was compromised, so I suppose it's not surprising. There are lots of fun things coming up this summer, so there's still lots of things to look forward to. I need to get blogging more. I'm on track to blog more this year than I did last, which was a goal, but I only posted nine times in May!

How I Spent My Easter

All the cousins on my DH's side of the family together. Technically, the little boy is a cousin once-removed, as he is the son of the woman in the picture.

My niece being reborn in baptism. I love the look of love and joy on my sister-in-law's face.

My niece with her parents and godparents, my sisters-in-law and their husbands.

My niece with our Easter gift to her, a stuffed bunny. Of course we also gifted her with a couple of special things for her baptism.

A Joyous Occasion

Yesterday evening the Dancer partook of Holy Communion with her family. Most of her extended family were there for the event, and most of us went out to Hoggy's afterwards. (Dan, there is one in New Albany!) I got to hold and feed my adorable niece, who will be joining the family of God this Sunday. The girls had fun entertaining their other little cousin during dinner. I felt very blessed yesterday.

After a Long Day of Shopping

what better way to relax than to soak your feet and read a book?

The Dancer has wanted a certain girl's pedicure set for ages. We found it today for about $5 less than we normally see it, and she grabbed it. Then of course she had to try it out as soon as we got home.

Being the little house-keeping goddess that she is, she also hand-washed the new first communion/Easter dress that we found today. The Equestrienne, amazingly enough, also found a dress she liked, and a little bolero sweater for the cooler spring weather. So we are set for the next few special days, except for me. :( Perhaps I shall dig through my stash and see if I can fashion something.

Which brings up another point, which is why I did not do any sewing for the holiday. Well, I had been dragging a little bit here waiting for spring. I did not want to put any anxious pressure on myself by trying to get a dress done in time for tomorrow, or Easter. Now that spring is really coming, I am becoming a lot more active and feeling better emotionally. I am praying this will mean more creations coming from the sewing room!

I See the Light

Today I of course partook of the Sacrament, which makes it a good day, but I also sewed a little on a shirt for me that I'm working on. And Gino took me clothes shopping! There was a 40% off sale at my favorite store, and I really needed some new clothes for the warmer weather. Plus, we spent the money alloted for Christmas gifts for me last year towards our trip to Great Wolf Lodge. I was glad to do it, since we needed to get away, but Gino promised he'd make it up to me later. Today was it.

I'll try to get some pics up on Facebook, Kate! X

Thoughts on a Church Sign

Today I saw a church sign that read "Wanting Nothing But Christ and Him Glorified in 2009". But that's not how the Bible verse reads, is it, kids? It's "Christ and Him crucified". A little theology of glory instead of theology of the cross? Let us not forget that we cannot have Easter without Good Friday, cannot have the crown of gold without the crown of thorns. Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word.

Teenager At Last

At least, the Equestrienne feels she is a teenager at last. Her parents wonder what they have let themselves in for, but we've survived so far. We also wondered, while we were shivering at the stable yesterday, as we have wondered before, what we were thinking having a baby in the winter, this close to Christmas. :)

We had a surprise cake today at church for our birthday girl, during the potluck. The cookie sale fundraiser went well also.

It was so nice yesterday to come home to no cleanup here! I think every birthday should be like that.

Happy birthday, Equestrienne!

Calendar of Events

Today there was icy rain for the morning commute. Fun. And I wish more people knew that the best way to drive safely under slippery conditions is not.to.keep.hitting.your.brakes. At least we avoided an accident, or loss of electric power, as seems to have happened in other parts of the country that got this.

Time will go quickly from here on out. Tomorrow we have the Equestrienne's birthday party, and the girls will be baking cookies for a fundraiser at church on Sunday. The Equestrienne and some other teens in our congregation are going to a Higher Things event next summer.

Sunday, there is a potluck at church, the fundraiser, and we are decorating the church for Christmas.

We just made plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. You'll find out more about those later.

So far, we don't have plans for New Year's Eve or Day. Maybe we'll get together with my in-laws one of those days.

However, the fun doesn't stop at New Year's. My sister-in-law is expecting a baby next February, and her baby shower is in January. I wanted to knit something for the shower as a gift, but I just don't feel experienced enough yet. However, I may still try to make something for when, God willing, my new niece will arrive safe and healthy in February. And the Dancer's birthday is at the beginning of the month of February. How busy we will be for the next while!