In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Land of Confusion.”
The Daily Post has asked us,
Which subject in school did you find impossible to master? Did math give you hives? Did English make you scream? Do tell!
I was a pretty good student throughout school. I was one of those kids who did his homework between periods. I studied while walking to school and still got A’s in everything. Then I met geometry and before long I realized that if I didn’t do something radical I could very possibly ruin all my chances at joining the Honor Society (yep I was that kid). So I studied (that didn’t help) and after squeaking through my first semester with a low C (which really alarmed my parents) I got a tutor. I made it through but determined that I would move away from higher math as quickly as I could.
Years later I was hired at a high school as a Special Needs paraprofessional. My mornings were given to a young man with many challenges. I just loved this part of my job and felt called to it by God. However the young man only stayed on half a day as he had a vocational placement in the afternoons. So the school opted to put me in a classroom as an instructional aid. Guess where I landed? You got it! Helping out in geometry class! I was terrified but then the teacher began handing out the lessons and strangely I got it! I guess that part of my brain finally turned on. So tenth graders don’t give up if you don’t get it just yet. You might just be waiting for a part of your brain to come on-line.
Tag Archives: Daily Prompt
My Biographers
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Your Life, the Book.”
The Daily Post has asked, From a famous writer or celebrity, to a WordPress.com blogger or someone close to you — who would you like to be your biographer?
In spite of my writings here and the fact that I live a very public life as a Staff Pastor in a New England church there are few people who know me intimately enough to do the job of writing my biography. While many see the outside there are few who have watched the interior workings of my life and even fewer I would entrust my journals too.
I think it would have to be my children.
Maybe my sister
Or my best friend Jody.
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Fix That Car! Fix That Porch!
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “If I Had a Hammer.”
Last night my daughter called and told me she needed a new water pump in her car. Last week I learned the ABS computer in my mini-van is toast. The price for these fixes? $700.00 and $1500.00 respectively. Right now I wish I was a mechanic and I had a whole auto shop in my back pocket.
My front porch made it through another winter but more pieces of it crumbled to dust in the winter freeze. I wish I was a natural born carpenter and that working with wood felt as natural to me as the moving my fingers across the keyboard.
So many are jealous of my voice, my musical ability, my quick way with words or the speed at which I read. Honestly sometimes I think I would trade those gifts to be mechanically inclined. Still I realize each of us has a gift and we are called to use it and not covet someone else’s gift. I know if I am just faithful to God with the gift He gave me He will make a way for the things that I have no gifting for to get done.
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Three’s a Magic Number!
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Three Letter Words.”
The Daily Post has charged us to
Write an entire post without using any three-letter words.
Here goes!~
I have three kids.
Joseph, Amanda, Melanie. Somehow we have reduced each of their names to a three letter word “—“, “—” then of course “—” . I suppose technically Amanda’s nick-name is “Mand” or “Manda” . “—” seems ungirly. However I am from MAssachusetts so I often drop last letters of words I speak. That is what happens when those of us from Massachusetts speak words like the three letter way of saying “automobile” it resonates as “cahh” instead of “—”
Although we do tend to contribute letters to certain words, especially when they finish with letters like “a”. My sister’s name is Brenda. That name is invariably changed to “Brender”. Soda becomes “Soder”. However, “holler” becomes “hollah” .
My grandparents once experienced a whole argument over where the “Tuna” resided in their house. Gramps kept telling Grams “Cupboards keep tuna”. (Of course he used three letter words)
Grams found it nearby under some sofa cushions promptly using it to change television programs, Tuners, Tunas, Brenda, Brender: Life, in truth this story, would be so much easier if everything reduced to three “lettahs.”
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Show Me Your Face!
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “It’s a Text, Text, Text, Text World.”
How do you communicate differently online than in person, if at all? How do you communicate emotion and intent in a purely written medium?
Our lead pastor often reminds us as staff of the value of face to face meetings. In a world that values quick and constant communication it is easy to forget that while information can be disseminated by cell phone or e-mail, emotion cannot be completely communicated if at all in a tweet, a text or an e-mail. Words can convey emotion but it takes time and the use of narrative (something noticeably absent from most forms of e-communication).
So if my communication involves emotion: joy, sadness, confusion, anger, or fear, I need to see the people I am communicating with. I need to read their body language. I need to hear the inflection of their words. And if I cannot see eye to eye with a person then I must absolutely meet face to face!
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No Fool In This Prankster
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Fool Me Once.”
So the Daily Post has given us these instructions
It’s April 1st! Pull a fast one — publish a post that gently pranks your readers.
Honestly I am not much of a prankster. Some people say I’m funny but not in any practical way.
Still April Fool’s Day always gets me thinking about this quote from Christian missionary and martyr Jim Elliot.
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
Twilah Paris wrote this song in response to that quote
Now some of you may have come to this post hoping to read something funny. The joke’s on you. Happy April Fool’s Day.
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The Jesus Code
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “I Walk the Line.”
The Daily Prompt today asks Have you got a code you live by? What are the principles or set of values you actively apply in your life?
I suppose it is trite to say but I try to live by the motto “WWJD” (What would Jesus do). I approach everyday with prayer directed to Jesus Christ and a renewed hope in His mercies which are new every morning.
Over time I have learned that trying to be like Jesus in my own strength is a fool’s errand. I can no more attain Christ-likeness by my own striving than a turnip can attain humanity by growing in the garden. Left to itself a turnip will always be a turnip and left to my own machinations I will always remain a sinner. But there is hope, for me at least. While I am pretty sure nothing can make a turnip turn human there is something that can transform this sinner into a righteous man; That is the power of Christ.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 says, “whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
The code is “What would Jesus do”. The ability to live by the code comes through my daily inviting Jesus into my life, by prayer, to do what He would!
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The Daily Post: It’s Fresh and Exciting
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Fresh.”
The challenge is to find something FRESH today. I thought about bringing out pictures of this year’s fresh fallen snow; But honestly snow is not making me feel very fresh these days, just tired; So I decided to go with a fresh spring motif
Keukenhof Gardens, Lisse , The Netherlands
Fresh GreenOh! I am longing for these days!
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Britain Abroad
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Study Abroad.”
Today the post has asked us this question, “If you were asked to spend a year living in a different location, where would you choose and why?”
I would like to spend a year travelling and studying in England, Wales and Scotland. I have been to both Ireland and the Netherlands. Great Britain stands deeply connected to both of those places.
I did spend a week preaching in the region around Liverpool in the ’90’s but I would like to go back and spend some time studying the Welsh revivals which in many ways gave rise to my own fellowship of Pentecostalism in America. I would like to visit the places where the Methodist and Presbyterian revivals had hold.
I’d love to spend some time at Oxford and return to the church in Liverpool where I preached before the turn of the Millenium. To have a whole year to study the faith of this ancient land would be really neat indeed!
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It’s All Work. It’s All Play
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “First Light.”
The Daily Post asked…Remember when you wrote down the first thought you had this morning? Great. Now write a post about it.
There is this struggle I have had for years as a minister. All the areas of my life overlap. The boundaries between work and play, professional and personal are muddied by the rivers of life. It is so hard to see where one thing ends and another begins. I suppose it doesn’t help that I like my job most of the time. I suppose it also doesn’t help that I define being a pastor as a calling (something I am) rather than as a job (something I do). Finally I guess it really doesn’t help that almost all my relationships are marked or affected in some way by the church.
Here are some examples of my conundrum
1. C.cada- Work or play? I enjoy creating. I enjoy being with creative people. C.cada is a work of the church I oversee.
2. Going to dinner with friends from the church- I am J but I am also Pastor at those dinners. They are fun. I enjoy them immensely. I am still Pastor. I am still on. I know that’s more me than them. Still I don’t seem to be able to shut this pastor thing off…ever.
3. Family Skate Day- I don’t go for the skating. I go for the food (which I really love by the way). I go because I am on staff at the church.
I write a lot about this in my journals and I wonder am I ever just a pastor or am I ever just J? It’s all work. It’s all play. And maybe just maybe that’s OK.
Lillie-Put 