Lutheran Grilled Cheese

Friendly’s

0 | February 15th, 2010 | Posted in Family, Kids

Everything tastes better on a stick.

For more insight check out:

Friendly fire/casualty notification procedures: Hearings before the Investigations Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, ... held January 29, 30, February 27, 1992

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Transfiguration of our Lord

0 | February 14th, 2010 | Posted in Thoughts

I will be participating in a Lenten devotional blog. Here is my first post.

Welcome to Many but One! Now that you have had a chance to get to know everyone I am excited to start us off this devotional blog.

It is very tempting for me to post my sermon here, since we are using the daily readings as our guide during this Lenten Season. But I won’t do that I want to take our times on Sunday preparing ourselves for the upcoming week, looking at themes in the texts, or questions that might not get preached on.

Luke 9:28-43

This week I want to ask the question – why transfiguration before Lent?

The Book of Common Prayer collect for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany suggests why the Transfiguration of Our Lord is celebrated when it is:

O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer according to the use of the Episcopal Church, 1979, page 217. Book of Common Prayer is public domain material.)

Transfiguration is the bridge from Jesus’ public ministry and the passion of Jesus.

Transfiguration for me is change. The disciples changed the way they saw Jesus, they changed the way they saw God. What kind of change is in my during this Transfiguration Sunday?

Lent for me is also about change. It is about the journey that I take with Jesus, to the cross. During Lent I do try to invoke change in my life. I don’t go crazy about it, sometimes I am successful, other times I am not. But for me it is about the journey.

I hope you continue to journey with us during this Lenten season. I pray that you feel the spirit in your life as you embark on change.
Let us pray:

Good and gracious God, we join the disciples at on the mountain top as you show yourself to the world. Shine in our hearts and on our lives as we journey together this Lenten seasons. We thank you for giving us the opportunity to gather both near and far – to come together as your beloved children, as a community of faith. Sustain us, lead us, and let us know of your love in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

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Super Bowl, Strep and Syracuse Orange

0 | February 12th, 2010 | Posted in Life, Update

I have felt out of the loop the past week. It was last Friday that I started feeling under the weather. Saturday brought a migraine which prevented me from doing anything!! I pushed myself through Sunday services and took a nap in the afternoon. However, once I woke up from my nap, just in time for the Super Bowl -- I had a sore throat. I knew I was in trouble.

I did catch most of the Super Bowl, since I was not vested in either team I was not disappointed to miss part of the thrid quarter and all of the fourth. I am glad it did not come down to the wire.

My favorite super bowl commercial was the one with Betty White and Abe Vigoda

Well Monday came and I was feeling worse, so I decided to go to the doctor who told me that I had strep. Not something that I wanted to hear, but at least I was able to take something and get over it in a few days, rather than waiting a week or two for everything to pass. So I got on some meds and started feeling better right away.

Wednesday I had the pleasure of going to the Syracuse University vs University of Connecticut boys basketball game!!

It was a great game! Living in Syracuse, I have become attached to all SU college sports. So I was routing for SU to win and they did not disappoint. It was a night of laughter, fellowship and fun. I am glad I was able to go.

I worked Thursday and today is my day off. My wife is now sick, so I am spending the day taking care of the kids and her. This weekend is my daughter’s third birthday so I hope everyone is healthy by then!

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For more insight check out:

PANDAS: atypical strep throat and OCD. (In Consult).(pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with group A beta hemolytic streptococci; ... disorder): An article from: Pediatric News

Betty Book

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Tagged in: Basketball, Betty White, strep throat, Super Bowl, Syracuse University

The Future

1 | February 5th, 2010 | Posted in Thoughts

Looking at the future use to be very hard for me. For the last 10 years I have had no idea where I was going to be from one year to the next. All of the jobs I have held the past 10 years I knew was temporary and that has been hard. But now I am in a situation I hope to be for a long time. But I still look into the future. There are things that I want to accomplish personally and professionally.

So I begin to wonder how do I close the gap between the reality that I am living now and the life I want in the future? I do not think I am going to stay where I am forever, but the life I am living right now is good, it is right for myself and my family. Am I still going to be able to say that 10 years from now? 5 years from now?

My kids are getting older and there are some things in my life that are always changing, and some other things never seem to change much.

How about you? Are you in a place in your life that you want to be or are you trapped in a life you don’t want, feeling stuck and unable to move? How much do you think about the future?

Try imagining the future…….What do you see? Imagine it so vividly and specifically that you can actually see it. Then, take it even further. Hear it, taste it, feel it, walk around in it!

Where are you living? Who are you with? What are you doing? Is there a gap between where you are now and where you want to be? Don’t think of that as a bad thing! You see, it is this gap that releases your energy and creativity.

Once I took my first call as a pastor I thought that I needed to stop dreaming about the future, and start living in the present. That is true, but I also need to think about the future not only personally, but for the church as well. This future, this vision is what moves us. The gap, between the way things are and the way we want them to be, is that space where our drive, energy and creativity have room to ignite. This energy and creativity moves us towards the place where we ant to be. Without a vision, a vivid picture of the future in the mind, there is no gap, and we will never discover our power, our purpose, and our mission.

What does your future look like? Does it excite you? Does it scare you? Where are you headed?

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For more insight check out:

Winning Job Interviews

Get The Job You Want, Even When No One's Hiring: Take Charge of Your Career, Find a Job You Love, and Earn What You Deserve

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Tagged in: 10 years, future, jobs, living

Road Trips

0 | February 1st, 2010 | Posted in Journals, Thoughts

I love road trips. I love the sense of adventure, the sense of unexpectedness. For most of my road trips I do try and make a plan of action, but after we leave – more often than not plans change.

While, there are certain aspects of road trips that are the same, the type of road trips has changed for me over the years. When I was in college, a group of friends and I planned a road trip from our college in Iowa, to my home in Vermont, down to NYC and then back to Iowa, about 2,600 miles. It was fun, it was adventurous and it was memorable. Guys, traveling in a car, stopping where we needed too, not knowing what would happen day to day. I will never forget it.

Last December, my family took a road trip. We left our town in NY and drove Virginia for a friends wedding and then up to Vermont to visit my family and back home for a total of 1,485 miles. We loved the wedding and we loved visiting my family, but traveling that much with two children under five has its challenges. We stopped more, we planned more (and tried to keep on track), even though we wanted to keep some aspects of the trips adventuresome, you can’t do that too much when you have two small children.

As I get older I start to ask myself…..am I too old for adventure, am I too old for road trips? Am I too old for that kind of self-expression? It’s hard to think that the old I get the worse this may be, I have always imagined retirement as a time when I will be traveling the US and the world with my wife.

The truth is that we don’t tend to see many role models of lively, intelligent old people in the media, I often think of the ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and his puppet “Walter the grumpy old man”.

The fact is that life expectancy is up from age 45 in 1900, to 80 for women and 74 for men in 2000. This means that things are changing both in the world and in the church. Of course, there is still the likelihood of some physical decline as we age, but many older people are discovering that their mental health is more important to them. They tend to shrug off their aches and pains and concentrate instead on growth and development in other areas.

They become much more spiritually aware and keenly interested in things outside of themselves. They want to be more active in a way that we are not use too. They make their own choices, and stay involved with meaningful activities long after they “retire.” Because let’s face it, no one ever really “retires” anymore.

So how do we minister to those who like to go on road trips and those who seem to slow down but never really do. What do you do to stay active physically, mentally, and spiritually as you get older? Or if you are younger, how do you imagine your “retirement?”

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For more insight check out:

The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning

All By My Selves: Walter, Peanut, Achmed, and Me

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Tagged in: Jeff Dunham, retirement, Roadtrips, Walter

Tell Me About Your God….

0 | January 29th, 2010 | Posted in First Call

I was at a conference earlier this week for Lutheran pastors in their first three years of ministry who live in the northeast part of the United States. It is one of those conferences that I really do not look forward going too. One of the reasons is that I have so many things going on all the time and it seems almost impossible to leave town for a week without something falling apart. I also dearly miss my family when I am away for more than a few days.

But after I arrive on site, I unpack and I start to relax. Then I am glad that I took the time to go. My time away helps me regain energy and enthusiasm for ministry. I usually pick up one or two ideas to use in my ministry, my time away provides me an opportunity to reconnect with friends and colleagues and a chance to make some new connections.

The title of the conference I attended was Embodying Hope for an Anxious World. How do we as a church preach a gospel of hope and renewal when we are surrounded by things that make us anxious? Whether it’s the economy, world conflicts or swine flu, the anxiety level is rising in everyone!

Our keynote speaker was Terry Leib. Terry is an Associate in Ministry, and director of Family Life Services, a part of Diakon Lutheran Social Ministry in northeastern Pennsylvania. Terry was a great speaker and really got me thinking about not how the world makes me (and everyone around me) anxious, but in fact I become anxious because of my reaction to the events happening in the world.

He also used the phrase “God image” quite a bit. I found this idea interesting and something that I really want to use in my ministry. Instead of going to people and telling them about the God that I know, a God of love, forgiveness, grace, and truth. I first want to get a sense of who God is for other people.

Tell me about your God….. who is your God? what characteristics does your God have? What does your God do? What does your God say? How evolving is your God? With an idea of who your God is, then and only then can we move forward together and have a conversation about God.

For some, thinking about a God of love can be hard, because the only thing love has done for some people is bring them hurt and pain. For others trust might be an issue, why trust God if trust is only a negative thing in life? The more that we understand the God image of the people around us, the more we can develop a sense of purpose in ministry together.

It is hard to define our God image. I know I have had a hard time this week thinking about that. We define the things around us by our job, career, family, social position, income or appearance, so how does God fit into all that. What are the messages that have brought us to where we are today? What has influenced you? How do you define your God?

Tell me about your God…..

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Friendly’s

For more insight check out:

Transfiguration of our Lord

Luke 9:28-43

Super Bowl, Strep and Syracuse Orange

For more insight check out:

The Future

For more insight check out:

Road Trips

For more insight check out:

Tell Me About Your God….

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