Children, sunsets, flowers, sorrows, love
Grand moments can shape us, but perhaps not as much as the little moments that drip into streams that make up the raging rivers of life. Write something inspirational, Maria says. Inspiration, like prayer can be public and personal. Historical and in the present. Equal parts joy and sorrow in the same thought. It can engulf our sight, arrive in irony or laughter or music that brings a smile or sob. Even a passing scent can cause us to pause and relive something of long ago. What seems trite one day can move me to tears another day. Lately, hugs are never long enough, a voice on a phone call or flickering images on a video chat is always too brief, and the taste of a loving meal too short. During the many days when I only have thimble full of patience, I fill my bucket with a rich stock of personal history. What was, is and will be My grandparents lived through the Great War (WWI) as children, a horrible flu pandemic, grew into the Great Depression in young adulthood, courted, got married and brought their first children into a world that began to crumble into WWII, after everyone hoped one world war was enough. My Mom had life-long nightmares from WWII, yet was so full of hope. My Dad had a few toys he could build or buy, working as a youth on another nearby farm pulling weeds for a dime an hour after he finished his own chores. As children, my parents skirted polio until a vaccine was found. They worked and studied hard as children and youth, certainly more than they played. They knew horrible sorrows, saw and experienced abuse. Learned. Grew. Prayed. Worried. Prayed some more. Endured. And I listened to stories, keeping them ready to fill my bucket with patience, when a thimbleful was all I thought I had. Thinking, saying, doing Now with four children, two grandchildren and another grandchild on the way, I try to impart a little wisdom when asked, and sometimes, even when not asked. Just for a laugh, I’ll share some juxtaposition or absurd trivial detail with my wife, Denise, or her Mom, my Dad, aunt, sibling, or others. Sometimes I rehearse what I will say and do not say it, or start speaking without knowing where the thought will end. In general, listening is more difficult than talking, but often more appreciated. I fall short of wisdom. So many things are inexplicable, beyond my influence, though I remind the elected of what’s right and what’s wrong, when I can. Uncertainty and change cause fear. Kindness and love bring comfort. Rage over injustice blinds us to what’s good. While a pandemic and the response is more horrible than inconvenient, I hope we can grow and learn and do for each other. I expect people I know will die before it’s over, even as I’m doing all the isolating, hand-washing, wipe-downs, and mask-wearing as I can stand, and little more. Seeing the little things in life One of my grandparents told me to enjoy a little bit of life every day, because you never know what tomorrow will bring. For me, that can happen by:
Sorry to be a drip, but may each of you find joy amid sorrows, expose injustice, and see bits of beauty in the torrents of life along the way. Peace be with you. Stay safe. -Mark T. Hoske, part of the Church of the Holy Spirit since 1998
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Growing up, one of my mom’s favorite phrases was “if you think (whatever the thought was), you better think again”. I do not believe by mom’s meme was meant to instill hesitancy, fear or despair in me or my three brothers, as much as it was an invitation to see the bigger picture in whatever situation we found ourselves. I cannot tell you how often that phrase has rung true in my life. Here are some instances:
At 18 years of age, I was struck in my Volkswagen by an 18-wheeler on a major expressway, as I was going to a college interview for a full tuition scholarship. Thinking my chances for this scholarship had ended, I was awarded the scholarship two months later. At age 23, working as a juvenile detention worker, I experienced the travesty of what ignorance, violence, poverty, and racial prejudice did to young people. Previous to that, I did not have a clue. At age 33, thinking that I had my own bachelor career path figured out, I met the love of my life and married her, moving from Dallas to Chicago. So much for best laid plans. Two weeks prior to our wedding, my parents were struck in their vehicle by a drunk driver incapacitating them for months. Life can change in an instant. At age 43 having emotionally and spiritually surrendered to the reality that we would not have children, we became pregnant, and pregnant then again seven months after our first child. The power of true surrender. At ages 47, 51 and 55, I was unemployed for three months at a time due to unexpected and unprecedented changes in the workplace. I became less dependent on my work for my identity. At age 64, I am challenged as a therapist to encourage and to empower hope in others who have become anxious, desperate, and inconsolable. Sometimes, I think I learn from my clients more than they learn from me. Today we are all challenged in the crisis of COVID 19, to integrate a new way of thinking about the health safety and needs of ourselves and of one another. We are challenged to think again. In coping with crisis, most of us have come to appreciate what we took for granted. Amidst the pandemic that we are currently facing I have come to recognize the simple things that I took for granted such as enjoying the physical presence of friends and neighbors, the ability to interact with my clients face-to-face, and the ready availability of goods and services that help me enjoy life. Church, work, school, graduations, weddings, birthday celebrations, sports have all been altered. I have also come to a deeper understanding of how our world is so interconnected and interdependent of its many parts. I believe and hope that we all have become more conscious of our presumptions and more conscious of our actions. Amidst the present crisis, I hope that we all have become more present to people and experiences that we were so easily able to ignore or discard once before. This Sunday’s Readings present us with fundamental invitations/choices: In the Acts of the Apostles 6:1-7, we are called to include those we have not previously included in our vision of community and world. In I Peter 2:4-9, we are asked to not reject the stone that will become the cornerstone of our faith and understanding. And in John’s Gospel 14:1-12 we are to pay witness to the closeness and care of the Divine in the everyday activity of life. There are so many things that can separate us from one another at this time: national boundaries, political ideologies, the need to return to work, the desire for health and safety at places of business, the expectations for socialization and expressions of leisure, the drive to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the care for all to have what they need, the caution to be prepared for the worst, the comfort of things to return back to normal, the compulsion to move forward, the search for a vaccine, the immediacy for a cure, the propensity to despair, the promise of hope. But make no mistake about it, our world has dramatically changed, and we have the choice and will have the invitation to make it better. When all things are said and done in our current crisis, I personally hope for four things that our faith today invites: I hope that we will all appreciate what we have without taking the small things for granted. I hope that we will all become a people more radically inclusive than exclusive of one another and each other’s needs. I hope that we will all be more ready to take care of one another than rely on political and governmental systems to take care of us. And I hope that when we think we all have learned all the lessons that our current crisis has taught us, that we will all take the invitation to do like mom said and “think again”. Happy Mother’s Day! ~Dave Lyke “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done for you.” John 13:14-15
What a crazy time we are living in right now. People are feeling isolated, disconnected from their usual routine and companions. It can make us sad, depressed, and lonely. However, it can also cause us to become more introspective. Looking within often allows for personal growth, and a positive result of this growth may be that we become more God-focused and therefore, “other people”-focused. I am a nurse and have been in my career for almost 30 years. At the present time, I work in the Ambulatory Care, or Outpatient Department of a local hospital. The negative aspects of my job during this time include fear of exposure to the virus, both for me and for my immune-compromised patients, as well as the constant bombardment of news updates. I am not one of the front-liners per se, but I hear first-hand of their frustrations, stress, and exhaustion, and I pray for them daily. The positive aspects of my job, besides getting to be in a career that I love, is being able to focus on the care of another, to try and care for them physically as well as emotionally, mentally and sometimes even spiritually. This takes the “me” out of the equation. It helps me to step outside of myself and my own needs, worries, and frustrations, and focus on someone else for a change. Though my work easily allows me to put others over myself, I still struggle to continue that practice in my everyday life. It is so easy to become very “me”-centric in this society and in our world. Especially now, we all have so many concerns, some small and some big. Our issues range anywhere from how to fight the boredom, to how to shop and get what we need safely, to unemployment. Though it can be difficult, particularly now, if we still try to focus more of our attention on others, we become more Christ-like. If we turn our attention to serving others, rather than putting ourselves first or worrying about what’s in it for me or what I need, then we are imitating Jesus when he washed His disciple’s feet at the Last Supper. He was the Master, but he became the servant, and He instructed His disciples and therefore us, to do the same. We can see this type of serving being done in many ways. At our own CHS, there are the Food Pantry workers that continue to minister to those in need. Volunteers that have been reaching out to parishioners with calls. The Prayer Shawl ministry continues to create beautiful wraps of love and comfort. At CHS, the list could go on. There are people learning how to make and then donate homemade masks to people who need them. Businesses donating supplies and treats to those helping the sick. Teachers expanding their knowledge of teaching to the virtual realm and parents, family members and friends helping the students cope with this new form of learning. There are friends and family who “check in” by texting, calling, Zooming, etc to see how others are doing. Family members who are there for each other every day doing the ordinary tasks of life with extraordinary care and love for one another. Each of us can think of at least one person who would benefit from us reaching out to them in some way. We all need to work on putting aside our own needs for a time, and to “wash the feet” of another in service, just as Jesus taught us by his example. Until we are together worshiping at our CHS home again, please stay hopeful, safe and healthy. In closing, I would like to leave you with a verse from Matt Maher’s song “Alive and Breathing”- “Joy still comes in the morning, Hope still walks with the hurting. If you’re still alive and breathing, Praise the Lord. Don’t stop dancing and dreaming, There’s still Good News worth repeating. So lift your head and keep singing, Praise the Lord!” ~Jean Lemp |
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January 2023
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