A Prayer for the Journey

I'm reading Calvin Miller's book "The Path of Celtic Prayer" as part of my morning prayer time and wanted to share some of what I read this morning:

We say we are committed to following Christ wherever he leads. But the truth is that when Christ doesn't reveal where we are going, we get antsy. To be happy, we've got to know our destination. Rather than tarrying in prayer, we make plans for ourselves. We make secondary plans in case our primary plans don't work out. We make tertiary plans in case our secondary plans don't work out. The very notion that God holds our plans and that we get there only by trusting scares us to death.

And one response to that fear is the following prayer:

Father of all humankind, who keeps my journey and marks the horizon of my destiny, love me through my journey toward tomorrow.

Son of God, leader and keeper of the maps, show me not the whole road at once, but give me the distance to be gained in single steps.

Spirit of God, who holds my inner compass, may your presence on the journey awaken trust within me when I don't know what lies around the bend.

God bless to me this day, then I shall make my journey by sunlight and know the way.

Christ, bless to me this uncertain step, then I shall find the step more certain.

Spirit, bless to me this lonely moment, then I shall not be alone.

O Three-in-One, do guard my steps.

Travel with me God.,
and I shall travel with darkness at my back and the Sunlight on my face.

Travel with me Christ,
Then I shall mute the thunder,
and walk through lightning unafraid.

Travel with me Holy Spirit,
and my solo anthem shall have accompaniment throughout the journey.

I am coming to you, O Three-in-One.
One day at a time.
One hour at a time.
One step at a time.
Amen.

Trinity Loves Huntsville!

Wow! What a weekend. We held our semi-annual women's retreat which focused on authenticity. We closed by talking about our true identity coming from our baptism and had an unexpected joy as one of the women came up after the retreat and asked to be baptized. We gathered a small congregation and baptized her and today she led her first Sunday School class. Then today we inauggurated our new worship schedule and our first "Trinity Loves the Tennessee Valley" mission day. We has nearly 1200 in worship, baptized two babies and one adult. And then approximately 600 of us scattered all over Huntsville to serve! Matt Reed did an excellent job planning and pulling the mission event together. But it was the congregation that really made this day so amazing! Not only did they participate in the mission event, but I had more greeters than I needed! It was so powerful to watch people walking down the hall and getting to know people they had never met simply because they went to different services. We had 26 people in one of our new Sunday School classes and most of them had not been in Sunday School since high school! And it was so wonderful to be surrounded by children during our children's moment in C&C. I feel so blessed to be a part of God's work in this congregation and this community!

Leading from the Second Chair

Last week a friend mentioned a new book she was reading called "Leading from the Second Chair." Today, I received a magazine with several articles from the book. So since I know quite a few people who serve as associates or other secondary leadership positions, such as youth pastor, Christian Ed Directors, and such. I thought I'd let you know about this new book.

Actually, it makes me feel really good to know that someone is finally addressing this issue. As they point out, some of us are in the secondary role temporarily and others plan to always serve in the second chair and, in either case, the role calls for special gifts, abilities and temperments!

Here is a summary of the four things a second chair leader needs to bring to the table:
1. Loyality to the organization and to the first chiar
2. Abilty to build relationships
3. Humility
4. Ability to see both the larger picture and yet be able to jump into the details of the organization.

Involved in this are several paradoxes:
1. Second chair leaders must be bold initiators AND faithful followers.
2. Second chair leaders must be able to know a little bit about everything and a lot about areas that need intevention and critical thinking.
3. Second chair leaders have dreams but they have to be able to make their dreams subservient to those of the first chair.

Of course, all of this looks pretty obvious to me. I hope the book delves more into how a second chair leader can do these well!

Friday Five

Over at the RevGalBlogPals site, they pose five questions each Friday. So I decided to join in and I hope you will free to post your replies too!

So here it goes:

1. What is the thermometer reading at your house this morning?
Right now it is 34

2. Snow—love it or hate it?
Personally, snow is something I like to visit and then leave behind when I head home!

3. What is winter like where you are?
Depends on when you ask--right now it seems cold to me, but earlier this month we had temps in the 60s.

4. Do you like winter sports? Any good stories?
My idea of a winter sport is building a fire and watching an old movie or reading a good book. We did rent a chalet in Gatlinburg one time with a great view of the ski slope. Does that count?

5. What is your favorite season, and why?
I love Fall. I like the temperate temperatures, the changing colors, football games, marching bands, and pumpkins. Fall smells good and feels good. And strangely enough, fall has always seemed to me like the time to make resolutions and start over.

Bonus: Share a favorite winter pick-me-up. A recipe, an activity, or whatever.
My favorite will always be a warm fire, a hot cup of coffee, a bowl of soup and a good movie or book.

What about you?

Hey There!

Abandon News, All Ye Who Enter Here

Our first day in NYC was wonderful! We are staying at the Belvedere in the Theatre District. We have a lovely room on the 15th floor with a view of the city as well as the Hudson. We had lunch in Times Square then went ahead and walked down to The Daily Show studio. They had suggested we arrive around 3:30 but since it was the first day that they have resumed taping we got there at 2:30 which made us about 18 and 19 in line and waiting for the 5:15 entrance. We didn't have to cross a picket line since the picketers didn't show up until 3:30 or 4. Standing in line was a great people watching exercise--picketers, reporters, photographers, and a wide variety of people. Overheard while in line:

I'm not voting for that old white Southern guy--what's his name? Edwards? Yeah--that guy. (from the young man standing in front of us)

and

(as a news camera man panned the crowd in line to the 50ish man in front of us)You broke the demographic!

Of course, Jon assured the audience that they didn't write anything last night. And he was still really good! Nonetheless, he had tried to broker the same deal that Letterman did and for some reason they didn't accept his. You can check out clips from the show at The Daily Show for an exploration of why this might be? Because he is on basic cable? Because he is short? Because he is Jewish?
In any case, my act of penance is that I will do some things to help support the writers when I return home. Although I do think I'll stop short of growing the unibrow!

After the show, we returned back to the Theater District for a wonderful Thai meal and then collapsed at the hotel! Today, we plan to go to Soho and Little Italy.

Happy New Year

and War Eagle