Which would be worse...

...never being able to laugh, or never being able to cry?

For all that I love to laugh, and laughing is very good for you, I think I would say never being able to cry would be worse.

There's a lot of laughter in our house. My kids are very funny and are always performing for us, and my sweetie and I still make each other laugh and we have a great time.

But the profound moments of our life have always been marked by tears more than laughter. Abby graduated from 8th grade last week, and is now officially a high schooler--I cried through the whole ceremony. I cry at every choir concert, gradeschool program, and centimeter of growth. It's not only sadness; it's also joy, pride, heartbreaking love, and an overwhelming sense of time passing too fast. Every one of those ordinary moments is one more moment slipping through my fingers.

I also think it's important to cry for those who have nobody else that cares what happens to them. For instance, a friend of Abby's ran away from home this weekend because his father beat him. The sheriff's office was sent out after him and took him home again. Back to his abusive father. I know these kids, and I cried for him. That isn't all that has been done, some parents have contacted DFS and the town police and made plans for if it happens again, but if we can't cry for the ones that get hurt again and again, what will happen to us? I think the worst thing would be to lose our collective ability to cry at someone else's pain.

I guess the question doesn't say that just because we don't cry or laugh means we don't have the associated feelings. I hope not, because I hate the thought of never laughing again, too.

Prayer for Pentecost

Come, thou Holy Spirit, come:
And from thy celestial home send thy light and brilliancy.

Come, thou father of the poor,
come who givest all our store,
come the soul's true radiancy.

Come, of comforters the best, of the soul the sweetest guest,
sweetly and refreshingly.

Come, in labour rest most sweet,
shade and coolness in the heat, comfort in adversity.

Thou who art the Light most blest,
come fulfill their inmost breast, who believe most faithfully.

For without thy Godhead's dower,
man hath nothing in his power, save to work iniquity.

What is filthy make thou pure,
what is wounded work its cure,
water what is parched and dry.

Gently bend the stubborn will,
warm to life the heart that's chill,
guide who goeth erringly.

Fill thy faithful who adore,
and confess thee evermore,
with thy sevenfold mystery.

Here thy grace and virtue send,
grant salvation in the end, and in heaven felicity. Amen.

Latin Hymn, 13th century

Sermon for Pentecost

This seems like a really short sermon for me, but here it is:


It is possible to argue that the birthday of the Church was not Pentecost, as we so often like to say, but rather, Easter.

I have argued that in the past, and I know some of you have heard it preached here before, that it was Easter that caused new life to come into the world, it was Easter that allowed a crucified Christ to become a risen Christ, it was Easter that took a frightened band of faithless followers and made them Apostles to the world. It was Easter that gave us a glimpse of just what salvation is, and just what the future holds for those who believe. And if those things don’t constitute the Church, the community of believers, the Body of Christ, I don’t know what does.

And maybe next year, I will go back to that argument, because I like it. Y’all know that Easter is a big deal for me. It’s THE big deal. Easter is the single most important event in the history of the universe, so it makes sense to me that it’s the thing that makes us who we are, and helps us be who we claim to be.

But today, I know that some of you will be relieved to hear, that I am going to argue the other side of the case, that it is in fact, Pentecost, which is the birthday of the Church.

I don’t know that you can say that the disciples gathered together in that upper room after Jesus’ ascension to heaven were the Church yet. They were the Church in waiting, what tradition has called the Church expectant. They knew they were going to have work to do, because Jesus had given them the commission to go out and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But they weren’t doing that work yet. They were waiting and praying and excited.

They needed the Holy Spirit, and they couldn’t do what they were called to do without him. They were waiting for their Comforter, their Advocate, their inspiration. They were waiting for the power from heaven which would enable them to tell the world about the resurrection of Jesus, to declare to the world that Jesus is Lord and that he loves them.

They couldn’t be a Church unless they could do those things, and they couldn’t yet do those things.

One theologian wrote in a reflection on Pentecost that, “Our theology would improve if we thought more of the Church being given to the Spirit than of the Spirit being given to the Church.”1

I like that. I have said before that we should think not of inviting Christ to share our life, but of accepting Christ’s invitation to share in his life, and this seems to be the same kind of reversal. If we think of the Church not as a body that has received the Holy Spirit, but as a body that has been given to the Holy Spirit to do with what he will, our thinking changes.

The same theologian goes on to say, “we are in danger of perpetuating the irreverence of picturing God’s Spirit as a grant of superhuman power or guidance, like a fairy sword or magic mirror to equip us for our adventures. The promised power from on high is not of that kind at all. The primary effect of the Pentecostal experience was to fuse the individuals of that company into a fellowship which in the same moment was caught up into the life of the risen Lord.”

I like his insistence that the Holy Spirit is not just one more tool in our tool box for living the Christian life. Rather, we are one more tool in the Holy Spirit’s tool box…his primary means of telling the world the things God wants it to know…that God loves them, that Christ is risen, that death doesn’t get to win any more, that sin has lost its power, and that Jesus is Lord.

Those things are what the Church is for, what the Church does. Those things are why the Church was born on this day and given into the care of the Holy Spirit who would raise it with gentle nurturing and discipline and help it grow fully into the image of the risen Christ.

We’re not there yet. It may be our birthday, but we’re not grown-ups in the life of the Holy Spirit, and we still need his guidance and discipline. The New Testament makes it very clear that in order to be part of the Church, a believer has to be baptized into the Holy Spirit’s life, and the fact that we are part of his life is what makes us a Church.

That’s the difference between the Church and other organization that do good things. It’s the difference between the Church and the Rotary Club, for instance. The Church has the Holy Spirit—or, rather, the Holy Spirit has us, and in the Holy Spirit, we are called and strengthened to do what the Holy Spirit does—proclaim to the world that Christ is risen, and live a life that declares that Jesus is Lord.

Prayer for Summer

This is from a website called Appleseeds.



Long warm days...
The pace of life slows...
A time for picnics and rest in the shade...

Lord,
help me to rest awhile in the cooling shade of your presence.
Slow down my restless heart and fill me with gentle compassion for all your people.

Amen.

Here We Go Again

Well, it's the end of the term, and paper-grading time, so you know what that means. Yes, it's our bi-yearly plagiarism report.

Here's the memo I just sent to my World Religion students:

Plagiarism--Pay Close Attention

Taking the work of someone else and changing a few words here and there IS STILL PLAGIARISM. If you "forget" to write down a certain source that you took most of your text from, I will still find it. I have already failed 2 of you for this. I hope it's not more. And if you are now thinking, "Did I do that?" chances are, it's very possible.

If anyone wants to rewrite their papers and get them to me by tomorrow night, I will throw out your old paper and start fresh. There will be a 10% late penalty, but that's better than 0, don't you think? You will have to email them to me, so make arrangements.

I'm very disappointed in a few of you. I thought better of you than this.

For those of you who put the work into your papers, thank you. It's hard-working students like you who keep us teachers going when we have to deal with this other stuff.

58 Signs You May Have Been Abducted by Aliens

I'm not going to post all 58 here, because they belong to another writer, and you can find them on his site, 58 Possible Signs of Alien Abduction.

However, having this information does put an interesting new spin on some pieces of my life. For example, Sign #2 is unusual marks on your body or scars you can't remember where they came from.

Check.

I also qualify for:

#4. Unexplained medical problems: Sudden illness, sinus problems, fatigue, migraines, or rashes. I have all of those except the rashes!

#22. Psychic abilities. Now this author thinks that means that you get a feeling that something's going to happen,then it does. But in my case, I get a feeling something's going to happen, and it NEVER does! See? I can predict with certainty what won't happen! If I get a feeling about something, you can bet it's NOT that!

#24. Startled. You awaken in the night with a feeling of panic or anxiety for no apparent reason. In my case, since my husband has the fan on so loud you wouldn't hear a tornado, I'm usually convinced that someone's in the house and I just can't hear him.

#42. Headaches. Since I get every possible type of headache, I'm sure one of them is covered in this.

#51. Difficulty trusting. I thought this was just cynicism born from the experience of being screwed over too many times, but now I know the real reason.

#54. Locking doors. You double and triple check locking up at night to prevent someone or something from getting into the house. Check.


I confess that I do find elements of this list amusing, because everything has some other explanation. But the guy who wrote this up has had a really hard time in some of his struggles, and I don't mean to mock him. I don't know whether I believe in aliens or not, or the whole alien abduction thing. I do know that a lot of strange stuff goes on in the world, much of consistent across history and culture, and much of it inexplicable by post-Enlightenment standards. So, who knows...?

Obama Orders Assassination of US Citizen

This may be old news to some of you, but I'm betting some of you have never heard anything about this. You can find a lot more about it in articles here, here, here, and here. Please notice that those sources aren't the type to find fault with the current president.

The situation involves a Muslim cleric named Anwar al-Awlaki, 38, who was born in New Mexico and currently resides in Yemen. It isn't quite clear what al-Awlaki has actually done, but he's been under surveillance by the intelligence community for a long time. He is said to have ties to both the Ft. Hood shooter and the Christmas "panty bomber.". He is suspected of being an al-Qaida recruiter in both the US and Yemen.

Al-Awlaki says he isn't any such thing, and his parents are trying to convince him to turn himself in--something that's hard to do now that there's an assassination order out for him.

Here's the thing. From everything I've read, this guy probably is a real threat. But he's an American citizen--probably a really bad one, but he's a citizen. An American citizen has rights to due process. If the CIA and other members of the intelligence community have the evidence they claim they have, al-Awlaki should be arrested and tried for treason, and then executed as a traitor.

But right now he's just suspected of being dangerous--however likely that is. And the president has decreed that he can be killed, no questions asked, no evidence required. I don't like this guy; I'm not on his side. But the last thing I want to see is the United States becoming a place where the ruling administration can target someone for death based on their religion or their politics, without giving that person a chance to defend himself.

Because what's next? Look, I'm pretty religious, and my religious beliefs cause me to be extremely critical of the current administration and its policies. Here I am doing so in a published format, in fact. Am I next? Or will it be Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, or Mark Levin? What about Sarah Palin...you might not like her, but her religious convictions and politics cause her to be vocally and publicly opposed to the current administration. Rather like al-Awlaki. Should she die for it? Should anyone?

Not in the US, we shouldn't. In other countries, those kinds of executions are standard--but we're not supposed to be like that. We're supposed to be living a better way. In our country, a citizen has a right to his own faith and worship, he has a right to oppose the government, he has a right to hang out with people who may be complete lunatics or criminals. If he commits a crime, he is innocent until proven guilty, when evidence is brought against him, and he has the right to defend himself.

And when the evidence shows that he is guilty, then, and ONLY THEN, do we execute his treasonous ass.

Makes Me Proud

Today my entire family is spending the whole Saturday (except for the time we took to go to David's soccer game) working at the food pantry.

Today is the Post Office's annual food collection--you leave food on your porch and the mail carriers take it and deliver it to the food pantry. So the church needs lots of volunteers to receive, weigh, and organize the food. So that's what my crew is doing today.

I'm proud of my husband and kids. They have good hearts. And I'm proud of the mailmen, too! Good job, guys!

Teaching Christianity and Islam

In my World Religions class, the hardest unit for me to teach is the Christianity unit, followed closely by the Islam unit.

The Christianity unit is hard because people either a) are some kind of Christian themselves and think they have nothing to learn (no matter how many times I warn them against it, this is always the unit with the highest number of students who skip); or b) they disdain Christianity and will not believe any information that might even hint at putting Christianity in a positive light.

For example, this week we were discussing Islam, which of course always has to include a discussion of terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, and one student says, "But all that terrorism is no worse than all the stuff Christians did in the past. I mean, what about the Inquisition?"

Seriously? It wasn't the point in the discussion where I could stop and say, "What do you actually know about the Inquisition? Have you researched it for yourself, or are you just believing the vague condemnations you've gotten from television?"

So I just said, "Um, no." The Crusades get used the same way, as an example of aggressive acts of Christian terrorism against an otherwise tolerant and peace-loving people who never hurt anyone. Whatever. It's very frustrating to try to teach to people who already think they know everything.

The problem with teaching Islam is both religious and cultural. There are about a billion Muslims in the world, maybe 1.1 billion, and about 90% of those would not participate in, support, or approve of, any sort of violence. My son's little girlfriend is Muslim, her parents are a doctor and a dentist, and I can assure you, they're not a little domestic sleeper-cell.

The difficulty is in trying to teach the "most don't but some do" aspects of Islam. There is a strand of the Muslim tradition that supports the use of violence and/or military action to spread the teachings of the Prophet and bring the world under submission to Allah. Some Muslims, about 10%, choose to embrace that piece of their tradition. They aren't ashamed or apologetic about this--why should they be? They live in a culture where strength is respected, tolerance and dialogue are weaknesses, and if God's on your side, he'll enable you to force others to convert.

But Western minds can't grasp the cultural shift from "live and let live" multiculturalism to "God wants the world to submit, and we're going to make sure they do." But again, though 10% of a billion is a pretty significant number, it's still only 10%. 9/10 of Muslims are faithful people just trying to live in the world like the rest of us. We have to know what the other 10% are doing and what they believe--our safety and freedoms depends on it, and the threat is real, but we can't leap from there into saying that all Muslims should be classified with that 10%.

But in saying that, I'm afraid--or I was this week--that I allowed students to leave class with their anti-Muslim prejudices confirmed. That wasn't what I intended to do. Of course, they also do that in the Christianity unit, and I guess all I can do is to offer the real facts. I can't forcibly pry someone's mind open with a crowbar (though the thought has some appeal!). I hope that some of the real picture of both Christianity and Islam sinks into their brains over time.

Which would be better?

Being a preacher, or being a popular Las Vegas Entertainer?



Okay, well, I've done the preacher thing. And it's not half bad. I believe the whole Christian deal, and I get really excited about it, so I think that came through in my preaching. I like to talk about it, and I think my people liked to listen.

However, in the 13 years I've been ordained, there's only been a period of about 2 years when I made a living wage at it. I don't buy the whole "Do it for the love of the Lord" garbage people try to give you when they're declining to pay you enough to pay your bills, or the mountains of student loan debt you got into just so you could get this job that doesn't pay enough to pay the loans back.

Do popular Las Vegas Entertainers make more money than preachers? I guess it depends on the preacher and the entertainer.

Celine Dion and, say, me? Yeah...

Lunch shift show-girl and Joel Osteen? Not so much.

Now, does it matter which one makes more money? Yes and no. There's no shame in choosing a career that will allow you to support your family and give back to the community, and maybe even have a few nice things every now and then. Sometimes, preachers do attain that, and there's nothing wrong with it.

But being a preacher isn't in itself morally superior to being a singer, dancer, or magician. The question in the book is trying to lead the readers to ask, "Is it better to be popular or to do God's will for your life?" Well, what if God's will for your life is for you to be a popular Las Vegas entertainer?

Nobody ever considers that possibility...

A Morning Prayer

Let me today do something that will take
A little sadness from the world's vast store
And may I be so favored as to make
Of joy's too-scanty sum a little more.

Let me not hurt, by any selfish deed
Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend.
Nor would I pass, unseeing, worthy need,
Or sin by silence when I should defend.

However meager by my worldly wealth,
Let me give something that shall aid my kind--
A word of courage, or a thought of health,
Dropped as I pass for troubled hearts to find.

Let me tonight look back across the span
'Twixt dawn and dark, and to my conscience--
Because of some good act to beast or man--
"The world is better that I lived today."

--Paul P. Bova

May Observances

Monthly Observances



ALS Awareness Month

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Better Hearing & Speech Month

Borderline Personality Disorder Month

Brain Tumor Awareness Month

Clean Air Month

Creative Beginnings Month

Family Wellness Month

Fibromyalgia Education and Awareness Month

Go Fetch! Food Drive for Homeless Animals Month

Haitian Heritage Month

Heal the Children Month

Healthy Vision Month

Huntington's Disease Awareness Month

International Audit Month

Latino Books Month

Motorcycle Safety Month

National Allergy/Asthma Awareness Month

National Arthritis Month

National Barbeque Month

National Foster Care Month

National Good Car Keeping Month

National Hamburger Month

National Hepatitis Awareness Month

(World) Lyme Disease Awareness Month

National Meditation Month

National Mental Health Month

National Military Appreciation Month

National Moving Month

National Osteoporosis Prevention Month

National Photo Month

National Physical Fitness & Sports Month

National Salad Month

National Stroke Awareness Month

National Vinegar Month

Older Americans Month

Personal History Month

Strike Out Strokes Month

Tay-Sachs and Canavan Diseases Month

Ultra-violet Awareness Month

Women's Health Care Month

Young Achievers of Tomorrow Month

National Family Month (5/10 to 6/21)



Weekly Observances

Pen Friends International Week: 1-7

Be Kind To Animals Week: 3-9

Drinking Water Week: 3-10

Flexible Work Arrangement Week: 3-9

Goodwill Industries Week: 3-9

National Anxiety & Depression Awareness Week: 3-9

National Family Week: 3-9

National Hug Holiday Week: 3-9

National Pet Week: 3-9

North American Occupational Safety & Health Week: 3-9

Teacher Appreciation Week: 3-9

Update Your References Week: 3-9

Dating and Life Coach Recognition Week: 4-10

National Wildflower Week: 4-9

National Nurses Day and Week: 6-12

National Tourism Week: 9-17

National Nursing Home Week: 10-16

National Police Week: 10-16

National Return To Work Week: 10-16

National Transportation Week: 10-16

National Women's Health Week: 10-16

Reading is Fun Week: 10-16

National Etiquette Week: 11-15

Salvation Army Week: 11-17

Universal Family Week: 11-17

Children's Book Week: 11-17

National Stuttering Awareness Week: 11-17

National Dog Bite Prevention Week: 17-25

National New Friends, Old Friends Week: 17-23

National Safe Boating Week: 17-23

World Trade Week: 17-23

EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Week: 18-24

National Effectiveness Week: 18-25

National Medical Transcription Week: 18-24

National Backyard Games Week: 18-25

Work At Home Moms Week: 18-24



Daily Observances



Executive Coaching Day: 1

Keep Kids Alive! Drive 25 Day: 1

Law Day: 1

Mother Goose Day: 1

New Homeowner's Day: 1

School Principals' Day: 1

Silver Star Day: 1

Stepmother's Day: 1

Space Day 1:

Tuba Day: 1

Astronomy Day: 2

Join Hands Day: 2

Kentucky Derby : 2

Join Hands Day: 2

National Scrapbooking Day: 2

Paranormal Day: 3

World Press Freedom Day: 3

Melanoma Monday: 4

Asthma Day: 5

Childhood Stroke Awareness Day: 5

Childhood Depression Awareness Day: 5

National Teacher Day: 5

National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy: 6

National School Nurse Day: 6

No Diet Day: 6

No Homework Day: 6

Nurses Day: 6

Occupational Safety & Health Professional' s Day: 6

Children's Mental Health Awareness Day: 7

National Day of Prayer: 7

World Red Cross Day: 8

Child Care Provider Day: 8

Military Spouse Appreciation Day: 8

Birthmother' s Day (Saturday before Mother's Day): 9

Letter Carrier's Food Drive Day: 9

National Babysitter's Day: 9

National Train Day: 9

Stay Up All Night Day: 9

World Fair Trade Day: 9

Lupus Day: 10

Mother's Day: 10

Limerick Day: 12

Fibromyalgia Awareness Day: 11

Library Legislative Day: 12

National Night Shift Workers Day: 13

Receptionists Day: 13

National Chocolate Chip Day: 15

International Virtual Assistants Day: 15

National Bike to Work Day: 15

National Pizza Party Day: 15

Armed Forces Day: 16 (3rd Saturday in May)

NASCAR Day: 17

Victoria Day: 18 ( 3rd Monday in Canada )

National Employee Health & Fitness Day: 20

National Wig Out Day: 22

Brother's Day: 24

Neighbor Day: 24

National Missing Children's Day: 25

Memorial Day: 25 (Observed)

Prayer for Peace Memorial Day: 25

National Senior Health & Fitness Day: 27

Hug Your Cat Day: 30

Memorial Day: 30(Actual)


Hey, it's Pen Friends' Week. Do people still have pen friends? And why aren't we calling them pan pals any more? Is that offensive now? I can never keep track...