This past week one of my Florida grandsons in the first weeks of his new Hollywood Hills United Methodist Church preschool (he is three), video called me to share his project from preschool that included a working set of “lungs” (on a poster board) complete with baggies for lungs, straws for bronchi and a trachea. It was awesome. He is three!
Having had a background in Respiratory Therapy and pulmonary medicine it made me proud, and a little sad I had given that up that work some years ago.
It’s Labor Day.
And it is about work.
Though I had an awesome week, it was one deserving of a three day break in my opinion.
I work at a church.
Some people might think that working at a church isn’t really working.
Kind of like the Dire Straits song:
“That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Get your money for nothin’ get your chicks for free”
Well I certainly don’t know anything about getting “chicks” anymore and don’t want to and to the best of my knowledge working at a church doesn’t make for chick magnets anyway.
But I get work.
I like to work.
And let me tell you something, after finishing one of my busier weeks working at my church… working for Jesus is tough.
Jesus is busy!
And though sometimes I think my “to do” list is out of control, Jesus has to have a “to do” list beyond belief.
I have a hard time getting to all the things on my “to do” list, sometimes it takes me weeks, maybe an occasional month even to get to some things.
So I get it.
Two years ago today, I wrote on my Musings of an Aging Nobody, My Prayer for Hayley.
Hayley is one of my daughters.
At the end of My Prayer for Hayley I wrote, “And so my prayer for Hayley is that God answers my prayer for Hayley the same way he answered my prayer for myself some years ago.
And may she never look back.”
This week my prayer for Hayley was answered. It took two years.
So Jesus, c’mon man, I know I am busy…
But it’s okay.
Because I know you are busier!
And I understand that it might take two years to get to my prayer.
I do get it.
I just hope that those that I work with are as patient with me getting to those things on my “to do” list.
This week I feel particularly blessed.
I am blessed to have a grandson in a pre-med pre-school, another starting to talk and walk, and another down the hall right now pushing his Mimi’s buttons and having a great time doing it.
And Jesus thank you for keeping me so busy.
But especially thank you for answering my prayer for Hayley.
And just like the analogy I like to use for my life…just like Secretariat winning the Belmont by 31 lengths, and never looking back,
One of the photos my mom messaged me of my dad on his new golf cart
Today is the day, according to the History Channel daily news feed I get in my email called “This Day in History,” that God made the Universe. Well, The History Channel didn’t actually say God did it, but they did say that according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, today was the day the universe was created. It is just my feeling God had to have had something to do with it.
Of course, I am amazed at what God has created as I sit on my deck and watch my backyard begin to come alive, it’s what we have created since that is sometimes overwhelming. For someone who grew up learning world events from the Weekly Reader, what we can do today with technology is hard to imagine sometimes. The generation of my parents often chose to avoid being plugged in all the time, maybe there is something to be said for that.
But my mom, for the first time in her life this week sent a photo to my cell phone that she took with her flip phone. In fact, she was so excited that I received her photo message, a couple of days later she sent me another one.
Most of us are so used to the technology we use every day we take it for granted, and we are lost when it’s not available to us.
The building I work in has sinks in the men’s room that automatically dispense water when you put your hands in front of the spout. One day I was in the Fairfax County Public Schools Administration building and went to use the restroom. I went to wash my hands and when I put my hands in front of the spout no water came out.
Hmm, I thought… must be broken.
So I went to the next one and still nothing happened. I think I mumbled something at that point about them not working and a guy who was there watching this silly dance of mine pointed to the faucet handles and said:
“Hey, you need to use these things, you are way ahead of us.”
On a recent trip to Florida, my daughter picked me up at the house and rushed me over to the airport, dropped me off and I went and checked my bag, and now with some time I headed to the gate to relax and wait. Then a strange feeling came over me. Something was not right. There was something missing in my space. I stopped, I sat down on the window ledge; I knew right then what it was.
I didn’t have my cell phone. I had left my cell phone on the kitchen counter.
What do I do? I thought to myself…a real feeling of helplessness swept through me.
I could call Hayley and ask her to pick up my phone and bring it to me, I probably had enough time for that.
But how do I do that?
How do I make a phone call in a public place if not on a cell phone? Do they still have pay phones?
But even if there was a pay phone available to me it wouldn’t matter because I don’t carry money anymore, let alone quarters. And would it still cost a quarter?
I suppose I could ask someone if I could use a phone.
But that wouldn’t do me any good either because I don’t know Hayley’s phone number! It’s in my cell phone on the kitchen counter in my contacts under “Hayley.”
Feeling totally helpless I walked to the gate found some wi-fi and since I had my laptop (another “can’t leave home without”), I sent out emails to those I felt should know that I had gone off the grid; that I would be back in Weekly Readerville for next 5 days.
It is kind of sad to think we have become so dependent on these conveniences. We don’t have to communicate verbally we can send a text or an email. We don’t have to read it in a paper the next day or week, we can watch it unfold as it is happening on the device in our hand in whatever gruesome detail that may be. It’s not surprising people are influenced to act in ways that may be hurtful or to be hurt by the use of this technology. Easy ways to be bullied or to inflict control. On the other hand, so much good comes from our technological developments.
I remember once when I was about 13 I was in my room reading a book written by one of those radical 60’s activists at the time and my dad came in to tell me I shouldn’t buy into everything I read in that book. Knowing my dad I am sure it took a lot for him to make a point to say that to me. Though I shrugged it off at the time it was good advice and is even more applicable today.
We just need to learn to enjoy the benefits while also learning how to process the social and economic aspects of all this change. And teach our kids…well, maybe not my kids they already know everything…but our grandkids; just like my dad tried to teach me. Maybe things haven’t really changed as much as we think.
So here I sit on my deck, word processing on my laptop while texting with my wife in Pennsylvania who left me alone again to write stuff like this, and I am reminded of that expression I like to use:
“It’s the 90’s man.”
Thank God for creating the universe…though maybe not on this day in 4977 BC as Mr. Keplar had proposed in the 1600’s. In fact since then it has been estimated he was off by about 13.7 billion years.
And thanks to man and everything he has created since (or woman of course). The world got a little bit smaller for my mom this week. She can now share the joys she is experiencing while in the moment.
As for me, I am happy I can go to the restroom just put my hands out and have the water turn on.
It’s those little things.
A photo Kim sent me while I was writing. A reminder of what God created for us.
Ethan, my littlest guy, safe and asleep somewhere in north Florida
Just five days ago I was joining many others and praying for the survivors and the first responders in Texas and Louisiana after Hurricane Harvey made landfall and continued to rain and flood for days. For me, mostly faceless and nameless people, known to me only by images on my TV.
But to many others these folks most certainly had names and faces, some were family like my friend Drew whose brother lives in Houston; others friends and colleagues. For them their prayers were more specific, their anxiety more real, their concern hitting home beyond CNN or The Weather Channel.
This week I understand.
Yesterday, in the early hours of the morning, members of my immediate family; my daughter, son-in-law, and their two sons fled Broward County and began to head north. Their sons, two of my three grandchildren, are just babies. One is two years old, the other less than two months old. Yesterday morning they became part of the Irma refugee movement north.
Later in the day they found shelter in northern Florida; far enough north where, though they may not avoid a hurricane, they should be safe to ride out a much lesser storm.
Though I find some comfort in a weaker threat, I am not comfortable.
As I sit now and watch CNN, detail after detail, listening to the interview of the mayor of Hollywood Florida, the town where my kids live; watching the storm track and those spinning 5’s and 4’s go up the Florida peninsula I am relieved my daughter, my son-in-law, and those babies are not in south Florida.
But I am not without great concern.
I have a lot of extended family and some very good friends in Florida.
If you are from Jersey, you have family and friends in Florida.
I am concerned for all of them.
I am safe many miles away.
My biggest weather related concern this summer has been how the rain has forced me to have to cut my grass every six days and still my mower sputters and stalls. What an inconvenience.
There are people in Texas and in the Caribbean tonight who don’t have lawns to cut anymore, some don’t have houses, some worse than that.
I am safe far away from the chaos, but I am also helpless to those that I love who may be close to danger.
All I can do now is pray.
And like last Sunday I will pray for the safety of all those in harm’s way as residents, visitors, and those responding to the call for help.
But in addition to that, for me this week I will pray in greater detail. This week I have names, and faces, and memories, and futures to prayer for.
So for now I will watch the storm projections and listen to the countless interviews. I will act cool and supportive on the phone and in the text messages.
But I will continue to worry about my littlest Irma refugees and my family and friends.
And I will pray.
Ten o’clock update. A little more shift to the west. I think it’s working…
This past week one of my Florida grandsons in the first weeks of his new Hollywood Hills United Methodist Church preschool (he is three), video called me to share his project from preschool that included a working set of “lungs” (on a poster board) complete with baggies for lungs, straws for bronchi and a trachea. It was awesome. He is three!
