Rounding the final turn...

OK, OK, vacation's over. I did get a lot done! I read a couple hundred pages of books and articles for paper #2 and finished 2 exegetical papers.

What's left on the DO-List?

2 research papers, 10-12 pages EACH (WOOT! I had the page requirements wrong, shorter than I first believed!)
0 exegetical outlines from one of the Gospels
0 systematic theology essays
0 books on pastoral theology (book reports)
2 reflective essays
0 sacramental doctrine essay
1 group project (forgot this on my original list... probably because I HATE working on group projects. HATE them.)

Everything's due in the next few weeks... And then, a few days to work in my flowerbeds and be a real person until the next semester starts.

What I can't figure out, though, are the people who keep telling me that I will "miss" this...

Really? REALLY? I'm... speechless...

Deb

He Is Risen!

HE IS RISEN!!!

HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Life's a Beach

I just have to say, the beach is place where God brings more peace and restoration to my heart than any other place on earth...

The seas have lifted up, LORD,
the seas have lifted up their voice;
the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.

Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,
mightier than the breakers of the sea—
the LORD on high is mighty.

Psalm 93:3-4

= o =

The random placement of driftwood and the windblown sand during a stroll on the beach.

Resting in the sand, two gull eggs warm in the sun.

I love the natural beauty here. The sound of the wind in the palm branches. Bird calls. Stars that are brighter than the streetlights...

And at the end of the day, a quiet, peaceful sunset from the porch swing watching the sun go down.

Thank you, God, for the beach...

Friday Five: time out edition

Sally from RevGalBlogPals writes:

Holy Week is almost upon us, I suspect that ordained or not, other revgal/pals calendars look a bit like mine, FULL, FULL, FULL........

Jesus was great at teaching us to take time out, even in that last week, right up to Maundy Thursday he withdrew, John's gospel tells us he hid! He hid not because he was afraid, but because he knew that he needed physical, mental and spiritual strength to get through...

So faced with a busy week:

1. What restores you physically?
Chill time. Time "off the clock" so to speak, where I don't have deadlines, phone calls, emails or tasks. I'm doing it this week since I'm on vacation with my husband and kids.

2. What strengthens you emotionally/ mentally?
Being able to talk and listen to good friends. Friends that don't have an agenda, aren't responsible to or for me, and we can just be. I've got three great ones in Dana, Marina and Terry.

3. What encourages you spiritually?
Music. And in a variety of styles, from contemporary to rock to classical.

4. Share a favourite poem or piece of music from the coming week.

Did you feel the mountains tremble? by Delirious

5.There may be many services for you to attend/ lead over the next week, which one are you most looking forward to and why? If there aren't do you have a favourite day in Holy week if so which one is it?
I would hazard a guess and say Easter Sunday. The joy. The promise. The hope...

Peace and joy to all-
Deb

typed out

It's springtime in DC and I am so ready for...

...no more papers
...sleeping in
...leisure reading
...a day off
...the semester to be over

What's left?
2 research papers, 15-20 pages EACH
2 exegetical outlines from one of the Gospels
0 systematic theology essays
0 books on pastoral theology (book reports)
3 reflective essays
0 sacramental doctrine essay

I figured it out. I have only 10 "big" research papers left in my master's degree before I graduate. Wooo hooooOOOOO!

Celebrating the little things...
Deb

I didn't know Moses was on Facebook!

See: MosesFacebook

Deb
Who doesn't get all the jokes, but has had enough coffee to laugh...

Word of God, Speak

I'm hanging on to promises... because that's the surest thing I'll ever have.

The countdown continues...
Mostly big stuff is all that's left!

I'm down to...
3 research papers, 15-20 pages EACH
3 exegetical outlines from one of the Gospels
0 systematic theology essays
0 books on pastoral theology (book reports)
3 reflective essays
0 sacramental doctrine essay

Friday Five: Blogroll Spotlight

Mary Beth from RevGals writes...

On my blog sidebar is a list titled, "Blogs I Read Every Day." After my mother became a blogger, she asked me how I could possibly read that many blogs daily!? I had to confess it then: Okay, I don't read them all every day! I have over 100 on there! But I have favorites, and you do too.
Some of you probably use feed readers to let you know when your favorite bloggers have posted...not me, not yet. I just have folks who are part of my day-to-day.

So for today's Friday Five, give us five blogs you visit regularly, and tell us briefly WHY you like them. These can be RevGal and Pal bloggers and others ... or news sites, knitting sites, etc. Who are you showing the love to on a pretty constant basis?

This is hard! I enjoy many of the blogs I read... and some get frequent visits because they simply make me laugh. Some are ones I read to keep in touch because friends have moved away. If I left you out, it's not because I don't love you...

1. Church bizness type blog: Church Marketing Sucks
Just to keep it real and think about the way that God is represented.

2. Keep in touch blog: Jeff and Sarah
Sniff... Sniff... miss you!!

3. Make me laugh blog: LOL Cats
Teh first language born of teh interwebs

4. Make me think blog: The Scroll
The blog for the group Christians for Biblical Equality
I use their resources every time I write a paper! Good stuff!

And the one that I had the hardest time choosing...
because there are several of you who qualify.

But I went with the person of the cool crafts, swapfests, cows, and pantipalooza!

5. Feel the love blog: Princess Mindy

Love you RevGals!!!

Deb

She Speaks:

Like all dreamers I confuse disenchantment with truth.

Jean-Paul Sartre

I try not to "think too far ahead." I am afraid to dream, to look around the bend of "what's next."

I am someone who tries, but rarely balances, marriage, parenting, friends, family, seminary and pastoring. I work through scheduling snafus, wearing too many hats and never knowing if I've done enough. I get the subtle jibes for being a woman and a pastor.

I've worked jobs I despise to get experience in ministry and in churches, only to get pigeonholed in things that bore me to tears -- hospitality, databases, admin or children's ministry. I left behind music ministry when I got the not-so-subtle hints that I was aging-out of hipdom. Despite growing in my skills at teaching and preaching, despite hearing that I have gifts in speaking ministries, I am denied the pulpit.

Yet deep within, God has planted and nurtured a Call to go beyond the "ordinary" and fulfill a prophetic vision that I can scarcely bear to put into words.

My beloved often tells me that I need to take seriously the encouragement that I receive for not only my writing but my teaching/speaking. Truly, I'd like to. But because I've suffered under people with delusions of grandeur and the maxim "a little Greek is a dangerous thing," I frequently hesitate. That, and the constant awareness that being a "feminist" and a "biblical theologian" are antithetical in many a fundamentalist's mind. It makes me wonder if I can live up to the Calling that's before me.

However, this semester, after some concerted prayer with professors and fellow students who know me well, I'm prayerfully extending my wings. I'm networking, reading, and listening to people outside my usual sphere of contacts.

I'm allowing a fresh wind to sweep into my heart, and it's causing hope and joy to balloon up in ways that I've not felt in a long time.

A friend recently asked me, "what's holding you back?"
I cried. It's fear.

Fear that I will not represent the God I love in a way that is winsome and engaging to the people who need to meet God the most.
Fear that I am not able to handle the stress of moving into a new phase of public ministry.
Fear that I am going to be shot down, deflated yet again by people with their own agendas and ideas for my life.
Fear that I will not be present for my family when they need me.

I just heard about a conference that I am going to try to attend this summer. It's called She Speaks and it holds promise for women like me who are standing on the edge of their Calling and life purpose.

It's July 31-August 2 in Concord, NC. Financially, with summer school and The Harpist starting college in the fall, things are a little tight. One possibility is that by posting this story on my blog, I'll be one of the lucky ones who gets a scholarship.

Dare I dream that I'll get a scholarship? Or be one of the lucky ones who can get that final boost to launch?

She Speaks has seminars in speaking, teaching and writing. There are opportunities to listen, engage and imagine. Dare I dream?

If not this place, or this opportunity, then God knows where.

I am daring to dream. And to move forward into the places I hear God calling. I am not stepping back again.

Pray me through, will you?

Deb

Reverend Mother

Some discussion of late on other RevGal blogs about PKs... Kathryn started the latest discussion here... Like many female pastors, my daughters occasionally refer to me as "Reverend Mother" and having read Dune, it always makes me chuckle...

For the un-read, here's why... The Princess Irulan writes (via epigraph) in the original novel Dune:

Thus spoke St. Alia-of-the-Knife: "The Reverend Mother must combine the seductive wiles of a courtesan with the untouchable majesty of a virgin goddess, holding these attributes in tension so long as the powers of her youth endure. For when youth and beauty have gone, she will find that the place-between, once occupied by tension, has become a wellspring of cunning and resourcefulness."
— from "Muad'Dib, Family Commentaries" by the Princess Irulan

SO there you are...

Deb
Slightly less serious than your average pastor...
And deep in the "wellspring"