Catching up a month or more…

It’s been awhile since I posted. Happily, that is because there is enough going on that I haven’t posted. Here are a few things that have been taking up time and energy

Work, of course is one. The highlight for me has been planning Wednesday night Lent services at Fourth with Patrick, Calum, and a troupe of faithful lay-people. We’re taking a close look at six of the “I am” statements from John’s Gospel. Beautiful things have happened: wonderful projected pictures to help people meditate on the theme; a communion service where people really felt like they were gathered around the table with Jesus and the disciples; children adding voice and movement to services; comfortably silent prayer.

I also took a vacation, which I hadn’t realized I needed until the week before I left. My sister Anna lives in Utah, and I spent week with her. We fed a heard of elk, spent the night 4 miles into the mountains in a yurt, and moved her from one house to another.

And, the annual miracle of spring in Chicago is beginning. Yes, we will have more ugly days in the next month or two (like the flat cloud-cover that we are enduring today), but that great day when it is finally warm and sunny for the first time in months hit this week.

And now, the slide into the craziness of Holy Week begins. One week to get ready for it, and one week to be overwhelmed by church busy-ness, and yet be thankful that my job lets me experience every up and down of that week.