No Better Place...

Over the past few months I have had some problems writing. I have just not been able to get what is in my head down on paper (or typed on a computer)... Maybe this offering will help to free the creative juices...

While I was a teen, I remember my mother telling me (with a bit of frustration and a little anger) that regularly on my father’s non-teaching days he would take me to work. Mom would come to check on her boys, and on several occasions found that Dad had allowed me to be taken away by some of the college girls. I was usually returned with a belly full of donuts and more often than not, a new stuffed animal. I could never have been in a better place than with people my Dad knew and loved, and who knew and loved him.

Mom was rarely pleased that Dad had allowed me to be taken out of his sight, much less off campus. For my Dad, there were few places safer than a college campus. These were places he spent time with his father, places he played, and made friendships that lasted for his lifetime.

At times it is much clearer than others that I am much more like my father than I care to admit. For me there are few places safer than the Church. I grew up playing among in the pews of the Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist Churches of Clarendon. I matured under the care of saints in churches of Clarendon, Lubbock, and Lexington, KY. Many of those I am honored to call friends, I have not only met within the walls of Church but have been the Church with them outside its walls….

I noticed this past Wednesday as I was helping to serve our Fellowship Meal that my children who had been underfoot in the kitchen, were no longer there. As my gaze quickly scanned the Fellowship Hall my eyes eventually found all four of my children. They were being cared for by several who had come for our evening meal. Some by cared for them by choice, others by sitting in the wrong seat at the wrong table.

Since graduating from Seminary I have had the opportunity to have my children at work with me. Sometimes my children have been a tremendous help while they are with me in the office, at other times they are the biggest distraction that could ever walk thru the Church doors. Over the past few weeks I have had lots of opportunity to have Noah in the office with me, due to Rebecca finding herself away from the house a little more often. Whether it was in the First United Methodist Church of Amherst, or here at Clyde First United Methodist Church my family and I could not be in a better place with people we are getting to know and love, and who are getting to know and love us.

My hope for you is that when you Worship, or in joining others in allowing your hands and feet to be used by God, there is not a better or safer place for you to be surrounded by people who you are getting to know and love, and who are getting to know and love you.