What a Week!

This has been a week which has laid heavy on my heart and soul. Oh! There's been some good stuff too. I won't deny that. However, it's been one of those times when the path forward hasn't been particularly direct.

Unless you've had your head in the sand, this week's worldly news has led to vehement discussions in the online forums I wander through. You know, sometimes we Presbys get pretty het up over the ordination of homosexuals, and the fur flies in those discussions. But I don't think I've ever seen one of those discussions get quite as vicious as things have been over Israel and Lebannon. *sigh* I simply don't understand people who want to twist what others say, then condemn them for it. I don't know if it's deliberate obtuseness or naive blindness. After a while, the whole thing becomes corrosive and not the least bit helpful toward furthering resolution.

Then came the uncovering of the plot to once again use commercial aircraft to commit mass mayhem and destruction of lives (which is a horror no matter whose lives are involved), and, just as destructive, to cause us to further erode our way of life and freedom in the interest of security. Any innocent lives taken by people who choose to use misinterpreted religious documents to 'validate' violence against others is reprehensible, as is even the planning of such a massacre. I'm very grateful to those in the intelligence community who uncovered the plot and stopped it before it could happen. Yet, if everyone packs their toothpaste in their checked luggage and tosses their soft drink bottles before boarding the plane, in time will we truly be safer? Or will we simply have given up a bit more of what makes us free in order to become more regimented like the ones who give their lives to such a fundamentalist version of Islam? I don't know. What I end up feeling is that I don't want to end up letting them 'win', even if it's only in their own minds.

This weekend I have a funeral to plan for a member of my congregation. He lived a long and full life, and in many respects, the funeral is a celebration of that life. At the same time, he shall be missed by many and balancing those farewells is sometimes like an intricate juggling performance.

Much time and energy have been expended on planning for the anniversary healing event and worship as we come up on the date Her Horribleness roared through the area. It's good work and we've good people working to make it happen. It's just that sometimes it feels as though one must slog through goop to get there. This has been a somewhat goopy week.

So, tonight I took a break and went to see the local stage production of Footloose. The movie is one of my favorite 'pastor movies', and the play was good. Each have their strengths. Over the course of the storyline, the pastor, Shaw Moore, learns something about himself and evolves as a result of his interaction with his daughter Ariel and the young catalyst Ren McCormack. In the play, the focus is on Shaw learning that his holding onto the past and his reaction to his son's untimely death is destroying his relationships with his daughter and his wife. Letting go of the past without forgetting is part of the healing needed for Shaw, his family, and the community.

In the movie, Shaw recognizes an even greater truth: that as a pastor, he is not personally responsible for the spiritual salvation of every person in the community. I absolutely love the scene at Sunday worship where Shaw stands in the pulpit dumbfounded and wrestling with this realization before telling the congregation that he's done them a disservice by not trusting them to grow in faith through their mistakes. He doesn't say he won't be with them as both the members and he himself stumble through life, but he does effectively say that it's time for him to trust God and that he will walk along with them as they begin to take on more responsibility for themselves - an important message for all clergy.

Trust God. You know, I do. Yet I also want to be in control and have everything work exactly as I envision it and get worn down when the world doesn't quite work that way. Don't worry. I'll get back on track soon. I usually do. Besides, it's Holy Hilarity Sunday - and I enjoy Holy Hilarity Sunday!

Plus, my car just turned brand new again - 100,000 miles and still chuggin along! WOOHOO! Guess it hasn't been all that bad a week after all.