Peace be with you.

Funny these words I have heard my entire life. At church I would hear them said at the beginning, The Grace and Peace of the Lord be with you all. A simple message to say, I wish you all Grace and Peace unlike you could ever imagine in this world. 

I have mentioned before that I do not speak of Lilly, I did not know her but on her birthday this year I posted a picture of her with the simple phrase, Peace Lilly. There is no more to say.

Pastor Vicki spoke today of Peace. This same Peace that I wish for Lilly I truely wish for myself and others. I have read so much lately of the events of last year. Probably too much. So many are still saddened by these events and the loss of their friends and family members. A few do not seem to have found their Peace yet. Unfortunately Vicki said, she doesn't have a cape or flashlight to offer as protection against the things that scare us. But to me she does. She offers her smile in the face of her own Grief. She offers a hug when she knows you need it. That is Peace.

I started off going to write about the church I grew up in and the one I attend today. But now. I think of a person that feels blame for the events of last year. This is another person I do not know. A person I may have laid some of the blame on myself. But today I wish him Peace. He has family and friends around but I don't think he see's them for the comfort that they are. He only see's what he is missing. Peace be with you.

Funny how things work out. I wanted to say that my favorite part of church as a child was the offering of Peace. Right before Communion. The home stretch. The time you got to talk to your neighbor without being shushed. A time that a total stranger would say Peace be with you. Last year as my nieces and nephew prepared for their First Communion I would just say Peace. No matter how I felt it is always said with a smile. Well. This week has been a year since that First Communion. I celebrated Communion this morning in a church I had maybe been to twice before last year at this time but in the last nine months we have become regulars. A lady said Hello this morning and said how glad she was to see us an how she misses us when she doesn't see us sitting in the front. Who knew?

Honestly we do not go to be seen. We go to feel Peace. Somedays it seems to come easier than others.

I have offered prayers for Peace of the people of New York after Hurricane Sandy, those of Connecticut after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and to those of Boston after the bombing. In all those offerings it is not just the peace that President's seek for their country but for true Peace in their hearts. So as mass ended one last reminder to go in Peace and Love and Serve the Lord.
Amen.

Today as every Sunday Vicki ends with a charge which reminds us to do the same:

Go out in the world in peace; have courage; hold on to what is good; return no one evil for evil; strengthen the fainthearted, support the weak and help the suffering; honor and respect everyone; love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.  And all God’s people said: Amen

A simple message of Peace. Words we may all say as we walk out the door each morning.

Peace. Amen.

Messages

At Church this morning a story was told that everyone knows. Jesus went to a wedding and turned water into wine. Funny it was his mother that said, Come on Son. This is going to be terrible if something isn't done. Something ordinary as Vicky said into something extraordinary. Which made me think of my life. I have always said what ever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  I am sure Vicky reads and goes where did she get that from. But I think of some of the situations in life that I have not only struggled through but come out on the side better for. Here are a couple examples that came to mind this morning.

I had a boyfriend that threatened suicide and left the situation, but then lived with a person that actually tried to kill himself and helped him through it. That was the first time at the age of 23 that I tried to understand depression and why some get worse and others get better. What happens after 72 hours of being Baker Acted as they call it in Florida when you spend your mandatory 72 hours in psychiatric care. What makes you better after 72 hours I asked the doctor. He asked me you don't think your friend is better. I said no how could anyone be any more ready to face the world today than he was on Sunday when he was taken to the hospital. Those words ended a friendship. The Dr met with my friend and said your friend does not feel that you are better and that you need to stay. Well the Dr saw the true colors. No more home after 72 hours but he spent a few more days and got a little more help. The Dr then let my friend call me and cuss me up and down until they decided it was going too far. Because it was my fault. I was to blame for him having to stay. Or was I to blame for him actually getting help.

I have so many stories. I had a customer at the store when I was about 26 that was a known prostitute and it had been thought that she was writing bad checks. Well she came through my line and was making a pretty expensive purchase and I just said I have to verify funds I will be right back and I walked to the office just to see what she would do. Well you think you know what happens next, no way I could have guessed that this lady would bend over as though she was going to pick something off the bottom shelf and as she stood up she fell to the floor having a seizure. I called 911 had the paramedics come. I ripped up the check and put it in her wallet. Never saw her again. But the best part was the old man that walked up to the front counter as my cashier is holding the ladies head so she did not hit anything and I was on the phone with the paramedics and this old man walks up to me in the office and says what do I have to do to get someone to get my pictures. I laugh as I remember my response. Sir as soon as I get this lady off my floor I will happy to get your pictures. Some people don't even see what is going on around them and others step right into it.

These are not days in any ones life but days in my life. This is not turning water to wine but it is digging in and getting through whatever I have somehow gotten into.  I think of Mother Teresa and think didn't she ever want to take a day off from always being the one. I know I am no Mother Teresa because I have days that I think that I want a break. Today, I don't want to be the one. I don't want to get involved. But when the situation presents itself you either walk away from the lady having the seizure or you do something to get her help. I just can't walk away.

I do it for anyone. Just present your situation and I will help you or drag you through it. Help you get better and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Which I find funny I can show you the light that some days I can not see. That again goes back to Vicky and her speaking of people having faith. That your faith sometimes gets weak when you are in trouble but mine always gets stronger. The more down I feel the more I do believe that there has to be someone or something dragging me through.

I am going to end with some of my favorite songs of Faith. When I am my saddest I like to listen to music and sing along. And the words are everything. Thankfully for life's ups and downs. I am on an up swing. So here is to hoping you are open to being strong for others or making something ordinary into something extraordinary for someone else.

Here I am Lord
How Great Thou Art
Amazing Grace
Silent Night
Let there be Peace on Earth

Christmas

I heard a great story tonight in church. I am going to tell it as I remember so forgive me if it is not exact.

When the Shah Jahan's of India's favorite wife died he was grief stricken. And decided to build a great temple in her honor. He placed the coffin in the center of the property and started construction of the Taj Mahal. After a period of time he no longer thought of his favorite wife and his sorrow. He only thought of the construction details. One day when walking from one side of the construction site to the other he tripped over a wooden box and wiped the dust from his leg and said who would leave this box in the middle of the floor and had it tossed out.

Who would go to the trouble to build a building in honor of a person he loved so much and then after a period of time discard the person it was built for. How could you forget the reason for all the hard work and all the time and money spent.

Which made me think of church and Christmas. Rev Vicky always finds a way to shed light on something sometimes forgotten. Tonight after listening I thought it reminded me that the we build churches in honor of God and when you go it is to be closer to God and hope some of that closeness carries over into the parking lot and the rest of the week. And for those that only go a few times a year it must carry over until Easter. But do not forget that the reason for the celebration tomorrow is not just that you didn't have to work and you get to spend time with family, or that is wonderful and eat all kinds of delicious food. But you are celebrating the birth of Jesus. He is as some say too often the "Reason for the Season". It is the joy of his birth that we are celebrating not the new ipad or smart tv you got for Christmas. The birth of a man that would save the world one day from itself. So we all could enjoy all that Heaven has to offer.

So as you unwrap your gifts try to remember the joy of the birth of your child if you have one. I imagine that is what Mary and Joseph were feeling on that first Christmas morning. So pleased with their new son. Amazed by the words they had been told by Angels are coming true right before their eyes.

I hope I have told the story correct enough to get the point across. I was touched by it and reminded it doesn't matter what I get tomorrow. As long as when the time comes I get to go to Heaven.

Happy Birthday Jesus.

The End is the Beginning

I feel as though this chapter of my life started last May.

I was fired from my job. I hated it and loved at the same time. I don't do anything half way. It is all or nothing. And no matter what anyone there believes I gave all I had to the last day I worked there.

After which I found that I was so sick and weak that I had to have a blood transfusion.

So in a way that week part of me died. And part of me was renewed.

I lost old friends in the mix. But were they truely friends if they no longer call or have nothing to do with me because we do not work together anymore. I still have contact with 3 people from that job. We get together as we did before and always will.

Just like Eckerds after 20 years. There are still some that almost 8 years later I still speak to and see. Not as much as I like, but I do.

Now with my new chapter, new job I again have new friends. Some will be come old friends and some will fade with time. Sometimes I am suprized by the ones that stay and the ones that go.

Today made me think of the past year and how it has been a year of endings and a year of beginnings.
Brian and I had a terrible loss of a family. But we have had new additions. We have had the joy of sharing our house with our nieces this summer from Alaska and Arizona. The joy of getting to know them and them us. The memories made will never be forgotten. 4th of July on the back steps of City Hall watching fireworks over the bay. Uncle Brian taking the girls to Adventure Island. The girls got to know each other better as well. Sharing time together watching movies and I will never forget the afternoon we came home from work and all of them were sleeping on the couch snug as 3 bugs in a rug.

So today I attended church as Brian and I have the last few weeks. Last week we shared our story of loss with the church for their Domestic Violence Charity offering. But today I went alone and had a gift of renewal again. They spoke this morning of giving up your worldly belongings to get everything back.

Just like in the book Eat, Pray and Love. As the story goes the husband and wife are in the process of divorcing and the husband is a mooch and takes and takes. Finally she says fine take it all. I want nothing but to be rid of you ( I paraphrase). But in the end she travels she is renewed in life and prayer and again finds Love.

So, Again we have met new people at church that have welcomed us and some of these same people I feel will become old friends. For Brian attending First Church is like going home to a familar place. Where to me it is like a new job not sure what to do or say and following the lead of others but yet made to feel comfortable as they show the way.

I was thinking we have given up so many things in the last year me without a job yet we did not suffer. We still had a roof over our head and food to eat. We lost family and my cat Mary. Dear Mary who had so much of me in her. Her and I were a pair for 21 years. She would only let most people pet her a few times and then she would scratch or bite them. Those who know me know that I can sometimes be the same way. Don't want anything too close. But always loving those who take the time to know me and let me know them so I am not afraid of their love and I let them in.

So as I go to work this week and live my life I am going to give all I have and in return expect nothing. So everything I get in return will be a blessing.