Uphill idealist

Where did the sharing start? Over the past several months, our church has been taking brave steps in the area of sharing life with the greater Lutheran community. In January of 2009, First Lutheran joined in on partnering with SLYM - Shared Lutheran Youth Ministry. This partnership in youth ministry is the large umbrella in which First, Immanuel , Holy Trinity and Bethel Lutheran Churches participate by gathering on a weekly basis (Thursdays 6:30-8:30 grades 5-12) for faith building, fellowship and of course fun! The SLYM program started it's second program year in September of 2010. There are group gatherings each Thursday evening, that are sometimes split into two age groups - middle and high school, but often the older students are invited along to assist in leadership and learning right along their Adult leaders. Another benefit of this partnership were two training events for volunteers in the SLYM program nights: Princeton Theological Seminary one day training in Clevelan...

The lyrics to the song "Waiting for my real life to begin" by Colin Hay capture the feelings of hoping for more in life. A telephone call with the answer you've been dying to hear, that ship to come in that seems to have the only answer.But with each verse of longing in the song, the speaker is met with the refrain, "Be still my love, open your heart, let the light shine in. It happens that we can start to think that the grass is greener over there, or that if this or that accomplishment when achieved that all of life's difficulty will be resolved. However,this often is untrue. Life is full of challenge, no matter the color of the grass. Joan Chittester say's this about painful and difficult times in life in her book ' Breath of the Soul', " The truth is that it is pain and need and vulnerability that lead us directly to God. We become a prayer. We throw ourselves on the heart of God. We look for the balm that does not exist in this world as w...

Liminality has been defined as the threshold of the betwixt or between phase or the middle of a rite of passage. Liminality is a new word to me, but I feel quite familiar with the geography and experience of it. I'd have to say that there seems to me to a great deal of "middle" space in life. There are times that I've looked at these middle spaces with contempt and frustration and occasionally, I've had the wisdom to live and be in that space that seems to be neither a beginning or end. Truth be told, I think I'm more comfortable with beginnings and endings than I am the middle spaces. The beginnings are filled with expectation,excitement and hope. Endings (the good ones) are filled with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction of reaching a goal. Ultimately though, the middle space is where the lions share of the journey takes place. The middle is where the excitement of a beginning takes shape and leads to the place of connection to each hope and dreams...