Big Girl Pants

I'm wearing them.

Can't blog about it, but I'm living it.

Friday Five: Countdown to Christmas Edition

Fellow Revgalpal Songbird writes:

"It's true.There are only five full days before Christmas Day, and whether you use them for shopping, wrapping, preaching, worshiping, singing or traveling or even wishing the whole darn thing were over last Tuesday, there's a good chance they will be busy ones.So let's make this easy, if we can: tell us five things you need to accomplish before Christmas Eve."

Only five things? I have so many more but here it goes.

1. Open an emergency shelter for homeless families in my city. We've been planning this for months and finally got the site yesterday.

2. Plan liturgy for and write a sermon for the Family Christmas Eve service.

3. Get over this cold that I just got this morning. uuuggghh.

4. Clean the house. We are having company on Christmas day.

5. Thank God for coming to us to bring hope and peace in this world.

Friday Five: Windows of the Soul.

Inspired by her husbands Lasik surgery Sophia writes:

This Friday Five is inspired by my husband's Lasik surgery yesterday....He'd been contemplating it for a while and was pushed over the edge by the fact that we put too much money in our healthcare spending account this year and it would have been gone anyway. (There was only enough for one eye, but the kind people at the eye clinic figured out a way to divvy up the charges between surgery and followup in January=next year's spending account). So please say a little prayer for his safe recovery and share with us your thoughts on eyes and vision.

1. What color are your beautiful eyes? Did you inherit them from or pass them on to anyone in your family?

I've got hazel eyes. Unique color and I don't know who I got them from. I can't remember what color my parents eyes are. Kind of weird huh.

2. What color eyes would you choose if you could change them? I like my eye color, I wouldn't change a thing.

3. Do you wear glasses or contacts? What kind? Like 'em or hate 'em? I wear glasses and really I like them a lot. They protect my eyes from flying objects. They make me look smart and I don't have to worry about wearing eye make up because my glasses brighten up my face. I wore contacts in college and I really didn't like them. They were way to high maintanence.

4. Ever had, or contemplated, laser surgery? Happy with the results? I'm waiting for the 80 year results. But then again, I'll be too old to care 80 years from now.

5. Do you like to look people in the eye, or are you more eye-shy? I've been told that I have this intense stare when I look at people and it makes them nervous, so I'm eye-shy on purpose to that people feel comfortable talking to me.

Bonus question: Share a poem, song, or prayer that relates to eyes and seeing. My favorite song about eyes is Debbie Gibson's "I Get Lost in Your Eyes." Yes this dates me to the eighties.

Virtual Advent

I wasn't going to participate in the virtual Advent of the RevGals given the recent events in my life, however todays reflection was about Mary, Jesus' mother and I couldn't resist.

She is my hero. My ordination ceremony was crafted around the Magnificat. I can relate to her in so many ways because like her I was surprised by my call to ministry and like her I made the choice to follow that calling. I emphasise choice because she could have said no, but when she heard from the angel Gabriel that nothing is impossible with God, she said "Here I am, a servant of the Lord; let it be according to your word."

Mary had everything going against her, she was a young woman, only betrothed - not married and poor. When I first realized that my call to ministry I felt like I had so much going against me as well. I was a woman, a lesbian, didn't have a lot of patience or diplomacy skills, and I thought it wasn't possible for me to be a pastor because of these things. But little annunciations kept happening in my life that told me that God wanted me to be a Pastor and so like Mary I said, "Let it be."

Now I didn't handle the journey with the same calmness that Mary did. I pretty much fought it kicking and scratching all the way. However I made it! I am an ordained Pastor! And this work is something that I love and cherish as I am sure Mary loved and cherished being Jesus' mother. It is painful sometimes, but it is also very meaningful. What's really cool is that God uses all my gifts in my work, what I have lacked, God has given me. What I think as a deficiency God has used towards the greater good. Blessed Be!