Monday, November 9, 2009

Following in the Pastors Footsteps


Ok, I do understand that we are supposed to receive the Word on Sundays and take it out into our "real" lives outside. I even appreciate a good story to go with the Word to help drive a point home, but I gotta tell you, sometimes you can follow in your Pastors footsteps a little too closely...


Case in point... tonight we invited some friends over for a nice, quiet dinner and their sons were going to go up into the attic and bring down all the Christmas boxes for me so that I have time to sort through them before the time comes to set them up. We had a wonderful spaghetti dinner with salad and animated conversation going. Oliver was supposed to just show them where the stuff was and let them do it. They're two strong, intelligent young men.


So my friend and I cleared the dishes and loaded the dishwasher and Oliver went off to show the boys what needed to be done. As we were sitting back down at the table and started talking to her husband, we heard a bit of a commotion coming from the general direction of where the boys and Oliver were. Lisa called out and asked if everything was alright. We heard two say "fine" and a muffled grunt from the third - then dead silence.


Both of us being mothers with boys, we just knew the dead silence was not a good sign. We got to the garage door and one of the boys was in the garage, one was on the ladder and Oliver was.... well, let's just say he was trying to come down from the attic in a new way - the same way Pastor Rob did a couple of months ago. Through the ceiling. Mercifully his tush didn't let him come all the way through and he caught his shoulders on one of the rafters where it stuck, along with his pride, I'm sure.


Ok, maybe he didn't follow the exact same path that Pastor Rob did, after all Oliver came through the laundry room ceiling and not the kitchen ceiling as Pastor Rob so eloquently did. I appreciate Oliver's enthusiasm to really try and follow in his Pastors footsteps and really practice all that's been preached to him.... um, I just wish he wouldn't do it so literally.


So if any of you know who can patch a ceiling, let us know. We'll be busy cleaning up insulation for the next year or so. That stuff is worse than Easter basket grass. And Pastor Rob, I beg of you, can you please find something a little less dangerous to get into for a while? I'm sure Tricia will stand with me that you should both be banned from the attic.


And yes, Bubba is fine. His shoulder and his ego are a bit bruised but he should make a full recovery on both counts. Everything, and I mean everything, is out of the attic and there is no earthly reason for him to have to venture up that way again. Lord, I pray that Pastor Rob doesn't take up bungee jumping anytime in the near future.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Saints and Sinners

I was cleaning out some stuff yesterday and I came across this tattered old piece of paper that was once part of Ann Landers column. I've had that paper for so long, about 40 years, that I didn't even remember why. It's pretty worn out and will have to go, but before I dispose of it I wanted to share what it was that made me keep it all those many years ago. Enjoy!


Saints and Sinners
by Veda Ponikvar

When some fellow yields to temptation
And breaks a conventional law,
We look for no good in his makeup,
Oh Lord, how we look for the flaw!

No one asks, "Who did the tempting?"
Nor allows for the battles he's fought.
His name becomes food for the jackals,
The saints who have never been caught.

I'm a sinner, O Lord, and I know it.
I am weak, and I blunder and fail,
I am tossed on life's stormy ocean
Like a ship that is caught in a gale.

I am willing to trust in thy mercy,
To keep the commandments thou'st taught.
But deliver me, Lord, from the judgement
Of the saints who have never been caught.