Growing Old

I realized this weekend that the last two funerals I've been to have been for the brothers of friends and fellow church members. Death is starting to hit closer to home. I've been thinking about getting older a lot lately. I guess to some extent that's a good thing so I don't take any of the time left for granted. Where once we went to graduations and wedding showers and weddings and baby showers, now we are supporting the same friends at funerals. I suspect there will be more of that. It's that time of life. I trust God will see us through this time of life as God has seen us through the previous stages. How grateful I am to have my faith to fall back on. I will try not to depress my sons too much with the constant reports of illness and death. Life still produces lots of good news to celebrate as well.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Giving Thanks

I was privileged to spend most of this past weekend with women from our church. We laughed a lot and shed some tears as well as we gathered around the theme of Women of God's Good Earth. Jan Seale, a gifted Texas writer and poet was our leader. I was responsible for the vespers services on Friday and Saturday evenings. As we were all weary Friday evening coming in from our busy lives, I talked about making space for God, using the book Space for God, and then engaged them in contemplative prayer, after giving each woman a candle to light. I thought with a candle in their laps they'd be less likely to fall asleep. Saturday night, I talked about gratitude to God, using another chapter from the same book, and asked them to list things they were thankful for from their time at the retreat. As I listened to them share from their hearts the things for which they were thankful and looked at their beautiful faces shining in the light from their candles, my heart was full of gratitude for the privilege of knowing them. They have blessed my life with their friendship. We closed with "Women at the Well" and "Sus Madres," two poems by Anne McCrady, another gifted Texas writer and poet. I think as long as there are women gathering together to pray and give thanks to God, there is hope for God's good earth yet.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Heart Sick

I've watched the news about the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti with much sadness. I cannot imagine how I would cope if there was no water, no electricity, no food, no safe place to sleep, and no effective government to enforce security and begin to fix the problems. If I added on top of that losing those I love, I would probably not function at all. Perhaps knowing that is what has had me weeping over the pictures of people looking lost, and of the injured children especially. I think only God can begin to help anyone to recover from such a monumental disaster.

Like many of my family and friends,especially the Christians, I was appalled by Pat Robertson's comments. I don't worship a God that willfully kills people by the thousands. From all that I have read and heard on thoughtful news programs, poverty contributed immensely to the problems. And this country has had a hand in Haiti for many years, not always in a helpful way. Which leaves me to conclude that while it was God's creation that shook the island, the disaster that followed resulted in large part from human action or inaction. I pray the recovery will be helped by human action for the better. And I continue to pray for those children of God in Haiti.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Time travel

With only a couple of days remaining in this year and in this decade, it is breathtaking to contemplate the changes in my life in the past ten years--mostly for the better. God alone knows what changes the coming year will bring, and I'm content to leave the unknown future in God's good hands. As for the coming decade, I may or may not be around to see it end, though with the heart problems currently under control I'm much more hopeful about that possibility than I was a year ago. In any case, I plan on giving thanks for each new day. I know that I am closer now to the end of this journey than I am to the beginning. I've been richly blessed so far, and as God is good I trust my remaining time in this life will also be blessed. I'm grateful for the distance I've travelled and for the promise of the coming new year.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Jesus loves the little children

Our granddaughter became seriously ill with probable swine flu yesterday. Her brother had it a little over a week ago. I think what's scary about the disease is that it hits the young and very young the hardest, and there doesn't seem to be any rational reason why some become really sick and others don't. This bug has scared the doctors in the family, and it takes a lot to do that.

There's nothing like the serious illness of someone you love to put other problems in proper perspective. When she became so sick, the other things I was worried about became insignificant. I knew for sure that all I wanted for Christmas was for her to be healthy again. Well, that and world peace.

This morning she is much better, though pretty cranky. I'll take cranky over the feverish little girl of yesterday anytime. Thanks be to God for the prayers of our church family, for modern medicine, and for her return to health. I found great comfort yesterday when the congregation sang "Jesus Loves Me." I was reminded that Jesus loves my little granddaughter very much and would care for her no matter what happens in her life. A good reminder in this season of Christmas.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Wisdom

I have been thinking about wisdom as I have worked on my latest sermon, which I will deliver the last Sunday of this year. According to my theological dictionary, wisdom is knowing what is good and true and knowing the difference between what is true and what is false. In the chapter, "Infallibility," in Kathleen Norris' book, Amazing Grace,she says, "Adult infallibility ... is a regrettable condition, a type of regression, a hardening of the arteries around the heart of ignorance." I think to avoid this kind of spiritual heart disease, we have to continue to learn and to grow in wisdom all the days of our lives. So I continue to try to teach myself Chinese characters by reading the Psalms each morning in my Chinese-English Bible and to study writing with a retired English professor at the local community center and to learn from others about life. I'm thankful to God for the ability and the opportunity to continue to learn and hopefully to grow in wisdom.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Distant Thunder

When we first moved here to Central Texas, I found the sound of distant explosions frightening. Now, however, they have become familiar background noise, just the sound of artillery practice at nearby Ft. Hood. I heard them again this week, and thought how easy it has become to ignore this reminder of war and destruction. These days the two wars in which our country is involved aren't always on the front page of the morning paper or the lead stories on the news. The violence seems only to matter to those for whom it is personal, who have loved ones in harms way or have lost them to the violence of war and terrorism. In this season as I contemplate once again the birth of the Prince of Peace, I think how much this weary world needs peace. Peace is hard work. Violence often seems like a quick solution. Then we spend generations trying to fix the problems the quick fix of violence caused. Perhaps if more of us were willing to take a chance on peace the tide would turn. Perhaps I should be willing to take a step in that direction rather than waiting for others to move first. Maybe then I might be a light shining in the darkness of this world for others to see.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue