Wintry Mix

It's snowing/sleeting/ice-pelleting outside. The weatherman has predicted 7-10 inches by tomorrow. Ugh. Sorry, but considering the fact I've been a commuter for the past 4 years, I hate snow, ice, and all things that make driving hazardous. At least I don't have to go to school tomorrow. WooHoo for only having Tuesday/Thursday classes!

In other news, tomorrow is my last day of work. I hope we're not dead slow on account of the weather. In all actuality, we probably will be. I will be unemployed for the first time in 9 1/2 years. One of my co-workers gave me a "Good Bye" card tonight with a hand-written note inside. For my reaction, see my previous post. :) That's all I've got to say about that.

You'd almost think I was the crying sort...

Tonight (well, last night if you want to get technical) I was waitressing at Restaurant. We were busy! People came in all at once, and we were somewhat short on help. But, we managed. The customers were really nice and patient, considering the cook was sort of slow on moving the food out tonight. But, he isn't usually the cook, so he did alright in my book. Anyway, two of my Tuesday night regulars were in on Tuesday, and I told them that I will be done at Restaurant on Friday. So, tonight, near the end, I was figuring up tickets (we don't have that computer thing that does them; it's done by hand) and when I was done, I put my book into my apron pocket. I turned around, and there was the Tuesday night regular man. He said, "Hey Trish! This is for you for your upcoming graduation." He handed me a card with "Trish" on it. I said, "Thank you! I really appreciate that!" And he said, "Congratulations, and good luck!" And then he turned around and left. Once we were all done with work and clean up and everything, I opened the card. It's such a nice card from him and his wife. They even wrote a note in there. It warms my heart to know that people I've come to know from there care enough about me to go out of their way to wish me the best of luck. I know I just blogged about being touched, but here I am, yet again, moved (almost to tears) by the fondness and appreciation people have shown me. A simple card means so much to me. I guess it just goes to show that it doesn't take a large, showy action to show love to those around us. We can be the hands and feet of our Lord by doing a simple action or offering a few encouraging words. I'm amazed. I'm blessed. I'm loved. I'm thankful.

Ok, so I'm a liar.

I decided to do a little blogsurfing before heading to bed. And then I remembered that I didn't talk about how worship went this morning. Duh! Well, worship went fine. I turned on the sound system as soon as I got to church and it didn't feedback my ears out, so I thought it was fine. But then one of the ushers was checking it and the sound wasn't going through it. He didn't know what to do, but luckily I did! We just put a recharged battery in it (I knew where they were from previous experience with that issue) and it was A-Ok. So, worship went well. The Sunday school kids sang. I always love that. I didn't totally botch anything, so that was good. And I got good comments at both churches. So, I finally decided that I will post a sermon. Here it is:

Church Message 18

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall;
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
couldn’t put Humpty together again.”

When I was a little kid, I liked this nursery rhyme, although I didn’t like the fact that poor Humpty Dumpty was broken forever. I mean, really. Not even all of the king’s horses and all the king’s men could put him back together again? That’s got to be a mistake. The king should be able to train his people so that they could put the poor character back together. He’s the king, after all, isn’t he!? But alas, poor Humpty Dumpty was never the same after his fall. And then I wonder, “Why was Humpty sitting on such a high wall anyway? Was he a daredevil? Was he haughtily trying to prove to those around him that he was important because he could be physically higher than they were?” I’m reminded of the characters in “The King and I” where the king demanded that Anna always be lower than he was. I imagine Humpty Dumpty must have been at least remotely important, or why else would the king trouble himself with sending out his horses and men to try to fix him? If Humpty was just some no good vagrant on the streets, Humpty probably would have just been disregarded from the outset. But instead, the king sent ALL of his horses and ALL of his men to try to remedy the situation, unfortunately to no avail. Bummer for Humpty.

As I look back on this nursery rhyme, I wonder if perhaps Humpty was able to live out his life in the shattered pieces and mess that he must have existed as once the king’s horses and men gave up on him. Maybe he could at least live with a relative or friend who could take care of him. A shelter or a mission could take him in, don’t you think? Humpty could find his livelihood doing something else besides sitting on high walls. Maybe he could get a nice desk job somewhere where the biggest threat to his safety was a paper cut on his already broken and battered self. Or maybe he could be a motivational speaker to those who were feeling like their lives had turned for the worse and were unredeemable.

Then I think that maybe Humpty was not popular at all. Maybe he was sitting high on the wall on a dare, in order to gain popularity. Perhaps he was a little too clumsy and awkward to have risked the stunt, considering what happened to him. I don’t know the answers to these questions, but the ending in the nursery rhyme leaves too many questions about Humpty Dumpty’s future.

Today’s Gospel lesson also involves a lot of questions. Pilate asked Jesus questions. Jesus answered Pilate not with actual answers, necessarily, but with more questions. Pilate then asked even more questions. Jesus told Pilate that His kingdom was not from this world. I imagine that would be a difficult concept for Pilate to grasp, considering that worldly kingdoms were all he knew. Pilate served under the Roman king Caesar. It was through Caesar that Pilate had any power at all. Pilate must have been taken aback by the unexpected reply that Jesus gave about where His kingdom existed.

But the unexpected abounds in today’s Gospel lesson. Jesus, the heralded king of the Jews was on trial. In today’s world, most world leaders are granted immunity. This was not so for Jesus because immunity would have ruined His plan of salvation. Another unexpected occurrence happened when Jesus turned the tables on Pilate. Jesus asked Pilate many questions instead of answering the ones posed to him. When I think of defendants who question the judge, I think of one phrase: “Contempt of court.”

But Jesus’ whole life was lived in an amazingly unexpected way. We are about to embark on our Advent journey where we will once again hear the stories of how He was unexpectedly conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit to a virgin. We can also remember hearing about how Jesus, the Word made flesh, came and lived among us, and was rejected by many, even though not one thing came into being without Him. We recall miracle stories where the dead are brought back to life, the deaf are made to hear, and the blind are given sight; all unexpected things. And even in today’s Gospel lesson we can see the unexpected ways in which Jesus lived His life, betrayed by His own people, and yet willing and ready to die for them to allow for their salvation.

It is rather ironic that in today’s lesson, Pilate is asking Jesus for truth. It is ironic because the Truth was standing right there in front of Him in the person of Jesus Christ. But, Pilate instead chose to go against truth and believe the lies and fabrications with which the Jewish authorities had charged Jesus. But again, Jesus was not surprised. Jesus tells us that He came to testify to the truth, and that those who belong to the truth listen to His voice. Pilate didn’t listen to the voice of Truth. Instead, he sought to pacify the crowds of Pharisees and Scribes and have Jesus crucified. But, the great thing is, Jesus once again blew away all expectations that the people had of him on that first Easter morning when He rose defiantly against the powers of sin and death.

Today is Christ the King Sunday; a day that we celebrate Jesus as the triumphant King of creation. He set His face toward Jerusalem, full well knowing that He would be arrested, put to trial, and executed once He went there. But, Jesus went anyway. Why? Because He realized our sinful brokenness. Because all the king’s horses and all the king’s men are unable to do what He alone can do: bring us to the Father. Like Humpty Dumpty, we are all broken and perhaps a little clumsy. In the song “Clumsy” by Chris Rice, he sings, “I get so clumsy, and I get so foolish. I can get so stupid, and then I feel so useless. But you’re saying you love me, and you’re still gonna hold me, and that you wanna be near me cause you’re making me holy.” Instead of sending all of His horses and men, the King came to do the job right for all who trust in Him. Because we’re all important and we all have value in His eyes, despite our shortcomings and failures. Yes, Jesus did many unexpected things in His lifetime because he’s the king and because the King is the only one who is truly able to pick us up, brush us off, and put us back together again in order to make us complete and whole.
The END

So, that's it. See ya, cuz now my shoulder and arm really hurt bad!

Ouch.

Recently, I have been undertaking the task of cleaning up the house in preparation of my graduation open house. Let me tell you, this is not an easy task. Ma used to be anal retentive about keeping a clean house, but that's not true anymore. She used to make us clean at least once a week, but that's DEFINITELY not true anymore. Anyway, Ma has several magazine subscriptions. The bad thing is, she doesn't throw the mags away once she's read them. So, our coffee table had about 6,534 magazines on it. I was cleaning the other night after work, and I threw them all away. And tomorrow is garbage day, so I was taking the trash out. I tried picking up the bag with all the magazines in it and the bag started ripping so I had to hold it from underneath, and walk all hunched over. I think I hurt myself! Yowza. Maybe it's just stress though. Bad day at work... 4 working days left; God help me through them!

Anyway, tomorrow is Ma's last chemo appointment. Then they'll give her a little break and scope her out again to see if the cancer is gone. Hopefully it will be. Because if it's not, I'm fairly certain they'll have to remove her bladder. Which would suck. But anyway, I'm going to go to bed because I'm tired and slightly crabby. Talk to ya'll later.

I'm touched.

Well, here I sit in Illinois with 1 hour and 40 minutes left for Thanksgiving as I begin this post. Today was a great day. I spent it at Sis and BiL's house. They hosted a combined "his family, her family" dinner and it was really great. I liked it having it this way. A few years ago when Ma had a boyfriend, she would go to his family get together, both of my brothers had their own "other" family things to do, my older sis usually planned to do Thanksgiving with her boyfriend/fiance of the time (now husband), and my younger sister's boyfriend was a psycho who wouldn't let her associate with her sibs very often. So, that left me. At home. All alone. And sad because it sucks to be alone on holidays. So, Sis and her bf (now husband) would invite me to his family things. They said, "What's one more? Plus, everyone likes you." So, I only had to do one or two holidays alone before BiL's family "adopted" me. And so, now that we've all come back together for Thanksgiving, it's nice to have an even bigger event with multiple families.

Anyway, dinner was ready, the turkey and ham were carved, and we were ready to start dishing up the food when all of a sudden I hear, "Trish! Trish!" I looked up and it was BiL. He said, "Come here." So I went over to where he was and he said, "Why don't you say a prayer?" And I said, "Me? I've never done the family prayer before." (We have always done, "Come Lord Jesus...") He said, "Well, this is going to be your line of work, so I'd appreciate it." So, BiL got everyone's attention and said, "Ok, listen up!" Everyone got quiet and I said, "Let's have a prayer." And then we bowed our heads and I said a prayer of thanksgiving. And at the end, we all said "Amen" and I looked up and a few of the guys were wiping tears from their eyes. And I was and still am touched because the men involved are not the crying type. Far from it, really. But I hope the prayer was able to help us all see how much we have to be thankful for. Below is basically what I said (Considering the fact I was not expecting to have to give a prayer, and that it came off the top of my head and from the bottom of my heart).

Prayer of Thanksgiving 11-23-06
Heavenly Father, we give you thanks today for the food that is about to nourish our bodies, and for the fellowship to refresh our souls.
We give you thanks especially for the two families who have come together today to share in a meal and in laughter.
We also give thanks for the many generations represented here today, that help us see that we are all connected.
Bless our time together as a family with friendship, fellowship, and laughter. For all these things, we give you thanks. For this we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Announcement!

I've blogged before about my neurotic frugal tendencies. Well, here's another story about them.

I'm graduating on December 16th, and School makes you buy your graduation gown, tassel, and cap from them. So, I did that, but I REFUSED to spend 40 bucks on announcements. A friend of mine collaborated with me and we (meaning she) did 99% of the work and printed a bunch of announcements up for me. All I had to do was figure out the verse I wanted on there and give her the details.

Be strong and courageous
Do not be terrified;
Do not be discouraged,
for the Lord your God will be with you
wherever you go
Joshua 1:9

Then, there's information about the open house we're planning to have and the school's seal is at the top. I am VERY happy about the way they turned out. G, you're the best! Thanks!

Something I haven't done in a little while

This coming Sunday, Pastor, his wife, and one of his sons are going to be out of state to visit the other son. That means that I get to lead worship! Now, Pastor has been having me help him for the past few weeks, but I don't think i do a very good job. The whole having two people lead worship thing is something we've not done regularly during my years there, and so it's a new experience. I'm trying to get better at it; I just hope Pastor stays patient with me. But, since he's gone this Sunday, I am doing it by myself at my church, and with someone else at the other church he pastors. That's easy though, because all I have to do at OC (other church) is read the Gospel lesson and preach the message. At my church, I get to do it all, except for read the lessons and the prayers of the people. I'm excited. I just got done writing church message 18. I sent it off to Pastor, so hopefully he will get a chance to read it and say yay or nay. I actually feel pretty good about this message. I hope it gets the yay. If it does, it might be the first of my sermons I ever post on here. I'm a wimp though, so we'll have to see. Anyway, just thought I'd post a little, so here it is. Have a good one, and a Happy Thanksgiving!

I broke one of my own rules!

I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I'm a VERY thrifty person. I try to adhere to a strict "One CD a year" policy. I bought a CD back in January. I have thoroughly enjoyed that CD, but I went out and bought another CD Saturday. I bought "Short Term Memories" from Chris Rice. Basically, I bought it for the song, "Go Light Your World." I have a few other songs from various "free download offers" I've received in the past couple years, but I really wanted this CD. I thought about it a lot and went out and got it. Let me tell you, there is one song on there that I think should be my anthem! The song "Clumsy" rocks my socks.

I get so clumsy,
I get so foolish.
I get so stupid,
and then I feel so useless.
But you're sayin you love me,
and you're still gonna hold me
and you wanna be near me
cause you're making me holy."

Wow. That's all I have to say. I recommend the CD. That is all.

A little song by me (Just be glad you can't hear me singing it)

Verse 1:
I go to school at Illinois State
And I like to Pro-cras-tin-ate
All my papers are gonna be late
and my group'll throw me in the river to be fish bait

Chorus:
Ooohhh, procrastinate, procrastinate
Oooohhh, late, late, late
Ooohhh, procrastinate, late, fish bait

Verse 2:
I should be writing a paper due this week
But instead I'm writing a song that reeks
Cuz I'm really a great big geek
An easy semester is what I seek

Chorus:
Oooohhh, this week, this week
Oooohhhh, song that reeks
Oooohhh, this week and my song reeks

Verse 3:
It's time to return to my stuff
I need to get off my lazy duff
I can add lots of adjective for fluff
To make my paper long ENOUGH!!

Chorus:
Ooooh, stuff, stuff, stuff
OOOhhhhh, lazy duff, lazy duff
Ooohhh, adjectives for fluff.

The End. Anybody out there gifted with putting lyrics to music? I think we have a top ten hit.

Wow...

Earlier this week, I was writing the prayers of the people when I noticed that the Gospel lesson is Mark 12:38-44. What is the big deal about that particular Gospel lesson, you say? Well, this is the lesson on which my first EVER sermon was based. Realizing that, I preached my own sermon for the first time fully 3 years ago. I preached my first sermon on November 2, 2003. Wow. Time flies when you're having fun. Later this month, I will be preaching my 18th sermon ever. I sure hope I'm improving.... :) Later.

Birthday Gospel

Ok, so I decided to not go to bed right away. Instead, I decided to do this. I've seen it done before, so I thought, "Why not?" Anyway, it is called the Birthday Gospel. Since my birthday is... today (11-10), I looked up chapter 11, verse 10 in each of the Gospels. And here they are:

Matthew 11:10-"This is the one about whom it is written, 'See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.'"

Mark 11:10-"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

Luke 11:10-"For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened."

John 11:10-"But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them."

Yup, so that's the birthday Gospel for November 10th; my birthday and Martin Luther's birthday. Yeehaw.

An example of my profound dorkiness!

The other day, I was the hostess at Restaurant. I heard the door open and close, and so I went to the hostess stand near the door. Waiting for me were five regulars. These ladies come in very regularly; almost every Thursday. I feel as if I've gotten to know them to a certain extent. I feel pretty comfortable with them, but I realized maybe I'm a little too comfortable. I saw that it was them and I said, "Hey, 'sup?" And the "ringleader" lady looked at me and said, "'Sup?" in a joking way (she's middle-aged, so you get the drift). I didn't mean to sound like such a teenager (considering I'm not one), but it just came out. So, trying to make up for my little moment of complete and utter lack of formality, I said, "Colloquialism is our friend." And then the ladies just stopped talking, looking at each other, and everything and looked at me with a look like, "What did she just say!?" Ha. So, I realize that I'm a huge dork. I wear this title with pride. Anyway, I'm off. I have an exciting day of statistical analysis waiting for me tomorrow. Thankfully, even though Ma's car isn't ready, I don't have to drive her to work. They have tomorrow off. yay! I like sleep!

Bummer.

Wow. Since I've been accepted to Seminary, I've received some forms, some pamphlets, and have been working on all sorts of paperwork. I sent my application to a hospital so that I might be accepted to enroll in the extended winter unit of CPE. I talked to the dean of students at Seminary a little while ago and he seems to think I have a chance of being accepted into the program. That would be great because I haven't taken any Greek classes yet, and thus, I won't be able to take a lot of classes. So, it would be great to get into CPE to get that "out of the way" so to speak. I also would like to take a few classes this semester. The dean said that I could take a pastoral care class and maybe a Bonhoeffer class to satisfy my "ethics" requirement. So, we'll just have to see what happens.

Anyway, I received some information from the director of housing and financial aid. I emailed her and asked her a few questions. I found out that the dorms are full for the upcoming semester. That is why the title of this post is "bummer." I've never had the dorm experience, and truthfully, I'm looking forward to it. But instead, I will have to live in an apartment. She told me there is a one bedroom apt. left, so I need to hurry up and send out my application so I can get that. Hopefully, I will be able to move into a dorm after the spring semester. I really want to do that. But anyway, we'll just have to see. Anyway, I have to go to bed now. It's late and I have to drive my mom to work tomorrow because her car is in the shop. Have fun.

Weird...

I was looking at how many visitors I had today. I noticed that I got not one, but two hits by people looking at heart related issues. That is kind of weird to me. Oh well.

Tonight is our council meeting. I have to do devotions tonight, and I don't think I'm happy with the devotion I came up with. So, I'm off to find something "better." Later, Gators.

Giving my blog posts titles has never been my forte

So, here I sit, at almost 2 o'clock in the morning. I've been doing laundry, checking my email, and bumming around. I was thinking, "Trish, you know you really do not have a bad life at all. Sometimes bad things happen and it's okay to feel sad about them, but really, you have a lot of things to feel good about." And so, I just wanted to share that with you. Even though I've been upset lately, I am not hopeless. I'm not without joy. I'm not without faith in my God who holds me dearly because I am a beloved daughter. So, despite the negative things that come my way, I am going to try my hardest to look at things in a positive way. I'm going to be optimistic (I have to! My psychological profile says I see the glass as half full; although not in those exact words) and trust that all will work out in the end. So, as I am blessed, I pray blessings upon all you, dear readers. Have a good day.

The Envelope, Please...

I got the mail today, and with it came a letter from Seminary. What does it say? Well, let's see. Oh wait, I have to go get ready for work. My bad. Tell ya later.
:)

Just messin'. I'm in. Woo doggies. More later, because I really do have to go get ready.