Post #9: The Weekend Came

The weekend came, it's almost gone,

I wonder where it went?
Kind of like my paycheck,
Remind me where it's spent.

The dogs are running round the house,
Tearing up the place,
In my lap and coming close,
To try and lick my face!

Will work tomorrow be a blast,
Or will it be a bust?
You'll know for sure on Monday night,
If in this blog I cussed!

The weekend came, then waved adieu,
Though church today was sweet.
I'm tired beat, I'm tuckered out,
And off to prop my feet.

Post #3: I cried in church yesterday

I adore my church; it's a friendly, loving, welcoming place to worship. It is like an oasis in the desert after my decade-or-so self-imposed exile from organized religion. After 28 years of hyper-organized religion, I was deeply hurt by the treatment I received from many "Christians" who I thought had been my friends. It is a joy to be part of the College Avenue Congregational Church family, full of loving people living out their faith in practical ways. Another thing I enjoy is that this church encourages the church body to wrestle with scripture and entertains any question. Gone are the days when I attend a church where I am told to just believe something that doesn't seem to be believable to me, personally.

At the end of the sermon yesterday, Pastor Michael quoted this scripture which is one of my favorites. Sitting at the piano with my back to the congregation, I fought back tears, thinking about how important this text has been to me at difficult times in my life. I'm surprised that I don't have this one memorized already. Given all that's happening with my employment and my concerns about the coming election, this seems particularly relevant to me right now and I suspect it might be helpful to others as well.

Romans 8:35-39: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There Is A Time

Yesterday was my second service as the music director at College Avenue Congregational Church in Modesto...that church is such a blessing in my life. It is a fun place to worship and God is really using it to complete a healing within me.

The church is unconventional in many ways; if you live in the Turlock/Modesto area, then you already know what I mean; it’s welcoming and affirming. The minister is really upbeat and funny and he does the most creative things with the sermons and with the children’s sermon.

Yesterday, he told the kids about a dream he had where this Church Inspector lady came to see whether our church measured up to the expectations of the church authorities. He became that lady by donning pink gloves and a very church-lady hat, complete with a stringy wig and he made his way around the Fellowship Hall noting who was dressed appropriately for church and noting that we didn’t have a normal cross in our make-shift meeting place on his little clipboard. I couldn’t help but think he looked like Dana Carvey from the Saturday Night Live Church Chat sketches. Since our sanctuary is being re-done, we’re meeting in the Fellowship Hall. His point was that people are the church, not the building, and that our group of souls is just as much a church as any other. His sermon was called Steeple Envy; the children’s portion ended with us all playing, “This is the church, this is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people.”

Just after the children’s sermon, Grace Lieberman sang a song that brought me to tears. There Is A Time by Craig Courtney is just a lovely piece and the accompaniment was obviously written by a pianist since it just “fits” in your hands so well! The words of that song are from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:

There is a time, there is a season for every purpose under Heaven:
A time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to reap,
A time to kill, a time to heal, a time to destroy, a time to build.
There is a time, there is a time.


A time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance,
To scatter stones, to gather stones, a time to embrace, and to refrain.
A time to search, a time to lose, a time to hold, a time to release.
There is a time, there is a time.


A time for silence, a time to speak, A time to love, a time to hate.
A time for war, a time for peace. There is a time, there is a time.

Many times during the service on Sunday, I was moved to tears; needing to lead music and play effectively, I just sucked it up and kept the tears to a small trickle, but they were really flowing on the inside, just the same.

The path of my life has been rocky at times and still, I often don’t really know what is coming next. But God whispered into my heart yesterday that at this time and at this place in my life I am in just the right spot. Though there are some who feel compelled to judge me, I answer to God and God alone and I’m fortunate to have finally realized that after all these years.