There’s something about summer nights, with the cool breeze blowing in the window and the quiet whirrrr of the fans, that energizes me. But alas, I really should be getting to sleep.
g’night!
summertime turns me into a night owl
Reply
Monthly Archives: May 2006
time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so
I’ve been out of school for two weeks, and today was the first day that actually felt like vacation. I slept in, made myself a big cup of coffee, read a book, watched a documentary on street performers (that I highly recommend), and straightened up the house. My parents came home from their trip to Florida and we put together our brand new grill for a barbecue dinner. I went to Bible Study and then out to ice cream with the girls (well, they got ice cream, I got french fries). Christine and I went to the pet store and she got a new fish. It was a good day.
Kayla, hon, I promise I haven’t forgotten about you. Don’t you find it the least bit odd that every single time we try to get in touch something comes up or life throws a curve ball? I’m calling you tomorrow. Be ready.
Monday May 29, 2006A New Home progress report: containment and water bottles
I made a rather wonderful discovery last night. As I mentioned, I don’t like the look of the exercise pen very much, and I had considered using wire grids (see here), but the dimensions wouldn’t have exactly matched my flooring giving me yet another aesthetic dilemma.
Then I remembered that several years ago I had bought a Configure Gate system: two panels and one gate. It’s in storage at the moment, but on a whim, I decided to check the dimensions online. The panels are 24″ wide! Which means that if I buy another panel, I can have something that contains the bunbuns, while looking nice and fitting my flooring perfectly. And I get the added benefit of easy access with a gate.
So that made my day for sure.
In related news, I’m going to buy the rabbits a Water Buddy. Rex has never been a fan of those bottles with stainless steel balls, but water bowls get dirty very quickly, and I’m always afraid they’re going to spill it or run out of water when I’m not around. I’ve heard a lot of really good things about the Water Buddy, so it sounds like just the thing we need.
360
Stephen decided to come to church with me yesterday, instead of attending our old church. If my parents were home, the kidlets would just go wherever they were going that week. But with them gone, I had to shuttle Hannah to a friend’s house so that they could bring her to church. I had intended to do the same for Stephen – all of their friends are at that church, and its where they’ve grown up. But instead, he asked if he could come with me.
I was born and raised a Heinz-57 Protestant and pastor’s daughter. I left my nondenominational church eight months ago to join the Orthodox Church. It’s a long and astoundingly simple story: God led me there. In the meantime, my dad retired from his position of nearly 25 years. He doesn’t have a new pastoring position lined up, so for the time being, my family is church floating. Dad has done a lot of guest speaking engagements, conferences, etc. while trying to build up some business on the side. This is a time of tremendous change for our family, and I won’t get into all the details here, but one of the net results is that the kids don’t have a church “home”, so to speak.
On the ride over, after we dropped Hannah off, I asked him why he wanted to come with me. I love the kid, but I know that the long service and huge chunks of Greek language can be a little much for a fifteen year old boy, especially when he’s not accustomed to doing it week after week. Just as importantly, I wanted to know why he didn’t want to go to our old church. He said, “[X-church] is demanding. Your church is calming.”
I’ll admit, that wasn’t quite the answer I expected. But it gave me a lot to mull over.
My first thought was, Well, Orthodox worship is pretty demanding. Liturgy literally means ‘the work of the people’. We stand for most of the hour and a half service, we sing, we cross ourselves, we chant responses. It is work, and you can expect to be pretty worn out by the end of it all. So in that sense, our worship is demanding.
But it’s a different kind of demanding. At our old church, like many evangelical churches, you’re expected to bring something to worship. An energy, an excitement, an emotion. There’s this sense that you need to give something to God (a tenuous theological position if ever there was one). In the Orthodox Church, we bring nothing but ourselves, and we give nothing but ourselves. Broken, imperfect people, who are desperate for grace. That’s why we sing, “Lord, have mercy” over and over. Not because we think that God will zap us out of our pews, but because we realize that we need God. It is mercy, forgiveness, and grace that characterize our worship, not working up feelings and energy. No wonder someone would think it demanding. If I’m relying on myself to make the worship experience ‘true’, then I will only be disappointed.
