Three is a Magic Number

Let me tell you what happened at my church today. The front of the worship center was filled by kids and youth working on creative projects. While a 2-year-old was dancing up and down the middle aisle, the l ead pastor stopped his sermon to tell all the parents in the room that it was their job to relax, sit back, and enjoy worship without worry. During a musical meditation, in front of everyone , a 4-year-old felt the freedom to run across t he room, up to the choir loft in order to show her mom the project she made.     During the last song, a seven-year-old, took it upon herself to walk up and down the aisles , passing out the creative masterpieces she had made.   People, this is my place.  I’m watching all this today and thinking to myself:  Oh my gosh, I lead this community of faith. I lead this church , where children feel total freedom to be themselves and share themselves with others. During Holy Week, I often blog about atonement, dealing with the harde

If you are starting to feel as if you’re on the wrong side of history, it's ok; just get on the right side.   Join the resistance. I know many good, smart people who voted for Trump because they wanted change, they didn’t like Hillary, they figured he’d change once he took office, or they always vote republican no matter what. And I know some of these good, smart people must be looking at this week thinking, “Oh, wow, this isn’t really what I thought it was going to be.   Better keep my head down and my mouth shut.” If you are feeling like you need to cocoon in, resist.  Keep your eyes up.   Stay alert.   Resist the tactics of lies (i.e. crowd sizes and illegal votes) to confuse you on reality.   Resist the tactics of fear mongering to turn you against others because of religion or ethnicity.   If your moral compass is getting confused, the tactics are working.   Resist. Good, smart people: if you need a way out, simply say your vote was a misunderstanding.   I

At church, some weeks are more fun than others.  I laughed so hard this week, my stomach muscles were sore. It was a fun week : our preschool hosted pajama day, some of our staff dressed in Winnie the Pooh costumes, new families toured the building, we had a successful middle school parent night, and a spur of the moment decision to put up some decorations led to more decorations, and more decorations... and more... one thing leading to another.  We just kept going.  When reflecting about the Being the Hope Community with a colleague, it hit me, "This is my dream job!  Oh my gosh, this is my dream job .  This is what it feels like!"  This community is amazing.  When I came in, they affirmed my skills and gifts and celebrated some of my ways that are a tad unconventional.  And as we keep doing this thing called church, I feel like they keep telling me in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, "Keep going.  Let's keep going."   This church literally seeks chang