Monday Morning Musing: God Calling

I’m beginning this Monday after a full and lively weekend of celebrations for my new colleague at Gloria Dei,  Pastor Zach.  Or, as the waitress at lunch kept calling him “Father”.  (To be fair, she called me “Boss”).  On Saturday Zach was ordained at one of his internship sites where my dear friend is the Sr. Pastor.  In addition to incredible music (oh, Chrade, you outdid yourself), and stellar preaching, and the ordination itself, I got to hang out with colleagues from my former synod.  My people.  People I’ve done ministry with for many years and oh.  Oh.  That was what I needed.  I wept as I received communion and a blessing from them.  I wept when I encountered them for the first time since Bruce died, although most were at the memorial service.  I wept when I realized that I needed to take pictures because he wasn’t there to do it.  But the curious thing was that shedding those tears in the midst of these dear dear people made those tears feel just a bit less sorrowful. 

When I returned home that night I reached out to a member at Gloria Dei and asked them to conspire with me on the Children’s Sermon for Sunday.  As we installed Pr. Zach and as we thought with the children about how God calls us, I had that member call my cell phone.  I’d kept the ringer on loud and I’d programmed their contact information as “God”.  When the phone rang I said “oh my, who could be calling?” and asked the kids to read the incoming call on my phone.  GOD!  they exclaimed.  So much fun.

But that’s not the best part.  The best part was that early Sunday morning my phone chirped with a text alert:  “Good morning Julie,  I just wanted to remind you how much you are loved. – God”.  For five seconds, I forgot that I’d programmed my phone that way.  For five seconds that message of love settled into my heart as being from God and then it settled into my heart as being from that lovely parishioner and honestly, I felt so loved in that moment that it buoyed me through the remainder of the day. 

Dear ones, God has no voice but ours.  Let’s use our voices to remind one another how much we are loved….by God and by each other.   

This week I will celebrate twenty years as an ordained pastor in Christ’s church.  And our wedding anniversary falls six days later.  For us, this was always a week of BIG celebrating!  Often somewhere away from home and work and responsibilities.  I’ve planned to be away from work and to be with dear friends and with family and to also spend some time alone.  I’ll let you know how that goes. 

But for now, this is just a reminder of how much you are loved.