From the pastor

November 9, 2003

It’s about midnight. The house is quiet. The cat is curled up in HER chair in front of the fireplace. The dishwasher swishes away in the kitchen. A fullish moon is outside one window of my study and Mars outside the other. It will be Sunday in a few minutes.

In a little over 6 hours I’ll head out to the Park Inn and lead an early morning worship service for the district Lion’s convention. Then it will be on to Grace for our early service, Sunday School, the late service, and the consecration dinner.

But for now, I’m savoring the peacefulness of the middle of the night.

The day began around 8:30 a.m. (With two daughters in college, I never just assume that a person wakes up in the a.m.) On my way to the farmer’s market I stopped by the church to see the group of women preparing to leave for this weekend’s women’s retreat. There were about a dozen or so. They all seemed happy to be leaving town—unusually happy it now occurs to me. They also seemed slightly irritated that a man would taint the occasion by showing up in the parking lot. So I mumbled a blessing upon them all and scooted off to the farmer’s market.

The chilly morning cut down on the number of customers and vendors. I did purchase a sweet roll for breakfast, a nice head of cabbage for later, some tomatoes and Brussels sprouts (for later) and some flowers. I’ve been enjoying the last gladiolas of the season.

I bought a wheat floral arrangement to replace a couple Christmas decorations that I forgot to take down last winter. I am glad to report that all my Christmas decorations from last year are now put away.

Since I had friends coming over for dinner, I decided to clean the house. I started on the upstairs. And by the time I got around to the downstairs, the Brussels sprouts were in the living room. The cat had knocked them off the counter and rolled them into the living room. (Or else they just rolled in there on their own.)

Supper was great. Friends came over for fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and Brussels sprouts. Nobody wanted Brussels sprouts but me, but we had them anyway. I had a new pressure cooker—never before used—and I wanted to try it out on the Brussels sprouts. There was some concern that I might injure myself using the pressure cooker—but things went fine and the sprouts tasted great.

My friend Lee Doman arrived several hours ago. He will be leading us in worship tomorrow. Lee has been a friend for a dozen years or so. He is a United Methodist pastor troubadour. He is not assigned to any one church, but he travels the country with his guitar and his stories and his message. It is good to introduce him to Grace Church this weekend. May God bless us all as we worship throughout the morning and begin a new week to his glory. --Mike