From the pastor

Sunday Morning Memories

October 12, 2003

I’m thinking I have the wrong radio station on my clock alarm. It’s almost 7 a.m., and the alarm went off almost an hour ago. But I’m just getting up. It’s one of those classical music stations, and this morning they had some gentle violin music. I think the first 20 minutes just seduced me into a deeper sleep. (We all have things that do that to us: a gentle rain has a similar effect on me. My sermons have that effect on some folks.) By the time I realized that my alarm was going off, my brain was also beginning to imagine scenarios that would allow me to stay in bed. If you’ve ever watched water begin to boil, you get a picture of how my mind works when I’m waking up. Ever so slowly, these tiny bubbles begin to surface from the bottom of the pan. Small bubbles. Sort of slow. Not yet what you need to get the job done.

An idea bubbles up that maybe I set the alarm by mistake. Another idea bubbles up…maybe it’s my day off. A rude bubble shoot out—no, it’s Sunday! A gentle bubble surfaces…maybe its daylight savings Sunday and I forgot to give myself an extra hour sleep. Then another rude bubble—no, I have to wait two more weeks to enjoy that extra hour. Then…my memory of bubbles fails me because I must have dozed off for another 20 minutes.

My clock radio isn’t usually set to the classical station. When Alison is home, she frequently borrows that radio, takes it into her bathroom, puts on a loud country western station, and does her make up and hair to the noise. Then she slips the radio back into my bedroom. And I wake up abruptly to some guy with a twang who just lost his wife, his horse, or his hat.

When I wake up to country western, which I don’t particularly like, it seems I wake up ready to change the world—starting with the radio station. I suppose that’s good, my being a pastor and all. Changing the world is at the heart of Christ’s vision. What is prayer if not a verbal attempt on our part to get God involved with change: healing, thwarting misfortune, and manufacturing solutions and opportunities. We heed Jesus’ words to repent, follow him, be born again…change, change, change. Our denomination urges us to take in new members, build homes for the homeless, break down barriers that alienate people…change, change, change. Why not wake up to a radio station that aggravates me, irritates me, fires me up to do the Lord’s transforming work?

Well…sometimes I need to pause in that zone where my soul is quieted within me: no alarms, no marching orders, no reformer’s zeal bubbling up from within. I need time to dwell in that zone where the air I breathe and exhale is all gratitude. Don’t get me wrong: I do love action and creativity and divine transformation. But human beings have been created to move rhythmically between two zones: the zone of doing and the zone of simply "being." May God bless classical music and violins. And may God bless country music. And may God help that man with a twang at least find his hat. --Mike