I didn’t win the Super Bowl or the World Series, but I will still scream out to the blog community that tomorrow I’m goin’ to Disneyland tomorrow until Thursday! My parents are taking all of us to celebrate in the happiest place on earth. Our kids have never been, and are really, REALLY excited!
I’ll be taking blog stock while I’m gone…thanks to those who’ve said you’ve missed me as I’ve been quieter than usual! I’ll try to come back having found my voice again.
In the meantime, I’ll ask your help for next week’s message. John 15: 1-17 is on the docket. Here’s what I’d really like to hear from you: what does it look like, for you personally, in a very practical way, to draw nourishment from Jesus the vine? In other words, what actual, real practices help you to hear from and live for God? And, of course, I always love any thoughts or questions on the text that you have.
Thanks in advance, and have a great week.
Hope the weather’s better for you all than it was for me a couple weeks ago.
Do you know how to do the fast passes? You need to know that you don’t *have* to use them between the times printed on the ticket and when the beginning time of one ticket comes around you can go get another one. That means E can stand in line with the girls and get Cinderella’s autograph and you can leave to collect fast passes then when you’re all ready, you can go from one cool ride to the next without standing in line. You should also know that Pirates is on a different computer and not connected to the others so you can have a fast pass to it and another main attraction at the same time. It will make sense when you get there.
If you’d gone last week you could have heard Gerturde playing with the band. Disneyland with your own family is really, really, really fun. I’m so glad you’re going!
Watch for my wife & girls while you’re there. Have a great time!!
I am SO jealous! My whole family is down there right now… and I’m stuck at work. BUT…. Brad and I are going in June to celebrate my big 3-0 with the Mouse 🙂 Enjoy!!!!!!!!
My mom would interject that Disney*World* is the happiest place on earth, but that’s because she’s Southern and would prefer to go to Orlando (though it’s all the way across the U.S.) than L.A. But then again, that’s my mom. 🙂
Dude, Disneyland during Spring Break? My thoughts will be with you. If you get stressed out, go to California Adventure and ride the big orange: that’s what my brother used to do before (and after) big tests. It was a tough time, going to the BIble Institute Of Los Angeles. 🙂
HAVE FUN!!!!!
OH, and if one of your party gets hurt and needs a wheelchair because they broke a teeny tiny part of their foot on the STUPID wooden rollercoaster at Six Flags, then you can not only cut to the front of the line, but you can see all the cool ways to cut to the front (hidden tunnels and such). It sounds like fun, but when it’s raining and you have to wear a blue poncho over your wheelchair, well – that’s not the happiest thing on earth.
I heard recently that the best time to go to Disneyland is DURING the Superbowl, when most of America is distracted and the lines are significantly shorter.
But this week, I really wanted to write about the text.
I’m sure you remember that this line about “I am the vine, you are the branches” was the theme of the World Gathering of Young Friends last summer. We just got a letter from the Pacific Yearly Meeting young Friends who went describing some of the fruit of the gathering so far. One Friend spent two months visiting Friends he had met at WGYF in Central and South America. Two of them have gone back to school to study more about Quakerism, especially the broader range of Quakerism that they encountered at WGYF (i.e. evangelical Friends). One of them became a PYM rep to Friends World Committee on Consultation, Section of the Americas, and just came back from the gathering in Chiquimula. Another is doing a Quaker internship in Seattle and working in a battered women’s shelter. Are there similar fruits occurring in NWYM?
I have a question about the text – this doesn’t sound much like unconditional love: “When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. ” It sounds a lot more like a friend of mine’s father-in-law: “if you live here in my town, and work at the work I think is right for you, I will show my love for you and your children and I will take you on vacation with us and give you the money for the down payment on a house in our neighborhood and help you in your career, just like I did for your brother. If you don’t, you’re on your own. Don’t come looking to me for favors.” Which has not made for a really healthy relationship in this very human case.
For me personally, the practices that are currently helping me hear and live for God are in large part about submitting a decision that Chris and I have to make to a clearness committee , four Friends from our Meeting, to help us listen to each other, to ask us questions, to help us plan time to just sit with the question, to take seriously that this is a decision about a spiritual leading, not just a decision we can make on our own.
Another thing is reading blogs, funny enough. The questions in your sermon from a couple of weeks ago, about whether I was making decisions to pursue the glory and honor of God, rather than the glory of my own career, looking for the accolades of Friends rather than the submission of my will, was helpful. I shared some of that with our committee, in fact, and it has helped me to see more clearly. Another blogger, Embracing Complexity, is also sorting out career interests and concerns from a spiritual perspective and that has been helpful.
Chris and I have been taking turns reading a chapter from the Bible out loud to each other each night before we go to sleep. We started at the point where Chris was already reading, in Luke, and now we’re almost catching up to you in John. I first heard of doing this at the one emergent church type gathering I went to in San Francisco a couple months ago, and although it was just mentioned briefly, it has been the piece that has stuck with me the most. It has been interesting to see how something that has come up during the day or the week is reflected in the passages that we are reading. There is something very special about reading it or hearing it read out loud, not just reading to myself. And it has been good for our marriage to spend this time together, on something that isn’t “productive”, not related to children or scheduling or housekeeping, or even intended for a specific writing or Meeting project. Just having something that we share, that we look forward to at the end of each day. And it keeps us both connected to the Vine.
And the Di-Vine.
Thanks, all, for the well-wishes and advice!
Robin, thanks a ton for what you wrote. I’ll sit with it some more and either post about it or drop you an e-mail. Thank you!