Blog: From the Pastor's Desk

 When I think of the early morning I remember the summer of 2009, I was the naturalist at Camp Blue Diamond and roomed with Craig the lifeguard. Every morning Craig had to get up and go down to the lake to oversee 7 AM polar bear swimming. It was a voluntary activity for everyone but him, the campers won an award if they attended enough times. That summer, I decided to go every single day possible, something I continued the rest of my summers at camp. I loved our quiet walks down. We were both groggy and quiet, (no coffee till after the swim) the only sound was that of nature and our flip-flops. Sometimes we had to wait 5-10 minutes for the others to arrive, the two of us sitting quietly on a retaining wall watching the lake quietly mist in the rising early sun. The matinal stillness imploring us to just be… until we all ran screaming into the lake and sang our traditional song at the top of our lungs.
 
I love quiet mornings in the woods. It is a space for reflection, the emotions of the day before numbed, the immediacy of things blunted. The new day’s beginning a reminder that life keeps moving forward. The grief of yesterday may still be there, but the dawn pushing forward the spirit to work on that which must be done. 
 
Can you see the women? They’re wrenching themselves out of bed before the sun has cleared the horizon? A little stale bread from the day before and a sip to wash it down, that cold empty feeling in their souls that happens only after one cries out all their tears. He was dead, a little more than a day and a half ago, dead and entombed. Time’s march pushing them to go do their work, to see his body once more and prepare it. Warm cloaks wrapped about bodies as they quietly make their way through the mists, eyes not-seeing, ears not-hearing. Each one remembering everything that happened with the quiet acceptance of an exhausted morning mind. Until they reach the gaping maw of the tomb, the stranger in white, and the missing body. Minds and bodies now fully awake, racing to comprehend, to tell others. All those things quietly accepted just a bit before dashed upon an unexpected reality.
 
They had been walking through a silver glass garden, only to find that when the new day had truly come with the sun bursting into the sky that the dullness was only an illusion and this world is full of far more color and life than they ever knew. There was life where there was not before, new light in what was dark, and joy where there was grief. 
 
Happy Easter, may it shock you into the full brilliance of a New Day.​

 
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​​ Spiritual Practices, exercises for the mind, heart, and soul
 
Caring for your spiritual wellbeing is often the last thing on our list, but it is important! I would like to challenge you to find a way to engage regularly, and want to offer up some possibilities. 
 
Creative Imagining
 
I often like to put myself in a biblical person’s space. Sometimes we know a lot about a character, we can get a feel for their character through multiple stories, or we can borrow from what we know from other sources. Other times we can take from our own experiences and read them into the tale. Take some time and rewrite a story from the Bible, ponder Samson’s search for love, explore Saul’s motivations, or live Esther’s fear and bravery. Draw connections between your lived experience and theirs’. Perhaps you will be better able to see God in your daily life. 

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