The Last Paragraph

Andy and I were talking a few days ago about how time passes and people worry about whether they are making good use of their lives. Have we done everything we wanted to do until now?And if not, how will we do better in the future? Most of us live with a slight edge of disappointment or regret when we think about our choices in life. We think about the other paths we could have taken, but didn't.

The next day I read part of a letter that a writer sent to a committee to explain why her writing assignment wasn't completed yet. She said that she had written a long, meandering draft of it, but it wasn't until the last paragraph that she finally discovered what she really wanted to write. Now she could toss the draft and write about what had appeared in the last paragraph. Oh, how I identify with that!

I think it is the latest paragraph of our lives that really matter. We do a lot of drafting of ideas along the way, but when we stop and look at the "last paragraph" we lived, quite often we find IT -- the thing we are really trying to say. Sometimes the trick is to realize that we are actually at the last paragraph of a line of thinking. For instance, I think Matt has been drafting stuff about working out and running, etc., for a while now. Then he "wrote a last paragraph" on his HTC run and now he has great new material to work with. Running went from a mental and physical discipline to a passion.

Instead of worrying about what we are doing with our lives everday, we might like to look at the way we live as writing a draft that is leading to an amazing paragraph. In that paragraph we will finally know what we are really trying to say about life.

I personally do a lot of "drafting", and not just at my drawing board. I have a big box of journals that have thousands of pages of drafts AND last paragraphs in them. Now I see how important they have been in helping me get to do what I really want to do in life.

It's OK to meander around for a while, drafting what you want to say. Eventually that last paragraph will appear and you will take off from there.

"Wonderful Baby, livin' on love..."

This song came out when my babies were little. I used to sing it to them, humming the parts where I didn't know the words. I love it, but I see now that it has a little edge to it. Oh well, it's still a great song. You can imagine Susannah in place of the baby that is in the video.

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/d/don_mclean/wonderful_baby.html

Christopher and Alexandra Atterbury!

For those who remember Chris Atterbury and Alex Henkelman, they're married! Beautiful wedding at CPC on August 23 with reception at the Temple of Scottish Rites on Lake Merritt in Oakland. Happy day, followed by happy honeymoon in Europe!
Alex's dress looked like vintage lace...
The bridesmaids wore black with bright orange sashes.
Alex designed the centerpieces using pearls and shiny beads.

The Integrity Quilt

Lately, the thing I want most in my life is to be able to have integrity, so that what I say I believe is actually how I live. I pray that my words and actions will be proof of my core beliefs.

My rough definition of Integrity is all of the pieces coming together to form one whole. The more the pieces harmonize, the better the quality of the final product.

When I taught Sunday School, once upon a time, I explained integrity as the pieces of a quilt. The various blocks, sewn together, create one blanket and the quality of the blocks make up the quality of the quilt. The more the blocks agree with a beautiful central theme, the more beautiful the quilt becomes.

Quilting is a craft that is at its best when the quilter relies entirely upon her own imagination and vision to make the quilt. Some are crazy and others are highly structured. It is the quality of the vision of the quilter, her personality and the materials she uses that makes it beautiful and unique.

It is an adventure in itself, discovering the theme for my life and choosing and trimming the blocks. I want the blocks of my life to harmonize around one good, central theme. I want it to be the most beautiful theme I can find and I want to use "blocks" (how I use my time, what I read, who I hang out with,etc.) that are as beautiful as the theme itself. What I hope, finally, is that anyone who approaches my life from any angle will find something beautiful to look at.

Lightning...then Thunder

Here is a quote from one of my heroes, Henrietta Mears:

Remember, lightning that strikes

is accompanied by thunder.

So faith that strikes

is accompanied by life and testimony.

Ten years ago this song was pretty popular. It seems to go with this quote from H. M.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdwX2-jsrKU

My message and my preaching were not

with wise and persuasive words,

but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power,

so that your faith might not rest on man's wisdom,

but on God's power.

I Corinthians 2:4-5

Hear the Music

I found the song that goes with my July 26 blog about pretty girls being like a melody. It's an old, old song that my Granddaddy probably sang to my Grandma Ruth back in the 1920's (if he did sing to her, that is). Enjoy!
http://www.corliss-lamont.org/apg.htm

Applying myself

I am currently in the process of applying to Fuller Seminary!

For YEARS I have lamented the fact that I spent my college years chasing around from one Navigator training situation to another, mostly at my parents behest, and finished four years of scattered education with just an AA degree. I always told Bern that if I had gotten my undergrad degree I could have gone to seminary. I felt sad and regretful....

These conversations usually ended with Bern saying that perhaps a seminary would recognize my life and ministry experiences and give me credit for them. Ha! I thought, who would do that?

Then my daughter had the brilliance to marry Kevin Martins who is a born researcher, as well as a kind and considerate son-in-law. Kevin, in the midst of applying to Fuller himself, discovered that there is a track called "Special Student" which accepts people on the basis of their life and ministry experience.

WooHoo! So now I am applying to seminary!

Why would a grandma like me want to do this? There is nothing I love more than seeing the light come on when I help other people understand the Bible. I have been teaching it for years, but if I really want to do it "professionally" I need some credentials. An M.Div. will help me with that. Also, I am really looking forward to testing myself in an academic environment.

Sometimes people ask the question "When you were a kid, what was your favorite day of the year?"

Most people say Christmas or their birthday. My answer is always, "The first day of school!" I loved that day every year, the new classes, the new books, pens, pencils and paper. I loved my school clothes and the new shoes that were going to rub my heels raw for a couple of weeks. I loved being with other kids and meeting a new teacher. Summer was my least favorite time, when there was nothing new to learn and the days were long and boring.

So maybe, pretty soon, I will have another first day of school. It will be different this time, but I look forward to it anyway, maybe more than ever!

By the way, now I know the immense value of the time I spent with the Navigators in those early years. Everything they taught me has been useful and there has never been another time in my life when I could have gotten that rich and wonderful training. I thank God for my parents' choices for me and for the Navs who invested in me in those years. My life has been deeply blessed because of them.

Almost all of those Navigators were self-taught lay people whose only motivation for teaching others was their passion for Christ and desire to obey Him. They did not teach what they did not practice, so I learned as much from their examples in life as I did from their teaching.

For this reason I am sending you Timothy, my son whom I love,

who is faithful in the Lord.

He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus,

which agrees with what I teach everywhere, in every church.

I Cor. 4:17

It was probably the closest I will ever get to how the Early Church functioned and it was truly a gift to my life.

I was blessed then...and now I am being blessed again!