Last Monday I drove down here to school to start the spring semester. It is somewhat hard to imagine, but if all goes well in less than one year from today I will have another expensive piece of paper to reflect the experiences of the last several years of my life. It was with joy that I came to school, however at the same time there was some joy and longing for that December day when I can say, “I’m done, I’m done, at least for now and this degree.”
The classes which I am taking this term from first impressions (and second impressions for my Monday Class) all seem to be interesting and challenging. It going to be a struggle however for taking the load that I am taking, along with my work with the Temple and Mission center, trying to force joyfully encourage myself to take a day of rest, a day of Sabbath, each week, and to eat, sleep, drive to and from school, stay in contact with friends and family, clean, to take my meditation and prayer time and…. I’m not sure that it is possible to do all I have to to do in a week in just seven days, only time will tell.
Last week I was able to hit the road a bit earlier than I though I would be able to. Thus I arrived in Kirtland just as the weekly discussion group started. That group is one of the highlights of my week, and I was sad I would not be able to be participating directly in it do to my class schedule. However, It looks like most weeks I will be able to, though I may be a bit late depending on traffic and what time I get out of with Church History II.
The one class I have not yet had is my pre-emersion meeting for my cross-cultural emersion experience this summer in the DR Congo. I will have the first session this Wednesday, and another I think the last week of February. I am looking forward to the trip, though I wish I would stop reading travel warnings and such from various government bodies of various nations in regard to travel, health, safety… of those traveling there. Though I am fairly certain I will not have the opportunity to visit any Community of Christ congregations while there, I wish I could have that opportunity to engage and experience the worship and fellowship of my sisters and brothers in their home setting.
As part of my retinue every so often I look at the current openings of Community of Christ. In a year I hope to have the opportunity to serve in someway related to my call and my passion. Today as I looked through various postings of positions I saw some that intrigued me and wish I could learn more about. However as I am still a year from graduation, I feel as it is perhaps to early to inquire about them. As I feel they probably desire to fill them sooner than later, and yet perhaps I should? I don’t know, and hope there will be some that interest me and which I am qualified for when that day of graduation draws nearer, and that I will at least be considered. at the same time I wonder, will I be qualified for any position? I have served the church in a variety of ways, but in part due to my sense of multi-congregational ministry, I have shied away from some of the more clear cut and defined roles. Thus many of the leadership roles I have held are ones without titles, ones that are not clearly defined in some handbook somewhere, but rather roles that allow the gifts and talents I have and am able to engage to help serve the needs of the people in concert with their gifts and talents and the ministry they have to offer to and with me. even now when I have a several page long document describing my current ministerial roles with the Kirtland Temple and the Mission center, I do so without a title to sum up or define what it is that I do. So how do I define it on a resume or application? I wonder to as I engage my calling, if I apply and get hired for a position in another land if my sisters and brothers there would engage and challenge me so that we could all grow in our sharing of the peace of Christ and sustaining one another on the Path of Discipleship? Am I willing to engage and to not be afraid of where I am call, where we are called? I hope so, or at least hope any fear I can engage as a hiking stick rather than a impossibly high, long, and thick wall.
So at this time I realize two things, one I have no idea how a post that was spawned by a desire to write about thoughts on politics never once dealt with that topic, and two the need to pray. So rather than closing as normal and then going and praying silently I offer the prayer hear. If these words speak to you feel free to pray with me. (Prayer has been redacted to allow potential of greater participation)
— Lyle IIDear Eternal Life Giving One;
I can not help but rejoice at the sound, sight, and smells of your wonderful creation. The entirety of my soul rejoices and cries out in joyful song to you. excited, and trilled to be a part of your amazing creation formed from your creative love. I look at my life and I see where I have stumbled and fallen, I look at the world and see your creation calling out in pain. I look, I feel, I see, I smell with every fiber of my being that pain, and yet can not fathom the tears that must roll from your eyes. Yet I see hope, I see your love, I see your dream ass expressed in the birth, life, ministry, teaching witness, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ and the continuing presence of the Living Christ. I see hope and recognize your love when I look back and see your Spirit comforting me and lifting me back up each time I fell, each time I felt all alone and unloved. I have seen it in the joyous smiles, the compassionate hug, of others who have encountered that love as well. I feel it in my calling to be with all of your creation, and seek healing and reconciliation for all. So that one day your wonderfully created creation may be restored to the loving and good state it was created to be, where all are treated with respect and dignity, where all know they are of inestimable worth, and that they are loved, and where the earth flourishes once more. <….> Please Gracious One allow me to be that disciple you call me to be, always growing, but not alone, instead with others in community. Help me share the life giving water, to continue to break and share the bread and wine of life with all who I encounter that one day we may be in true, healthy, holistic, resorted, and right relationship. That we will truly as all of your creation, love and care for one another, respecting and honoring our differences and growing from our disagreements together. Allow me to be, as broken as I am, a mirror to help shine your amazing love, peace, joy, and grace with all I encounter, and also a receptacle for the love, peace, joy, hope and grace they reflect towards me.
In your son’s most holy name I come unto you in prayer,
Amen
redacted from Personal Prayer and Reflections of Lyle II by Lyle R. Anderson II, used by permission all rights reserved.