I missed Africa so much today. When I think that its been less than a month since I returned home, it makes me sad. It feels like a lifetime ago.

I don’t know where I want to go.

I don’t know what I want to do after school.

I don’t know what I want to do with my degree.

I don’t know what I’ll be doing a year from now.

I don’t know what I will be facing next week.

I don’t know when I will lose someone I love.

I don’t know who I will share my life with.

I don’t know what to say sometimes.

I know that what I pretend to know now, will inevitably change.

But you know what?

It’s fine. That’s fine.

I have friends that are getting married! Hold the phone! (I thought I was still in grade six?!)
My lovely high school friends put on a Bridal shower for Danielle Pede. It was beautiful.

“And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.”

-Khalil Gibran

I was reminded about how much I love poetry. Poems capture truths and lies, both in words chosen, and those unspoken.

One Art

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster,

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three beloved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

– Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) a disaster.

-Elizabeth Bishop

First of all, I really cringe at this label. Although I’m not exactly sure why, I have some ideas. Division and exclusion. You put a label on something you automatically draw a line between what is an “emerging church” and what is not. You put a label on a person, and you begin to form a club.

However, I do understand that language tends towards labelling, for many reasons. And I’m not getting all worked up here.

I don’t pretend to know anything…but here are some thoughts. Take them or leave them.

The word emerging. I like it. When I think of emerging I think of something growing out of something, naturally. Growth is a healthy part of spirituality. If the “emerging church” is growing from the Christianity of the past, it will hopefully continue to have a respect for what has come before, and extend grace to everyone, no matter where they are in their spiritually journey.

I like to see people asking questions. We need many more questions.

I have panic attacks when I hear people demeaning, or being condescending to, more traditional or let’s say, (since we love labelling people) “fundamentalist” Christians. If we don’t have love we don’t even deserve to call ourselves a church, no matter what type.

A little history lesson: At the time of the Protestant reformation, the reformers were so violently opposed to the corruption in the Catholic church that they reacted in irrational fear. Centuries of beautiful artwork and architecture was destroyed and meaningful tradition forgotten. Now I’m not suggesting that a new generation of Christians are going to start burning country chapels and tearing down the steeples of Sarnia, but I believe that we must be careful to “emerge” with the wisdom that has been passed onto us. We are not an island.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the next generation of Christians would see more unity, rather than another division.

I attend Community Fellowship Church in Waterloo and I love it. I go there for many reaons, but a very prominant reason is because of the pastor there, who is an incredible speaker. Incredibly humble and intellectual. He could argue cirlces around most people, but he always approaches questions and disagreements with such an open spirit and authenticity. It just makes me so happy to be alive..haha.
He gave a couple messages about the role of women in the church, and they were really healing for me to listen to, as this issue has been one that has bothered me often.
In light of some recent conversations…and ongoing discussion, both serious and not. I’d like to recommend these messages.
Can Women lead the church?
The audio files are located at the bottom of this page. They deal with so much more than even women in the church, they are a reflection of how our spirituality and society interact on a day to day basis.
If you are not part of a church that deals with this, or had no idea that this was even an issue in the 21st Century…haha…bear with me. :)

6 million Jews died in the Holocaust.

(We wonder how something so very terrible happens while people stand by.)

AIDS has killed 25 million people.

In the next 25 years it is estimated that

31 million will die in India.
18 million in China
100 million in Africa.

When our grandchildren ask us what we did to fight AIDS. I pray we have a better answer.