Coming to you live and direct..the Gypsy Project
Okay so perhaps I do not have my own radio show....
I am thankful that the end of this week approaches, and I am able to celebrate as well as being immensely exhausted and saturated with community. Thankful to once more be joining you throughout another year of Seminary; for me this is the beginning..or the end?
It's strange when your pathway veers slightly and you are the only one remaining at the crossroads, your traveling companions continue and you lose sight of them in the distance and over the horizon. Then again I am not alone. I've coined the phrase "Interiddler" that is technically and officially I am still a middler having not embarked on Internship but I will be in 2013. I believe I've mentioned that it's different as orientation looms over us not seeing many of my classmates.
This beginning of the Seminary academic year however has been painful.
Each morning that I have gathered in the Grand Hallway or the Common Room, and seeing familiar faces I thought I'd still be in pain as last week we gathered to mourn the loss and celebrate the life of one of our classmates who now rests with the Creator. It was also strange as those events unfolded that my spirit could not mourn.
As I requested prayers through Facebook and Twitter one comment that arose covered in thorns was "There is a lot of depression at...."
Teachers who have to deal with students who are either homeless, abandoned by their parents because of their own shortcomings or involved in violence..they are depressed. Police Officers, EMT's, medical personnel, chaplains whose duty and passion is to protect, heal, save or walk with people and see the absolutely ugly side of humanity...they can be down. Community organizers who want to uplift a neighborhood or community and have political as well as personal roadblocks placed in front of them...can be locked in despair. Because where and what God has called us to and blessed us with this call, because we are dedicated to being bonded to our brothers and sisters in Christ, our brothers and sisters through faith sometimes we get disappointed in what life does not or will not yield to our very being and we feel...well...drained.
What I saw last Friday as we gathered together as the wider community were people who came to share the peace as strangers, neighbors and friends. What I witnessed was one young man's life that had touched so many. What I knew was that our lives can not just remain rooted in the depths of mud and muck; that the showers that rush and playfully douse our physical presence remind us of who we are and whose we are. What I know is that this year, striving to be intentional, vulnerable and pastoral to one another only fuels the fire of what our risen Christ wants us to learn and wants us to live out.
So it is alright to laugh and connect and just be as if everything was the same this week. And yet, reaching out to one another we have a deeper understanding of what it truly means to be brothers and sisters in the risen Christ. For many it is the beginning of a journey of self discovery, for others it is the end of a cornucopia of craziness and delight as first call begins its rise upwards to reveal itself.
For myself it is the beginning of a deeper understanding of what it means to be truly called and the end of being in familiarity and embarking into the unknown, knowing that through the power of the Holy Spirit, God, Our Creator cradles us and Christ travels with us.
Rest well Alpha. Hope you are eating all the Honey O's with tons o ice cream(?) and chocolate syrup(?) that you want. Even while you are not with us, you still make us laugh.
Lape Bondye, God's Peace.
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