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| Photo by Amanda Woodward. Used by permission. |
Okay, yeah, it's the first day of the new liturgical year. The first Sunday of Advent. Year A, for those of you keeping score. Gospel of Matthew.
Liturgical geekery aside, I'm ready for a new start. It was approximately a year ago that the Unbloggableness got started, and even now, several months after the last bit of official handling that mess required, the healing process is continuing in fits and starts - sometimes it's weeks without considering it, and sometimes something trips your memory and you're furious all over again. It's well past time to be done with this, and well past time to be doing something instead of dealing with something. So, a new year, a new start.
The U.B. isn't the only thing I'm anxious to put behind me. I've gained another fifteen pounds this year through lousy diet and sloth. I've spent far too much time messing around on message boards and not nearly enough time reading books, watching good TV and good movies. I've put off house projects and dithered on things that could have been handled much more quickly if I'd put my mind to it. In general, it feels like I've been sleep-walking for about a year now, and I'm ready to be awakened.
Right now I'm sitting next to the fire at the Lutheran Center in Ames. Six students are here with me, doing homework, the Sunday crossword, and just hanging out. These incredible people have deserved so much better from me this year: better sermons, better attention, better leadership. This Advent I want to start over with all of them. Thanks be to God, one can do just that. Maybe I can't undo the sloth of the past 12 months, but I can sure as hell spend the next 12 making up for it. So: commence.
Grace & peace,
Scott
I hear you on that. Blessings in your new year.
ReplyDeleteSame to you and yours, Liz.
ReplyDeleteThis is timely for me, as tomorrow marks one year exactly since my last time in the pulpit at my own UB place.
ReplyDeleteThe year? I'm not sure I spent it exactly in a way that was industrious. Mostly I spent the first five months curled in the fetal position. Then I got angry. But I've spent the last six weeks leaving it all on the gym floor, and in the pool. And it helps tremendously.
I still don't know what lies ahead. But damn, skippy, I'm getting strong. It's a start.
Blessings on you and your beloved.