40 Prayers of Hope and Gratitude, for Bruce

May 2, 2009 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: Job Search, Life, Religion, Work, Youth 

Tomorrow is the birthday of Bruce Reyes-Chow, a friend and currently the moderator of the PC(USA).  On his blog, he asks for some very charitable birthday “gifts” to him.  One of them is “a list of prayers for 40 things for which you are grateful, gives you hope or are in need of God’s healing“.  (Besides – he needs a little love.  The first comment on the post attacked him for a position of faith and politics – on a post related to his birthday!)

I can do that.

  1. For my wife, who I am VERY grateful for.
  2. For my family (parents and siblings) and the relationship that we have that didn’t look too likely for a while.
  3. For Barbara, Jill and Kathy – former co-workers who are being very supportive during my career transition.
  4. For the youth group at my church.  I am both grateful for them, and they give me hope.  Some of them need your prayers for healing.
  5. For the horde of Twitterati who follow my every tweeted move, give me music when I need it, give me information when I need it, and entertain me.
  6. For Rich, Jeremiah, Jill, Gooitzen, Elsa, Aaron and others from my church family who are being very supportive during my career transition.
  7. For the many recent and near-future seminary graduates that I interact with, who are both a source of hope and in need of prayers to find their destinations.
  8. For S (who will remain otherwise nameless here but I’m sure is reading this), for being/assisting my sense of call and helping me to explain my Montreat experience.  You know who you are.
  9. For the children in my neighborhood, who remind me of the relative importance of parts of life.
  10. For healing for those on all sides who have been hurt by the whole Amendment B business.
  11. For my cats.  Gratitude for them being there for me and entertaining me.  Hope that they radiate (particularly when it’s snack time).  Healing for both as they age and begin to suffer the effects.
  12. Hope from the members of my church’s confirmation class, who were able to teach parts of the lesson that I was teaching.
  13. Healing for two youth workers waiting for transplants.
  14. Gratitude for those who have let me put my skills to work for them while I’m seeking a job.
  15. Gratitude for my sister whose birthday is today (sharing it with Bruce’s “Middle” child).
  16. Healing for everybody else hurt by the economy.
  17. Healing for everybody else hurt by greed.
  18. Hope and healing for those with obstacles between them and what God is calling them to.
  19. Healing for those affected by swine flu Hamthrax H1N1 and gratitude that it is turning out to be mild for most.
  20. If it is of a mild nature and has a habit levitra cheap online of giving of themselves or making themselves vulnerable is another category of affected trust. Upon careful evaluation of your levitra prescription particular case, your doctor would then prescribe and suggest an effective solution of men’s erection issue. People who need this remedy often have digestive problems with gas and bloating, order levitra canada and an energy slump in the late afternoon and evening. cialis no prescription Know that the drug has certain side issues as well.

  21. Healing for those suffering from mental illness.
  22. Healing for Mom, who had two teeth pulled yesterday.
  23. Hope for/about Sara, who is taking the first steps in a new direction.
  24. Gratitude for and hope from Rich who is letting me find my place in the youth ministry.
  25. Gratitude for Lorelei.  Everybody needs a Lorelei, some of them the same one.
  26. Gratitude for two places on the entire planet (outside of my relationship with Carolyn) where I have been able to be myself 100%:  Camp Johnsonburg and Montreat.
  27. Healing for the people whose prayer cards come to me each week after worship.  Hope that my prayers are helping.
  28. Healing for the people of Sudan, of Somalia, and other places where oppression and violence reign.
  29. Gratitude for Tim, Jessica, Jessica, Nancy, Carolyn, Andrea, and a few others who have been there during my darkest hours (whether they realize it or not).
  30. Gratitude for the Project Open Door task force – it was great working with all of you, and I look forward to the next steps.
  31. Healing for all of those who feel that fighting about minutia is more important than loving one another.
  32. Hope and healing for all who feel that being somewhere else is what they have to do.
  33. Gratitude and hope for all of those who I’ve networked with during my career transition.
  34. Gratitude for the opportunity to play the drums again for a purpose.
  35. Hope (healing?  help?) for the God Complex radio staff and talent that we’ll be ready by Monday.
  36. Healing for those that I have hurt and have not reconciled with (and for me to do so someday).
  37. Gratitude for polity – specifically that of the PC(USA).
  38. Gratitude for that unexplained good mood that strikes sometimes.
  39. Hope?  Healing?  for my personal discernment in this season of change.
  40. Healing for all of my issues that I’ve chosen not to mention here.
  41. Gratitude, hope for/from, and healing if he needs it for Bruce.

Happy Birthday, Bruce!  Welcome to the over the hill gang.

Friday Roundup

July 27, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Life, Religion, Work 

For reasons that will be clear below, I’ve been quiet this week.  Here’s a roundup.

Work
The big event this week happened on Wednesday.  My work laptop (which I’ve had since 2001) caught a virus mid-morning.  It appears that this virus’s purpose in life was to download other viruses, spyware, trojans, pop-ups, and to take over the box so completely that the machine was unusuable.  I finally had to resort to contacting our Desktop Support folks (I prefer to fix my own problems most of the time) and we agreed that there was no point in saving the box.  The hard drive was wiped and is being reloaded from scratch.  I have a loaner PC for a few days while they complete the reload, and then I’ll have to spend time getting the reloaded PC back to the way I like it.

I’m an IT person.  For us, the loss of a PC or changing PCs is a very emotional thing.  We spend at least 8 hours a day working on the PC.  To us, the PC is a lot like home – we install applications that make life easier, we change the background, we have our lists of bookmarked websites, etc.  Losing the PC to a virus or hard-drive crash is like your house burning down.  Moving onto a loaner PC is like staying in a hotel – you can’t really do much to it and it doesn’t feel quite like home.  The one exception to this rule is a better PC.  That’s like selling your 1500 sq. foot house and moving into a 2400 sq. foot house.  It’s an upgrade!

I may also get upgraded in the near term – I’m waiting to hear.

Also happening at work this week – the division that I support got a new top guy.  He is something we haven’t had for many years – knowledgeable about the business, makes good decisions, and is a friendly person who is easy to work with.  We haven’t had that combination since about 1998.  This bodes well for the business.  If he were able to get the culture changed (which includes people outside of his control – so I don’t think it’s likely) I might consider staying.

Camp
I’m headed back to camp for check-in this coming Sunday.  I’m looking forward to it, as I always do.
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Church
Our new Associate Pastor ran the service last weekend alone – our senior pastor is on vacation.  She did a great job.  I wonder if anybody else saw her take a deep breath just before she stood up to speak the first time.

Another amazing thing.  An “older” woman (older than my parents) had some sort of back issue.  When I started attending last year, she was essentially permanently bent over at a 90 degree angle using a walker with wheels.  Then she disappeared for a while, and when she showed up at church she was standing straight!  This past week she was the musical soloist, and at her age she still has a very strong and true voice.  It’s good to see her get back to something else that she had lost.  Very inspirational!

I’m a little worried about the youth group.  I didn’t go on the Mission Trip a few weeks ago.  I’m sensing that the group is at least temporarily breaking into two groups – those who went on the trip and those who didn’t.  After the fund raiser for the trip at the beginning of June, the youth director stopped inviting people (students and advisors) who weren’t going on the trip (reasonable – the meetings were about the trip).  I spoke with the adults and youth who went on the trip and I felt a fairly universal vibe from the youth – if you didn’t go on the trip you let them down.  I would have hoped that the folks who stayed home (including some of the students) would have been formed into the “Pit Crew” or “Support Team” or even “Prayer Team” supporting those who made the trip.  On the up side, I seem to have been active and supportive enough that I’ve been included in the group that plans things for all 3 groups (Jr. High, Sr. High, Young Adult) and we’re meeting next week.

Home
Wife is good.  House is good.  Cats are good.  We need to paint a few things around the house, and we need to get the fireplace chimney fixed/replaced.  Otherwise all is well.  I’m most of the way through the new Harry Potter (no comments with spoilers, please).

That’s the Friday roundup.  Have a nice weekend!