Re-formation

It's time for the post I seem to write every year on October 31st.
The "I celebrate Reformation Day and not Halloween" post.

So, let me start here - last year a friend of mine who is Catholic informed me that she really didn't appreciate Reformation Day any more than Halloween.  I believe her reasoning was something along the lines of "why celebrate the beginning of truly incredible schisms and disunity in the body of Christ?"

Fair enough.

To be honest, I think that's maybe a good point.

But it's not so much the great schism that I think about on this day, but the idea of being reformed.  Re. Formed.

Made again.

Made new.

This year especially, after all of the changes that have come, after finding my life entirely deconstructed and myself duckless, I am enamored with the idea of being re-formed and made new.

I think about this every year on the eve of my healing anniversary anyway.  Because if there was ever a day that was one of reformation, that day was it.

So today I'm thinking about being made new again.  It's not a new theme, really.  The idea of rebirth, of practicing resurrection has been coming up constantly for the last few weeks.  And I'm pausing today to think about it.

That said, the history geek in me thoroughly enjoyed hearing my baby brother preach on the reformation, and being people of the book and being made new this morning.  I don't often go to dad's church on Sunday mornings these days, but I did today, to hear my brother speak.  The part of my heart that loves the universal church, the Catholic church, celebrated that he didn't focus on the schism, but challenged the congregation to ponder whether they were still being reformed by their time in the scriptures.

The part of me that is a history geek, and spent four years getting a degree in church history, focused primarily on the church in the reformation period, though, had to laugh when he stopped by this afternoon and made sure to show me a funny youtube video on the reformation that he had come across while researching for his sermon this week.

And so, as I pause to consider being made new, I'm also laughing at this humorous retelling of history in polka form.



I don't really "celebrate" reformation day any more than halloween.  But I do want to continue to stop and ask Jesus to be making me new.

Some Good Thoughts on Church History

I'm a fan of Carolyn Arends, and I became a bigger fan when I read her most recent article for Christianity Today magazine, detailing how church history gives context to our faith.  It's no secret that I'm a history geek, and this article is worth spending a few minutes to read.

Valentines Day

I'm single, so Valentine's Day isn't really a big deal in my life.  It's just another day.  I'm not going to get flowers or chocolates today, except maybe from my grandma, who has a tendency to occasionally deliver a box of ice-cream bars to mom and dad's house on odd "holidays" like Valentine's Day.

But, ever since I was in Rome, returning just before Valentine's,  on Valentines Day I always think of being in a strange little church, and seeing the relic of St. Valentine.

I'm a history major, and I know that most relics aren't real.  I saw a few different relics while in Europe, including two relics of Paul while in Malta.  But here's the catch.  I think there's something fascinating in the veneration of relics, of the saints.  I don't have well formed opinions, just thoughts, and I am fascinated by the faith and devotion to these things.

I took a few photos of the relic of St. Valentine.  I don't have them available for upload to this post, but you can find them in a facebook album here.

Daily 5 - Day 117

(before I start today's Daily 5 list, the history geek within me compels me to remind you that today is Pearl Harbor day - you know "December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy". Okay, with that history infomercial out of the way, let's proceed.)

Today's Daily "5":

1. I feel kind of pathetic for admitting this, but I'm excited about the possibility to have coffee and maybe start friendships with two girls I met in various places. The truth is that in the last few years I've lost a lot of relationships I really valued, and I haven't really felt like risking new ones, but that is slowly changing again, and it was sort of affirming to have those tentative reaching out steps I've been taken be validated a little in that way.
2. Grocery shopping was relatively smooth, and to be really honest, I'm so incredibly glad that it's Monday and finished for the week.
3. I'm really thankful for internet and facebook and email, which lets me keep in touch with people around the world, and lets me keep up on the goings on in various friends lives even when my health and energy levels don't always permit me to have a wildly active social life
4. I enjoyed the laugh I got reading a blog post my friend LP/CA wrote tonight
5. I'm thankful for a simple supper that still allowed me to get my yoga workout in before going grocery shopping, even after getting home nearly 40 minutes later than usual thanks to slow moving traffic and gross winter road conditions.
6. I'm thankful for the throw blanket that was the Christmas gift from my company to each staff member. It's the thickest, coziest throw I've ever had, and I'm spending quite a lot of time wrapped up in it thanks to the weather.
7. I'm thankful for a car that seems to be relatively reliable, even in the stupidly cold weather we've been having. I've never yet (in the year and a bit that I've owned it) had to plug it in at night in the winter. I'd say that's a feat for a car that is 17 years old and only cost me a dollar to purchase!
8. I'm thankful that the next few nights are mercifully without plans. I can just chill at home and rest.
9. I'm thankful that I was able to find wool at the craft store tonight to darn the thumbs of my mittens. My brothers bought me these great fairly traded mittens and matching toque last winter, but the thumbs of the mittens need a little love. Since I found wool that will match relatively well, I'll be spending part of tomorrow evening repairing mitten thumbs!
10. I'm thankful to be at item number 10 on day 117 of making these lists. It's amazing to me that for 117 days I've been making the effort to find the positives in my day.
    

New Dreams?

Unpacking has in some ways been a bit of a challenge with this move, thanks in large part to the need I've felt to sort, simplify and purge.

But sorting, simplifying, and purging isn't easy for someone who has memories attached to most possessions, and dreams and hopes attached to many of those memories.

I stood in the shower tonight thinking about a next step in the unpacking process. About three large file containers full of paperwork I need to go through, largely full of notes from the years I spent in university, studying history, particularly European church history, and encountering Jesus in the midst of that.

As I stood there, I remembered a sermon I heard preached quite a number of years ago. The speaker shared a news item he'd read on the internet, about a woman who'd carried a baby in her womb for many years. There had been complications in the birthing process, the baby had died, and somehow, her body had never pushed the child from the womb (in a few cases I found on the internet tonight, the foetus had grown outside the womb). Eventually the pains of labor simply subsided, and over the course of years (46 in one case I read) the foetus fossilized. The women were never able to have other children. Usually many years later, the labor pains returned, and the women required surgery to "give birth" to this fossilized child they'd lost many years before.

The speaker used this story as an illustration of what happens when we cling to dreams that should die. They become hardened within us, fossilized, and we hold tightly to them, protecting them, and trying to nurture something within us that should already be dead.

It was a rather macabre illustration, but I've never forgotten that sermon, and tonight, as I stood in the shower contemplating the forthcoming need to sort through some things, I realized I needed to open my hands again. To hold things loosely.

Those history notes symbolize dreams. Dreams of teaching, of sharing my passion for the church - the bride of Christ - and mark it made on history. Teaching didn't turn out to be my career (I'd be terrible at doing it full time, quite frankly) but the passion to share the way I encountered Christ in history hasn't ever truly been something I've been able to let go of.

I felt again the need tonight to be willing to release that. I don't know if that means saying goodbye to it entirely. In this case it definitely means being willing to take the physical notes, convert them to an electronic and scaled down format for the sake of downsizing and storage space, and be willing to admit that maybe those moments of passionate encounter with Christ and his church were for me, and don't need to be shared.

And, as I stood there with the water running over me, I thought of other dreams, more deeply personal. Of relationships shattered. Of literal dreams, that came in the night. Of thoughts and prayers and longings. And I realized again the need to stand with open hands. To not cling. To let God not only give, but also take away. To be willing to allow him to purge the old and dead things (even if I can't see myself that they're dead) to create space for new things.

Come Lord, and create space within me...

Pearl Harbor Day

Okay, so the history geek in me can't let today go by without a quick mention of Pearl Harbor Day. The anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was today (December 7, 1941) and it became an important turning point in the Second World War.

Just thought you all should know how much of a history geek I really am!

Re-formation Day

For those few of us in the world who are church history majors, the first thing that springs to mind upon realizing it's October 31st is not Halloween, but Reformation Day.

I was thinking about the word "reformation" today. To reform. re-form.

I love that prefix "re". Speaks of new opportunities, of second, and third, and fifth and seventeenth chances.

Re-birth. Re-newal. Re-form. Re-think. Re-do.

I love that Jesus offers "re" to us. I love that there is forgiveness, and an invitation to begin all over again.

Celebrating reformation day today!