The account of the Garden of Gethsemane is something we might hear each year during Holy Week since it is one of the Passion of Christ passages. This Lenten season I’d like to revisit it anew.  Christ here is troubled, distressed and sorrowful to the point of death. He asks the disciples to keep watch with him, translated, “stay awake.” Knowing that the crucifixion is ahead, Christ prays to God asking, “ if it is possible, to let this cup pass .” This request is made three times with Christ returning to sleeping disciples each time. The word used for "cup" in these passages goes back to accounts in the Old Testament where cups of God’s wrath, anger, and justice is spoken of. In Jeremiah 49 it talks about having to drink of something that’s not our fault, sometimes just the result of another’s sin, or just of life. It foreshadowed then the idea of the perfect Messiah who knew no sin being bruised for our iniquities and drinking a cup he didn’t deserve. When I first stud...

One day when I took my son to McDonald's, I ran into a young boy who looked very familiar to me obviously one of the many students I’ve taught over the years. I asked him what class I had taught him in and he mentioned a 1st grade class I had done a long-term sub in. My memories of that class were far from wonderful. It hadn’t been the kids. They had been awesome. What had driven me crazy was the teacher I was covering for. She was out on disability, yet continually checked up on me. She gave me a Mothers’ Day gift for the kids to make, which the students found so difficult, I ended up having to call them back one on one to help complete. She even came in and redid one of the student's. His name was Barton, of whom she complained could do nothing right. To go along with these gifts were fancy cards she insisted upon which had to be laid out and glued just so. Well guess who did all the gluing? Forgot about teaching the curriculum as we worked on this card which I heard later ...

One of my greatest moments of grace this week is being able to lead a Women’s Retreat this weekend. I have dreamed of doing so and of teaching on the Enneagram which is a great tool to help one understand themselves and others. It explains why we behave the way we do and points to specific directions for individual growth. This understanding, or as I’d like to say "appreciation" of personalities, other than our own can help us improve our relationships with family, friends, and co-workers. So on Friday I finally get to do so. Needless to say, I am excited. Preparing for it has been a joy, yet it has kept me from my blog. Amazingly I was let out early from my teaching job yesterday giving me more time in my day to do what I had to do. I realized that these little gifts of extra time are moments of grace . When we feel pressed wondering how we’re going to get it all done, God can step in and either arrange more time for us, or grant us better efficiency in the time we do hav...

God talks to most people through nature or at religious events like sunrise services. As a child in Seattle I used to be dragged out of bed into the cold to sunrise services. Even when I moved to the warmer climate of California I am still sad to say that I have never had a religious experience at a sunrise service. Many do and insist on attending them yearly but God speaks to me at ordinary events like doing the dishes or going shopping at the swap meet. Let me tell you about one of these. We were trying to have a second child and I had just had my second miscarriage –ironically both had occurred on two Mothers Day weekends two years in a row. I was 43years old and I considered this my last safe year to try again. But as if a birthday gift on my 43rd birthday, I conceived again. It had been discovered on my second miscarriage that my body was lacking the correct levels of progesterone to carry a child to term. Due to this I had weekly blood work keeping meticulous track of my progeste...

“I thought my heart would mend, and babe you know I’ve tried but the pieces of the puzzle doesn’t match the one inside.”  Kate Wolf, Picture Puzzle Folksinger Kate Wolf wrote in her song, "Picture Puzzle" about the times when the pieces of our relationships don’t match up to what you had pictured them to become. This can also apply to our lives when the expectations of our lives don’t come to fruition or something unexpected happens to change our picture perfect lives. It’s when our lives get broken into pieces we never intended and as hard as we try to put them all together it just doesn’t match the expectations we had inside. Brokenness, is what Lent is all about when we remember how Christ was broken for us. We celebrate this in the broken bread of Communion. It is the reminder of how the brokenness of the Cross brings resurrection but also redemption – the piecing together of all the fragmented pieces of our lives making them not only fit but work into a much greater pic...

“To give them a garland instead of ashes…the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.”     Is 61:3   One of the most meaningful Ash Wednesday’s of my life was when the Pastor in lieu of ashes handed out pins of flower blossoms to represent the garlands the scripture spoke of in Isaiah 61:3. Garlands symbolize what Christ with his resurrection would produce out of the ashes. Some translations use the term “crown of beauty” since the Hebrew word used here talks about an object a bridegroom would wear as a sign of joy. So instead of looking down at the ashes of our lives, our heads can be held high in joy. He also spoke of “mantles of praise”, which replaced the faint spirit or as other versions say a “spirit of despair”. Mantle is translated “garment,” thus you are covering the sad sack cloth of your soul with a garment of praise. This is probably the best theology I can find for buying new Easter clothes; it is symbolic of the new mantles of praise that Christ in ...

With moments of grace (shall we just call them by their initials - that would make this a MOG blog.), I think of good Samaritans. It seems like every time I get a flat tire, some stranger appears right on the scene and fixes it for me. These are the angels or good Samaritans that come into my life. Those who may not be familiar with the biblical story, a man is robbed and beat up by robbers and left to die. First a rabbi passes by and doesn't help him. Then comes a Pharisee, also high in the Jewish faith, and he to ignores the man. Then a Samaritan, considered a mixed breed that Jews segregate themselves from, comes by and has mercy on the man and takes him to lodging where he treats the man's wounds and leaves money for any other needs the man might have. I lived a bit of this story (though not as bloody or dramatic) when I enrolled my son in a new school. The only problem was he was on a waiting list for After School Care. Being a working mom I asked my neighbor whose child ...