vacation

I have to admit that I'm a typical American in that I rarely use all of my vacation time.  As a sole pastor, it just seems easier to skip it than to try to arrange everything for the time away.  Of course, the downside is burnout.  This year, I'm committed to trying to get away a bit more and have at least three of my four weeks already planned.

Last week, I had a vacation.  I did come into the office one day, but I also got out of town.  Cheryl and I went to see our daughter Alexis and her husband Christian.  We spent some wonderful time together and got to go to Alexis' anatomy sonogram (she is in her 22nd week of pregnancy).  Tears came to my eyes as I saw my first grandchild.  It was just sublime.  I'll write more about this later as it deserves it's own post.

Alexis and Christian were not on vacation so Cheryl and I had a little free time to kill and one afternoon visited the Oakland African American Museum and Library.   The museum part is small but I was deeply enriched by our visit.  The lion's share of their exhibits are videos of various leaders in the African American community sharing their stories and their thoughts.  I was struck by the amount of change our culture has experienced in the lifetime of those amazing people... and the amount of change still required.  One man, a retired chief of police for Berkeley, shared that in the 1940's he wanted to be a probation officer.  When he tried to apply for the position he was told that they had their quota of "colored" officers - 1 out of 400.  He went on to become one of the first black police officers in Oakland and eventually progressed so far as to become the chief of the Berkeley police department.  How far we've come...  Another, an associate pastor at the Allen Temple Baptist Church, share a story of "walking while black," and being rousted by police officers because of his skin color.  I thought of my friends stopped by police for DWB, driving while black, and of Trayvon Martin and of a Florida police officer who brought photos of him to use as targets at a shooting range... how far we have yet to come.  I highly recommend a visit to this little museum if you're ever visiting the east bay... and the best part is that it is free!

I brought my guitar and some gear with me and Alexis and I sang in worship on Sunday morning at the church they're attending - Shell Ridge Church.  I was struck by the realization of how little I get to play guitar these days (I'm playing bass in the church band) and how much I miss performing with my daughter.  Another issue to address... I need to play more guitar.

This summer I'll take a week and when the baby is born I hope to be able to have two but will settle for one.  Hopefully being more intentional about using my time off will help to keep me on an even keel.  More important, I'll get to spend some time with my grandbaby.

a vacation report

The longest portion of our vacation was in Pennsylvania and the setting was as different as possible from the first days of our trip. We went from the heat, unrelenting sun, and barren landscapes of Phoenix to the hills and bridges of Pittsburgh and the fecundity of central PA. Christian got to see lightening bugs for the first time and we enjoyed the lush greenery of that part of the world - walking in the woods, enjoying the lakes and rivers, and even driving down country roads and across bridges in Pittsburgh. We stayed in a wonderful little B&B in central PA called Crampton Manor, that I would highly recommend to anyone visiting that part of Pennsylvania. My in-laws live near there and we will certainly be staying there again. We had great visits with family and friends and truly enjoyed being away. Two weeks allowed both Cheryl and me to disengage and it was good.

On July 4, we visited a United Methodist church in McConnelsburg, PA. The worship space was full and seemed representative of the small town and surrounding rural areas. The service came straight out of the 50's with very traditional music and an electronic organ. Much of the language was reflective of a conservative church from that same era with one huge exception - the pastor's sermon. While it certainly reflected that same theology and worldview, it diverged in a very significant way. His text was from the book of Jonah. The title was Praying for Osama Bin Laden.

The service was full of nods to patriotism and American civil religion and I was more than a little apprehensive about the sermon. I was afraid it would be some call to arms and revenge. Instead, the pastor called the congregation to pray for Osama Bin Laden... not that he be killed or even captured (although the pastor did say that Bin Laden needed to be held accountable for his actions), but that he would know grace. The service ended with a hymn This Is My Song, with which I was unfamiliar but I found deeply moving. The tune is Finlandia - one of my favorite hymn tunes - and the words both acknowledged patriotism and pride in our own country while seeing the humanity, pride, hopes, and dreams of others and praying for their peace as well.

It was a church that I'm sure I would not attend if I lived there but I was deeply touched by the courage of the pastor to call for actions that are clearly counter-cultural, especially in his setting, and also clearly based both in the text he was using and in the message of Jesus.

vacation and more

We're on Vacation now in south central New Mexico in a little town called Las Cruces at the foot of the Organ Mountains in the photo. The ads say that there are 350 sunny days a year here. A menu at a local restaurant said "Annual Rainfall? Yeah right..." Well of the 4 days we have been here, we've had three with rain including last evening that looked like a light show with over 300 lightning strikes in the area. Other than that, it has been a restful trip. It is beautiful as only the desert can be and the chilis are HOT!

One of our issues was to look for some proerty to purchase. Things are booming here with an incredible number of housing starts at what seem to our California sensibilities as extremely reasonable prices. We saw a number of houses we'd love to live in. Too bad they are not in Santa Barbara at these prices. We're not clear wheter purchasing here makes sense but it is something to think about.

Being on vacation has kept me from any comments on the Democratic debate. I did hear some of the snipes against Obama for not being forceful enough and the descriptions of Gravel being too far to the left when he said that the military folk who have died in Iraq have died in vain and that the only thing worse than having one soldier die in vain was to have another do so. All I can say is that Gravel was right.