A Prayer to Prepare You For Lent

Litany of Humility

 O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, Jesus.

 

From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, Jesus.

 

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be praised and I unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

 

Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930)

Slumdog Wins! And Even More Big News!

Ninan Manor

I hadn't blogged about this before, but we have been in the market for house/townhouse here in Port Moody. We still own our condo in Yaletown which we rent out. We vacillated between the two ideas of either selling and buying, or continuing to rent out the condo and buying out here, using a loan from the equity in the downtown condo as the down-payment.

It was very hard to make the decision, but in the end decided to hold on to the condo downtown and buy out here as well, placing us in the pseudo-precarious position of owning 2 properties. With that in mind, we started house hunting last week. The second home we saw was a townhome/duplex. It was an end unit, opening up to a forested green-belt. It was very beautiful - the location and the interior, but priced a bit out of our reach. We presented a low offer, was rejected, they dropped their price a fraction, we returned with a hefty increase in our prevously low offer, they returned with an even smaller decrease! At that point I pulled back, deciding they were never going to meet us at a price we could afford.

We ventured on in our search, but our minds kept circling back to this particular property. So, today, after we returned with a slight increase in our previous price. Our realtor played some hard-ball, demanding a response by 11:00 tonight (usually the turn-around on offers is 24 hours).

We were watching the Oscars, and were a bit teary eyed and elated at SlumDog's victorious night. Just as the Oscars ended we got the call from our realtor that the sellers accepted the offer. We are completely shocked that we got it!!!!

Our move-in date is June 1. We have decided that this is going to be our home for at least the next 20 years, unless God directs us elsewhere. This is the home our kids will grow up in. Purchasing this home really solidifies our ties with Port Moody.

Listen To Me

Listening to Soph.

I don't know if I've said this before, but I have learned more about what it means to be a pastor in the past 4 months than I have in 7 years of theological training, the stacks of books I have read and in all the sermons I have heard.

I have dealt (in only 4 months!) with a whole spectrum of human break-down, illness and suffering. And then this week I learned another new thing and it is this: 

Most people simply need to talk, 

and most people don't have anyone to talk to.

I met with 4 people so far this week, with 2 more to go tomorrow. The 4 people I spoke with couldn't be more different form each other in terms of gender, age, economic back-ground, etc, etc. But.... they all simply needed someone to talk to. One person drove all the way from North Vancouver to talk to me - that's over an hour of driving each way, for a 30 minute meeting with me.

I came to the realization that in the majority of these types of meeting I probably spend 80% of the time just listening. I am hesitant at any kind of advice and counsel, so that is usually kept to a minimum. What I can do is offer things from my own experience, the reading of a scripture passage that might have something to do with what's going on, and pray. And, that's it.

Pastoral Care boils down to the gift of presence and the gift of empathy and the gift of authentic care.

When someone feels they have been listened to, it validates their experience and their emotion. It communicates to them that they are not alone. And isn't that our biggest fear - that we are all alone? (Refrain from a Nirvana song just enters my head - "All alone is all we are"). Sorry Kurt, its just not true.

But, the breakdown of family and community in our society leads to these feelings of alienation. The result is that people like me, end up just listening a lot.

And then the burden become - who is listening to me? Do I have friends  to turn me, who will have similar empathetic ears? I have Felicia and a few others.

If You Want Me....

This past week a very large well known Christian pare-church organization hosted a brekfast for pastors in Metro Vancouver. Never one to turn down a free breakfast, I headed to a large church in East Van.

The breakfast was great. I ran into some old friends. The speakers were..... pretty weak. I hate to say it, but if you are going to put on an event for people who spend most of their lives communicating publicly, then you need to have communicators that can speak above the level of the average pastor. These speakers were well intentioned and sincere but were simply so average.

At these things you usually get a lot of free stuff, which was nice. I also got a free pen.

Got better this week, and then just today started to feel ill again. Don't know why. Also, Adam and I went for haircuts. His looks nice - I, well, let's just say my hair is so short, you can make out the exact shape of my scalp. I hope I don't scare too many people at church tomorrow.

Sneezing

Spent most of the week sick. Still went to work, but was definitely not accomplishing as much. It was made even harder by the fact that I had meetings every day and every night, and had to conduct my first memorial service... and write a sermon.

All in all, I think it was ok - but this morning, I felt really out of it when I went up to preach, and for the first time in a long time missed some points, and lost my place on the text. I thought I was going to pass out after.

Came home, ate some soup and really did pass out on my bed.

Got up, and played with the kids for a bit. Then watched the grammys. Ok - after seeing U2 tonight, I actually like the new single "Get on your boots", which I really didn't like before. It's the first single by them that didn't grab me by the neck the first time I heard it.

But, they were cool live. I also really liked the strange Chris Martin / Jay Z pairing. Radiohead also didn't disappoint.

The biggest surprise was the album of the year. Both Coldplay and Lil Wayne were nominated. I thought for sure Lil Wayne would win, due to all the media hype build-up for him prior to the awards. But, in the end - Alison Kraus and Robert Plant!!!! What?

Has anyone actually heard of this album? Beside the grammy judges? Sheesh.

At this rate - Benjamin Gump might actually beat Slumdog for best picture.

I hope I start feeling better soon - being sick really slows me down.

Church in The Theatre

We had our church service in a new venue yesterday: The Inlet Theatre. This theatre is in the same building as Port Moody's City Hall and Library. Across the street is an upscale shopping area called "Newport Village", surrounded by residential apartment buildings - it feels like a cross between Whistler and Yaletown.

Behind the theater is the recreation center where I work out on at least a monthly basis. The rec. center has 2 skating rinks and a curling rink. This is where Adam is learning to skate, although learning appears to be quite a loose term right now.

The service at the theatre was quite a success, on all accounts. It is very comfortable and intimate inside. With the rental of the theater we get full use of all their sound equipment and the sound tech. which was a huge advantage.

We had someone from a community organization called "Share", tell us about their programs with the homeless, the drug addicted and other marginalized people - basically all the people the church should be reaching. She did a great job presenting their excellent work. We are seeking ways to connect with them in the future.

There were also 4 missionaries from Missionsfest visiting - 2 of whom are close family friends, so it was cool to have them there as well.

We were also way OVER for our budgeted giving for January, which was incredibly encouraging.

So, we'll have to see wether we want to stick in this new venue. We have one more "trial" service there on March 1, and then we have to see if it will be available to us on an on-going basis. The feed-back from the congregation appears to be about 97% positive, and we're working on the remaining 3%

Fighting a cold, which is quite irritating.

Also - All Denny's restaurants in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rica are giving away free Grand Slam breakfasts tomorrow between 6 AM and 2 PM. I'm going to go get me some.