Good morning! My coach reminded me this morning that today I could live into being great. He didn’t say perfect. He didn’t say mistake free. He said great. Better than good. Using all the talents. Pouring myself into the run, the day, to make it better than it was before I hit the starting line.He asked me to think about the people in my life now or in the past that pushed me to be great. It was an interesting mile or so realizing that I didn’t/don’t have that many people that have done/do that. A couple great volleyball coaches/teammates that worked with me. Pretty short list. (Doesn’t mean there wasn’t/isn’t a ton of support/love, but being pushed is something totally different.) And now my work in “church life” seems to too often confuse humility, peace and meekness with mediocrity, lazy and too easily satisfied. Good is too often accepted where great is needed.But everything I read in Scripture and have experienced with living into my faith says that we are created by a Creator to be great in the world. To show greatness, compassion, vision, love, forgiveness great-fully. Full of greatness. Better than good. I think this is why I love to run. There’s always a new chance to be great. One mile can feel like you just dropped the tree into the wrong spot but the next one give you a chance to do it better. To be great. Even for 200 meters. For a half mile. For a half marathon. Whatever distance you can do it for.As we all figure out the new normal and re-open our selves and our lives, this seems like a awesome opportunity to be great today. For whatever distance you can do it for. There will be so many new chances to do it as we recreate life and cultural norms.So if no one has pushed and encouraged you yet today, let me tell you that you can be great today. You can love a little more deeply. You can forgive a little more boldly. You can dream a little bigger. You can risk a bit more. You can be more honest with your own prejudices. You can change one life which might change the world. You can be great. Take that starting line today and for whatever distance you can, run with greatness. You are designed for it. Lord, help me run your race of greatness today. Amen
Still in One Peace, PS
(Photo creds to Chief Billy Major, official photog for Fire Church)
And boom! Summer finally arrived in WNY. The Pause is slowly un-Pausing. And it seems like we are at the beginning baby steps of the “new normal.”
(Some of the “old normal” will still hang around, like the 6 yards of mulch that will get dumped in my driveway tomorrow that won’t magically move itself around the yard, self-spreading into the beds. Boo)
One of the other pieces that I hope you are still holding tight to from the “old normal” is God’s unbreakable love for you. Just you. Because you’re you. Not because of your work, or your effort, or your title, or your pedigree, or your tribe, but just because you are you.
All this Coronaness can make us forget that. Masks blocking smiles and compassion. Disconnection from relationships. Distance from social gatherings or work places or sacred spaces or rest places. We can get knocked out of center and as the dose exposure to these viral times increases, the memories and belief of our own self-worth and God’s love for us can fade.
Let them fade no longer people! Because you are simply an amazing child of God! Want to remember that? Splash water on your face – and remember you’re a baptized child of GOd. Squirt a hose on someone in the yard this weekend – and remind them they are a baptized child of God. Run outside in the raindrops, like a scene out of Shawshank Redemption – and remember you’re perfect in the eyes of God.
Thursday at 10am this week, we’re going to baptize Nathaniel Sileo. Danny Sileo (who was our intern at St. Paul’s a few years back) and his wife Mary Grace are moving to Virginia and want/need to have their son baptized before they go. So the new normal of CoronaBaptismalProtocol was created! Masks, distance, small groups – none of it can stop God’s powerful waters from washing over this kid! Godparents on FaceTime. And YOU are invited to be the congregation as we will stream this on St. Paul’s Facebook Live.
New normal is slowly arriving. But we know some of the old normal is still profoundly here. Waters STILL pour. God STILL welcomes. Community STILL affirms and prays. And each of us are STILL worthy to be loved by God.
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