Category: Culture

Posted in Culture, Faith, Grace, Politics, United Methodist Church

Am I the only one?

Posted on by narciejeter

Am I the only one who is a little miffed at Jon Stewart’s portrayal of Methodists in last week’s coverage of Chelsea Clinton’s wedding?  I know I was on vacation and out of the loop and I didn’t care nor watch any of the Clinton wedding coverage.  I also know that United Methodist Communications folks probably have bigger fish to fry, but there’s a whole lot of people that watch Jon Stewart and although he’s a little whatever at times, he does usually speak some semblance of the truth.  For the 18-35 year olds among us, many of us would choose to watch him, Colbert, or George Lopez than the news.

To see a clip from the episode I’m talking about check out this blog post from another United Methodist pastor.  He even tells you exactly when to start watching.  http://blog.hackingchristianity.net/2010/08/methodism-university-of-phoenix-of.html

If you don’t want to go to the site and see it for yourself here’s the gist – Jon Stewart says, “Being a Methodist is easy. It’s like the The University of Phoenix of religions: you just send them 50 bucks and click “I agree” and you are saved.”  Again, I know this is Jon Stewart and taken with a grain of salt.  Hello, I’m from the state of South Carolina.  We’ve been giving him great material for years.  But I still think this comment is bothersome.

Being a Methodist is easy. 

I’m a campus minister and every summer and during preview days during the school year we as a collective group of campus ministries (WCCM – Winthrop Cooperative Campus Ministries) host a table with the other student activity groups and we sign up students for more information about the various ministries.  It’s always hilarious to me how many students we get from particular denominations that actually emphasize this connection, how many students are looking nicely around and smiling and then they see our sign that says Campus Ministries and they don’t make eye contact, how many times we never see the student if the parent is the one who signed them up, and those that have already heard about our ministries from their home churches even before they got there.  Now that is a study in and of itself.  Inevitably when I leave these exchanges, I think boy, this grace thing that we United Methodists talk about all the time – that’s a tricky thing.  I don’t know if it’s helping us or hurting us in the arena of discipleship.

Don’t get me wrong – I love grace.  Heck my daughter Evy is Evy Grace.  Without grace humanity would be up the creek with no paddle and not even a boat or creek to begin with.  I LOVE the Wesleyan understanding of grace.  Prevenient grace – God draws us to God’s self even before we know it; Justifying grace – We realize that God’s grace is not only abundant but sufficient for us – even on our most sinful and lost day; Sanctifying grace – God doesn’t leave us where we are in sin but walks with us on this journey of faith drawing us forth to living more and more like Christ.  I get it.  I love it.  Seriously.

But dude, I think half of our people think because they have this grace thing down pat, than they’re all good to go and they forget that sanctifying part where we’re supposed to be growing more and more in the ways of Jesus.  You’ve heard of cheap grace.  I’ve never really liked that phrase because I don’t think grace is cheap – it came at a cost and one we didn’t have to pay.  I may not like the phrase but I think we see the sentiment all around us and contrary to what Mr. Stewart may believe, living out a life of faith is not easy.

Maybe if we really believed the theology we say we do, the things that the Wesleys’ lifted up in their teaching, their music, their lives – maybe then it wouldn’t look so easy or watered down.  I also argue that there are plenty of United Methodists and I know other Christians all over the world that are living out the Gospel with all of its radical, counter-cultural, transformational, and tenacious glory all over the place in all the ways they can, by all the means they can, as ever as long they can.

You don’t press the easy button and then suddenly become a Methodist.  Now that would make a funny new UMC commercial – true.  But it’s a balance.  Grace comes to us freely and without merit.  That in some ways is really easy.  You just call on the name of Jesus and viola – it is that easy.  A free gift – not earned, not based on gold stars we’re collecting on a sticker board in the sky.  How many people do we see in the gospel accounts as they encounter Jesus and suddenly their eyes are opened and they realize he is Lord?  That part – the ah hah – when we get it – is as easy as accepting it and knowing it.  But the living it and breathing it and trusting it and stepping out in faith – that’s a process.  That’s a lifetime.  That’s a step by step, day by day. 

So yes, Jon Stewart I think you are hilarious.  Yes, you are right that there was way too much news coverage of the Clinton wedding.  But yes you bothered me in your comments about our denomination.  Then again, maybe we should be bothered.  Maybe we should think about what we stand for.  Maybe we should think about how we’re living out our faith and how we’re living out such a radical Gospel.  Seriously, maybe that should be our new ad campaign.  Ready or not?  Easy or not?  What does it mean to follow Jesus?  What does it mean to be a United Methodist?  What do we actually stand for?  Not just what we stand against a la Anne Rice’s rant, but what do we clear as a bell, beyond a shadow of a doubt, stand for?

I’m not going to go there with the Anne Rice thing at this point but for a response I really liked and thatresonated with me, here’s one by Karen Spears Zacharias.  http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/current-events/op-ed-blog/22453-an-open-letter-to-anne-rice

Posted in Culture, Faith, God's Providence, Grace, Movies

Feed the Birds

Posted on by narciejeter

The kids were watching Mary Poppins the other day and I was struck by the story of the lady feeding the birds.  Mary Poppins is talking the kids into being excited about going with their father to work the next day and she starts telling them about the lady as she holds a beautiful snow globe of it.

In talking about the father in the story and of course of you know the movie he’s kind of a tough rules and order-oriented dad, the kids ask why people don’t stop and give lady money or why they don’t see her altogether.  Mary Poppins answers, “Some people don’t see past the end of their nose.”

Some of us don’t see past the end of our noses.  If we’re too busy in the goings on of life it’s easy not to see the world around us or the needs around us.  I read an article (http://homelessness.change.org/blog/view/please_dont_feed_our_homeless_many_cities_say)You give and last night about some cities outlawing or making it really difficult for people to feed the homeless in their cities.  Wow.  I’m not even going to get into the statistics of how many of our homeless are veterans or are mentally ill or the many, many folks who have found themselves homeless for the first time in the past couple years in our economy.

But a challenge to each of us is to see past the end of our noses and our own little worlds and to see what we can do.  It’s easy to see issues like hunger or homelessness or human trafficking or immigration or education reform as these big, huge things that we can’t make a difference in.  But all those commercials that say that all of us together, all of our little drops in the bucket CAN make a difference – that’s not just Hollywood or a pipe dream.  That’s real.  What can we do today?  What are you passionate about?  What has God given you a vision for?

Trying to see past the end of my nose…

“Feed the Birds” Lyrics

Early each day to the steps of Saint Paul’s
The little old bird woman comes
In her own special way to the people she call,
“Come, buy my bags full of crumbs;
Come feed the little birds,
Show them you care
And you’ll be glad if you do
Their young ones are hungry
Their nests are so bare
All it takes is tuppence from you
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag
Feed the birds,” that’s what she cries
While overhead, her birds fill the skies

All around the cathedral the saints and apostles
Look down as she sells her wares
Although you can’t see it,
You know they are smiling
Each time someone shows that he cares

Though her words are simple and few
Listen, listen, she’s calling to you
“Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag”

Posted in Campus Ministry, Culture, Faith, Family, Health, Music

Those Moving Moments

Posted on by narciejeter

The two verses that the email version of the Upper Room gave me this morning were Psalm 91:1-2 “You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.”  The other focus verse was Matthew 28:20, “Jesus said, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So tomorrow is the big day.  In some ways I feel like this is an even bigger day than surgery day but maybe that’s because I’ll be awake the whole time.  I am SUPER excited to get the stitches out.  I have already scheduled a fabulous wash and haircut from my beloved Robin at Kuttin’ Up for tomorrow evening.  Hugely excited about all of this crusty yuckness out of my hair.  Mom and Mike will go with me to the neurosurgeon’s.  GiGi is going to keep the kiddos.  Whatever they say – I don’t know.  I’ve gone back and forth all day but at present I’m just ready to know something.

To stay occupied I had a wonderful breakfast with an amazing couple that I’m marrying in less than a month and we began to plot and plan ways of sprucing up Wesley.  They’re having their reception at Wesley and I am beyond excited that we have the opportunity to give it a fresh look for their amazing occasion and to get ready for the school year.  We then got to work sprucing up and I had a great lunch with a clergywoman friend – a real treat!  Mike and I finished out the day picking out some new lights for Wesley and voting in the primary runoff.  So some work and civic duty complete it was time to hang out with the kiddos, take them to the splash pool, enjoy some Brunswick stew, cheer on the Gamecocks (cannot believe we won but so thrilled!), watch an episode of Burn Notice and we’re now flipping between the Clemson game and some crazy shoot em up movie on AMC.  It’s been a busy but good day and for that I am hugely grateful.

Dad called tonight after the Gamecocks won and in typical Dad fashion he has now made friends with the scalper who tried to break in line.  Today the guy came up and apologized to him for trying to cut and said he’d try to get him good tickets to Thursday night’s game.  Hilarious.  This is what amazes me about my father.  Even when he sticks to his guns and integrity but is kind of a hard rear, he still somehow makes these connections/relationships with people.  I guess you know where you stand with him and that is awesomely refreshing compared with plenty of people that just blah blah and placate you.

It’s those relationships that are so important.  A dear friend in seminary would say repeatedly, “It’s all about relationship.”  And it is.  There’s just something about that connection with the human spirit.  That which is real in me speaking to that which is real in you.  That beautiful hopeful and yet fragile humanity in each of us that calls out.  We’re watching America’s Got Talent now and this guy just did this whole kite thing to the music of Sarah McLachlan’s “Arms of the Angel” and it was just astounding.  Even Piers was floored by it.  He said he was prepared to make fun of it but it was extraordinary.  Very cool.  Three yes’s.  For a guy with a kite.  Who would have seen that coming?  That’s what’s awesome about the Susan Boyle’s and this kite guy and these random human connections that we make.  Remember that hilarious wedding video from last year with everyone dancing down the aisle?  Maybe it’s just sappy old me, but there’s just something so moving and human and great about these things.  It somehow pierces our cynicism and the layers of dust and crud and stink that seem to sometimes cover our souls.

I just love it.  I love when we’re shocked speechless by something and are blown away by the sheer force of joy or passion or just God given poignancy of something.  You can’t see Susan Boyle sing and not think – wow – didn’t see that one coming.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

  If Simon Cowell can be blown away – Oh my.  (I also love the girl that rolls her eyes like yeah right like this woman can sing.)  You can’t watch the wedding party dance down the aisle and not get caught up in the moment of it all.  They just practiced once briefly.  Hilarious.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0
You can’t take part in this life we’ve been given with your eyes and ears even halfway opened and not have your foundation rocked some of the time (sometimes in a great way, sometimes in a not so great one), but the good comes with the bad, the joy comes with the mourning, the hot fudge sundaes with the brussel sprouts.  It’s awesome to be able to savor the igniting of the human spirit and those shake the rafters experiences that just blow you away in the best of ways.

So as I think about diving into the unexpected tomorrow, I know that….well there are so many cliches I could write here, I’m hesitating.  I could say it’s all good or it is what it is or any other random pat answers.  Instead though I’m going to say the journey rocks on.  And it does.  We’ll keep you posted!

Here’s Laura Story’s Mighty to Save – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYqogpLpC5Q

Posted in Culture, Faith, Family, Health, Music

Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner

Posted on by narciejeter

We just caught the end of Dirty Dancing which you can’t hear that stinking song at the end and not think about that movie – “For I’ve had the time of my life….”  Mike is now watching Family Guy.  Why is it every night around 10:30 when he can’t find anything to watch – we end up on TBS watching Family Guy?  It never ceases to amaze me how this show is still on the air and uncensored.

The wonderful lady at the doctor’s office called and said that we will meet with the nurse and doctor on Wednesday when they will take out the stitches and will go over the pathology report and the plan of action.  So Wednesday afternoon it is.  At least we now know when it is.  I’m trying not to complete fast forward tomorrow and Wednesday morning, but I must admit in our world of DVR – it sure would be nice to be able to fast forward some things.

Then again, I would miss such awesomely precious moments.  Enoch, Evy and I have eye goop right now and the amazing Dr. Paxtor at Sunshine Pediatrics which is the best pediatric group there is by the way has us all fixed up.  Enoch actually went to bed around 6 pm which is unheard of.  There is no telling when that kid is going to wake up tonight so here’s to hoping for the best!  Evy was her hilarious wild self until 8:30.  She is one of the most adorable girly little girls.  It amazes me because I’m not really a girly girl.  She’s just girly.  No other way to describe it – dainty and expressive and girly.  She’s tough too though.  When she got shots last week for her 16 month check up she didn’t even cry.  I’m glad we’re raising a strong little girl.  I wasn’t someone that grew up watching Dirty Dancing.  Truth be told – wasn’t allowed to watch it until I was too old to really care, but as cheesy as it is, I did always like the “Nobody puts Baby in a corner” line.  And since Enoch still calls Evy “Baby” most of the time, I think that’s pretty hilarious.

I like the both of our kids are so uniquely them.  They are as exuberant and happy as two children can be and just as mischevious (I secretly love the mischeviousness and think it’s adorable).  I like that they have their own personalities and do things in their own way and nature or nurture – they are each their own person.  We have raised them the same – if Enoch wants to play with a doll or Evy a train – who cares?  It’s just funny how they interact and learn and grow and change and just are.

Someone on facebook posted on Father’s Day that not all of us have had the greatest earthly father but each of us has a heavenly Father that created us and knows us intimately.  She cited Psalm 139.  I love this Psalm.  I don’t necessarily know if facebook is the way to share that message to some random person out there that grew up with a cruddy father or if that would just tick them off more, but you never know how God will speak to some one and you can’t beat Psalm 139 for talking about the Creator.  It’s the uniqueness – the whole special snow flake thing – that makes our human interaction to interesting and complicated and special.  We are each uniquely created and yet all of these unique many times strong-willed individuals still somehow manage to form community.  Even in the midst of our “me”-ness and our egos of being this special creation we are called to step outside of this self and reach out to the other.

Again, I think our faith is such a balance – a tricky but rewarding tight rope walk.  We are each “fearfully and wonderfully made” but we are each to “deny our selves and take up our crosses.”  Hmmmm….  It’s true nobody should put “Baby” or anybody in a corner, but it’s not a big group dance a la Dirty Dancing if it’s just Baby doing a solo macarena.  It’s something special when everyone joins in the dancing.  When we each step out of the corners of our lives and our hearts and join in the great dance all around us – that’s what makes it really special.

So I hope that even as awesomely individual as Enoch and Evy are – that they know not only that they are special and unique and loved but that they are part of a larger story and dance that encompasses us all in mighty ways together.

Mike’s flipped it to the World Cup now.  I think that’s a sign to stop blogging.  Will try my best not to fast forward to Wednesday and will seek to live in the moment and in the precious time in the present – even if waiting completely stinks sometimes.   Love to each of you!  And thanks for your dance!

Posted in Culture, Faith, Family, Health, Methodism, Movies, Tumor

Healing

Posted on by narciejeter

I’m sorry I’ve been slack in my blogging duties.  Things have been busy!  We still haven’t heard from the pathology report yet so no news there, but I have had a great couple days with Enoch and Evy!  We went to the pool and played and I slept in my own bed and woke up with the kids and we played some more so that was wonderful!  It was good to open mail, pay some bills, and do regular stuff around the house and get to see the kiddos.  It amazes me how quickly they grow and change.

A friend of mine posted earlier on facebook that she’s preaching about healing tomorrow and I was catching up reading Advocates and I noticed an article that talked about the healing service in the UM Book of Worship being a meaningful service for a lot of folks and one of our churches providing these services once a month for people.  I’ve been thinking about it all day.  Healing.

Tonight Mike and I went to see Iron Man II and even in that there was the need for healing.  Sure Mr. Stark is a smart mouth (and there were a lot of funny parts in there), but the a-ha moment of the movie is him seeing a video of his inventor/genius dad telling him that he was his greatest invention, blah, blah, blah…and then him figuring out the puzzle of how to beat the bad guys, etc.  He needed to hear that he mattered to his dad and that he loved him.  Just like Tony Stark, we each have past “stuff” that needs healing.  We each carry baggage around with us – some of us have painted smiley faces on it or it’s the LV designer line or there are a gazillion different pieces of all shapes and sizes with pink tags stuck to them.  Whatever they look like – they’re our junk that goes with us.  For some of us it’s the Tony Stark need to feel validated or loved or okay or good enough or like we make the cut.  For some of us it’s letting go of hurt or anger or grief or frustration or just drama.  For some of us it’s the self-sabotage and nagging that we do to ourselves.  For some of us it’s pride and self-centeredness. (maybe that’s just those of us that are self-interested enough to write blogs.)  For some of us that’s not feeling at home in who we are or who we’ve been created to be or wanting what someone else has.  For some of us that’s knowing that it’s okay for everyone not to like us at all times of every day and that’s perfectly fine too.

It’s such a delicate balance that whole letting go and letting God thing that we do because our baggage in a lot of ways is what makes us – us.  In survival mode we tend to hold even tighter to the things that are familiar even if they are the ones that have harmed us because it’s what we know.  I’ve never been the hugest of Oprah fans.  I watch.  Hello – at 4 pm in the afternoon what do you watch if not that and don’t tell me ESPN.  But since she got into this whole new age kick and has been talking like she’s this all knowing being, I haven’t really jived with her as well as before.  Anyway, in thinking about this whole healing thing and our baggage, I start thinking in some ways like this new age person – the whole surround yourself and draw to yourself all the good in the universe and release all the bad.  You know the whole clear yourself of the toxins thing.

And I do believe it.  I plan on getting a lovely massage, body scrub, fascial extravaganza at Belue Day Spa next week because I want to scrub away any sign of the hospital and cleanse my body and soul from this whole thing.  I do believe that we’ve got to release all of the cruddy yuckiness whether that be someone that gets on our last nerves or someone that has really hurt our feelings or someone who has told us we’re not good enough or smart enough or whatever enough or people that have generally made our lives little pits of you know where.  Holding on to any of that awfulness is not of God and it is not healthy.  Those are the toxins.  If only we could drink enough glasses of water to really cleanse ourselves of all of these deep and abiding hurts so that we can really experience healing.  We somehow remember the most meaningless of little things if it is hurtful to us.  That thing in the 8th grade that someone told us that really hurt our feelings should have no bearing on the life that we have now and yet somehow, those wounds are still there and often it’s the times of fear that bring them back.

I have fibromyalgia.  No, I am not a Lyrica commercial.  Yes, the Lyrica commercials actually get on my nerves.  Yes, I guess they help people know what it is, but who knows?  I know that on the tv show House, the lovely Gregory said that fibromyalgia doesn’t exist.  I also know that the neurologist I saw a week and a half ago didn’t believe in it either and just said it was a form of depression.  Wow.  Not even touching that one with a 10 foot pole except that we’re going to a different neurologist.  And know it has no relation to the brain tumor and no treatment of the tumor will not help it.  (I say these things because these are some of the questions we’ve asked too!)  I’m not telling you that I have fibromyalgia for any other reason than to say I know that there are many people that seek and search for healing.  I’m a part of a small clergywomen’s group – there’s maybe 7 of us total – and more than half of us have fibromyalgia.  That’s crazy.  Or maybe we’re just masichistic people.  All of us are in different stages of this journey and have found different ways to love and enjoy life but I know that all of us struggle with serving this creator God of love and seeking urgently to be healed.

The summer I moved back to Rock Hill was especially hard for me because I loved Atlanta and Emory and my home there.  It was a hot summer, Mike was traveling back and forth to Atlanta and the Winthrop students hadn’t arrived yet and I was feeling out of my element.  In the midst of the fibro and just feeling all out lowsy sometimes my mom gave me this verse written on this little card with a chick (you know the baby chicken not the other kind) on the front.  She told me I needed to claim it.  Jeremiah 17:14 “Heal me, O Lord and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the One I praise.”  It rocked it out in my pocketbook for a while and then got a little faded so has made its way into my wallet.  There have been plenty of times when I have felt cruddy.  Hello stitches on my head.  There have been plenty of times when I know that there has got to be someone more suited for this or better equipped or in better shape or more eloquent or smarter or more organized or more extroverted or charismatic or a better fundraiser, but you just can’t argue with something as simple as “Heal me, O Lord and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the One I praise.”

Some of you may say well that’s stupid blind faith.  Nope.  Not a bit.  It to me is saying that it’s not just about this.  It’s not just about our present baggage whether that’s physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, whatever.  It’s about the larger picture – the larger story of our life – “Heal me, O Lord and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the One I praise.”  I don’t imagine Tony Stark saying that.  Bahahahaha….  But I do invite us (me) to remember that and to say those words and trust those words not just with the big things like brain tumors, but with the little things in between.  We had a girl’s night this past week and saw Letters to Juliet.  (I know you’re thinking – is this girl ever at home resting – don’t worry – I am.)  It was a predictable but really great movie.  I loved watching Vanessa Redgrave and the thing that stuck out to me was when they’re pulling up at this really nice house and the guy (her grandson) says something along the lines of wow Gran what if we could end up living here.   You meet the love of your life at 16, skip the messy bits and then go straight to living in the mansion in your old age.  What I liked was what she said in return.  “LIFE is the messy bits.”  Life is the messy bits.  Yes, the messy bits are what make us who we are.  The messy bits are what makes the tapestry of our lives.  The messy bits have been woven together to make the amazing mosaics of color and light that shine forth through us.  God knows all of our messy bits.  Those things that nobody knows.  Those things that only a very few select people know.  Those mortifying things that whole gaggles of folks know but we’re still not saying them outloud.  Our messy bits are all out there.  I hope that we have the courage to let the light of God break in on those.  That the healing good energy (okay Oprah) can surge through.  That the prayers of cleansing and powerful might of refinishing that is even beyond that of a good spa day – may open our minds, bodies, and souls up to healing beyond our imagination.

Whatever those words that we need to hear.  Whatever the feelings and memories and people that we need to let go.  Whatever the beautiful and cleansing energy we need to grasp hold of.  May we feel refreshed.  May we feel renewed.  May we feel at home with the One who heals us and knows us intimately.

Posted in Culture, Faith, Family, Health, Music, Tumor

The Buzz

Posted on by narciejeter

I’m still at Josh’s house (a huge thanks to Josh and Karen for letting us become squatters in their lovely home) and Josh, Karen, Mike and Mom are watching the World Cup and I can hear that lovely buzz of horns that everyone seems intent to whine about.  What becomes a big deal to us these days?  LOL.

For those that are wondering what the latest buzz is here – there isn’t too terribly much.  As y’all know we saw the doctor on Saturday morning and he told us we would get the pathology results back on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Wednesday is almost over but onward we go without any word.  A dear clergywomen friend of mine called me earlier while I was at Wesley and she said I didn’t sound like myself and I was like OMG – you called me on a number I didn’t know so I thought you were the pathologist….It was practically the only phone call of the day.

So what have we been doing over the past couple days…well, I’ve read a lot of trashy magazines so let me tell you about the twihards and the latest with Robsten.  I have eaten a lot of good food – from church folk to students to clergy colleagues and campus ministers – y’all know a way to a person’s heart!  I have watched some very useless and mind-numbing tv – soap operas are so much more violent and even more insane than they used to be.  I’ve played Farmville – although it’s slower now and getting on my nerves a bit.  I’ve even started trying to do more twitter.  Some great students tonight showed me how to fix the background of my blog and so I guess I’m moving into the next decade or so…hopefully.

Overall there’s a lot of waiting.  I guess and wondering too, but that’s like a duh no brainer.  It’s hard being away from my kids but that’s a duh no brainer too.  I got to see Evy yesterday morning while Enoch was at pre-school and then I couldn’t take being away anymore and went and saw both of them last night.  Tomorrow morning Evy will be back again and I’m super excited about that!  We’re trying to keep things as normal as possible for them except that Mommy has been “at work” a lot this week.  Maybe it’s like the craziness of the beginning of the school year!

I feel like I’m making a lot of people wait right now and I do wish I had some answers.  But then a part of me is like, what am I waiting for anyway?  I want to get this brain healed and these stiches out and go back to playing with my kids and doing the things I love!  Not that Camp Josh and Karen’s hasn’t been great but what is the end date of this thing?

The problem with questions though is that it just leads to questions.  Well when is any end date?  I’m not talking about the finale of LOST but about when do we really ever know any answer?  Are we to wrestle with questions and answers to the end of time?  What do we hold to be true?  What/Who/in Whom do we trust?  Trust is such a big part of this.  Who do we trust with our info, with our identities, with our hearts?  Do we freely give these out or do we hold tight and protect?  Is it a little something of both and where do we draw the line?

The Upper Room today (I get the one online by email because it’s the easiest thing to do and I don’t know if it’s the same one in print form) has been a comfort to me lately.  The highlighted verses were from Romans 8:28-39.  I’ll post it below for you guys.  It’s verses that I’ve said many a times to students about God working all things for good for those who love God and the whole if God can be for us, who can be against us, and more than conquerors and so many good things.  What I like best (I hesitate when saying best with anything because that may change tomorrow) but what resonnates with me tonight as it did this morning is that NOTHING separates from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.  Nothing.

I may not understand why some people end up this way and others end up that way,  why some people seem to get a free pass at life and others a rocky road, or why the sky is blue, but I know that nothing in this world can separate us from the love of God.  A friend of mine emailed me a couple days ago about a close family friend that just passed away at 31 of Hodgkins lymphoma and she very wisely and bravely and honestly shared some of the questions that I think we each have when we’re faced with something like that.  She asked “Who does God select to call home?  Who does God select to heal and create miracles?”  Who?

She said they were child-like questions, but I think they are questions that on the darkest days in our hearts we know that these are the whens, and whys, and hows and what in the craps, that we want to know.  It seems cliche and not at all helpful to say I don’t know.  But I don’t.  We don’t.  I know that I believe in the power of prayer and that miracles happen all around us every day.  I’m a Momma T follower that believes little things done with great love can change our world.  And I know and can rest assured that NOTHING separates us from the love of God.  Nothing can separate us from that.  May we feel it.  Even when we’re in a ticked off mood having a not so good day or when we are at our lowest point – may we just taste the presence of God.  My mom has a student whose mother is most likely going to lose her second battle with cancer in the coming days.  And for her I know we ache.  We each know these stories and each of us has felt this pain and loss at one time or another.

May we release that.  May we say outloud our doubts and our fears and our questions and our let’s just be honest profanities sometimes and say COME ON!!!!  God is a big God and can take it.  Rest assured.  And this doesn’t even have to be a one time occasion.  But let’s also pull in all the good and grasp hold of that with two white knuckled fists and say heck yeah to all of the ways God amazes the socks off us and shows us things we didn’t think possible.  Try it.  Just try it.  Even at our lowest moments – there’s still this shining light we just can’t shake….like the buzz of a world cup horn in our ears….

“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:28-39 (don’t get me into all the exegesis of this one, but just see what it speaks to you!=0))

Haven’t posted any music to y’all lately.  Here’s another one that I love from church – Britt Nicole’s “The Lost Get Found.”  Maybe I like poppy music but this one is just fun!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4GmLRTJq1w

Posted in Culture, Faith, Family, Health, Tumor

Clemson Game

Posted on by narciejeter

Welp, we’re watching the Clemson game.  South Carolina’s going to Omaha so Dad is happy and hopefully Clemson will head that way as well.  Now that will be a big deal!

Resting today.  Taking the medicine and good ole steroids and hanging out on Josh and Karen’s couch.  We’re very glad that I can stay here so that the kids don’t freak out and I can rest but I miss them a ton!  Evy’s going to come for a visit while Enoch is at preschool tomorrow so that will be good.

Well the stitches are a lot farther across than we thought.  They go from one ear to two inches of the other which is a little insane – way to go modern medicine.  Karen set up a great scarf on my head earlier and so we should be good to go.

I’m really glad that this happened during the summer and that there’s some downtime built into everything.  I’m trying to process all of this slowly and deliberately and take things a day at a time.  We don’t have brain tumors in our family.  We don’t have any hereditary factors that we know of and yes we are waiting to hear the pathology reports.  When Mike asked the doctor on Friday if we should have hope that I wouldn’t have to worry about this over the next  5 years he said no, so I’m trying to realize that this is for the long haul and that it’s one step at a time.

They say that it is an astrocytoma which in more understandable words to me means that it’s shaped like a starfish.  It reminds me of the old proverb where the starfish keep washing up to shore and to save their lives you keep throwing back as many as you can but you really wish they would just stop washing up so you wouldn’t have to save them.  There are little bits that we can do every day to do our part to make the world a better place.  In my inbox this morning was a request from Bread for the World asking for help.  Below is their message.  I appreciate your help in calling and making your voices heard.  We can’t save all the starfishes in the world, but we can do the best we can with what we’ve been given.

Much love to each of you and God’s peace!

=0), Narcie

On Tuesday, June 15, Bread for the World members from across the country will visit their members of Congress on Capitol Hill to ask them to support millions of low-income working families who struggle to make ends meet.
I hope that you will be able to join us. If you can’t come to Lobby Day in person, please call your member of Congress on June 15. Please call your senators or representative using our special toll-free number (1-800-826-3688). Ask them to make the current Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit levels permanent.
You can explain your message by adding either or both of these points:
If Congress fails to preserve the Child Tax Credit at its current level, a full-time working parent receiving the minimum wage will receive only a $320 credit instead of the current $1,800 credit.  The difference—$1,480—is a modest amount of money that has a big impact on the lives of families struggling to make ends meet.
If the EITC and Child Tax Credit are not continued at current levels, 1.5 million people will fall below the poverty line, including 800,000 children. Find out how many people in your state would be affected.
The combination of a personal visit and your call make for a very strong witness for low-income families who need our help in making ends meet. Thank you.

Posted in Campus Ministry, Culture, Faith, Family, Health, Movies, Music, Tumor

San Francisco

Posted on by narciejeter

Mom and I watched a movie last night with Clark Gable and an opera singer called San Francisco.  Although her opera singing was not the favorite of my ears, the story was decent and talked about the great earthquake and fire of San Francisco and faith and all sorts of interesting historical stuff. It was much better than watching the cartoons, news and newborn channel on the hospital television.

So they’ve taken off the lefthand iv and took out the righthand iv this morning.  They removed the staples from the central line in my neck yesterday so the only things left to do to get me out of here is take the bandage off of my neck and remove the drip.  Definitely gives new thought to the phrase “brain drain.”  Other than that I’m doing pretty well.   I have to admit now that I wasn’t so sure that I was going to wake up as me.  I know that they didn’t say anything about me not being myself when I woke up but with the whole brain thing I was concerned that I was going to just be here but not really be here.  But I am here!  My head hurts of course – duh! but my real slightly silly brain is here and for that I am truly, truly thankful!  If I could do a little jig I probably would (I think of Papa Mac my grandfather dancing down the aisle singing Lord of the Dance with his two leg prostheses).

It’s been sad watching the news here with the floods and I can’t imagine what those families are going through.  Many prayers for each of them and all of the days, weeks, and years ahead.  I keep saying surreally that I just had brain surgery, but I certainly didn’t wake up in the middle of the night with water all around and losing my family.  May God’s peace, strength, and presence surround these people in ways that they can’t even comprehend.

It’s amazing to me the strength of the human spirit and that push to keep going whether to the frontier of San Francisco, that beautiful 16 year old girl wanting to get back out and travel again in her sailboat or in watching this World Cup action and the exhilaration and electricity that come from people uniting in a common theme and cause!  We’ll see what the doctors say in the days and weeks to come.  As Mike told y’all, the doctor got all of the tumor except one line that was where it was fuzzy and close to the motor cortex.  They’ll either wait and see, do some chemo and radiation or will go back in and do another surgery.  Either way looks like I won’t be making it to Nicaragua in August but I know the students will have a blast!

I’m tired and I’m definitely not back to normal, but it feels good to know that I’ll get to see my kids soon and that life is going on as usual for now.  Josh is leading a Bible Study at Annual Conference right now so Mom and I have been praying for him.  He and Dad will travel back this way this afternoon.  Caleb was with us the morning of the surgery and GiGi has been sending us updated picture messages on the phone of the kids.  Mike will be doing the music at St. John’s – Fort Mill this morning.  Renee, Guyeth and Rob visited yesterday and they were each a blessing!  Prayers for Lindsay, my cousin and Guyeth and Rob’s daughter who got t-boned by a car full of 5 guys last night in New Orleans.  Even though it flipped, her Explorer just seemd to have one dent which is a blessing but I know she’s going to be sore and shaken up so prayers for peace, relaxed muscles, and rest.

So life goes on and just like those people in the crazy movie San Francisco – it may not all be pretty and it may be a fight, but it is life and we serve and know and trust the One who goes before us and beside us and ever with us each step of the way.  Praise be to God!

This is the link I wanted to post for you on Friday – it’s a song from Amy Grant’s new record – “Overnight” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cPYk6qB4Q0

  I also wanted to share with you Michael W. Smith’s “Healing Rain.”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo1bjTOFbZA

Posted in Culture, Faith, Family

Even the trashy Philippa Gregory novels…

Posted on by narciejeter

Okay so my thinking of “for such a time as this” extends far beyond just Ms. Esther.  I really do believe that God brings things into our lives for particular journeys.  No this is not everything happens for a reason or just the beginning of “For Good” ie. “People come into our lives for a reason…”  Nope.  I’m talking about reading that book or hearing that song or getting that email or reading that billboard or whatever at just the right time and that be a little message to keep you hanging on and keeping on.

So I’ve never totally loved the raunchy romances of life.  I am one of those people that like Christian romances.  Yep, that aisle in the bookstores that says Christian fiction welp I used to make a home there.  Okay, I’m out.  There’s a whole shelf in Wesley dedicated to these treasures of mine.  Love Robin Jones Gunn.  Love Linda Chaikin.  Love, love, love them!  When I was at Emory some of the students gave me a Christian dating book in tribute to these crazy books of mine even though I was long married at that point.  There’s something about a good story and the Lord of all driving it that makes me happy – I like both the passion and the faith.  Now my grandmother loved books.  Good golly I can’t even remember a time til her dying day that she didn’t have a book beside her.  Mine go with me in my gigantic pocketbooks.  I have no idea how she kept hers so neat except that she probably didn’t have as much candy and kid junk in her bags.  But Ganny liked all sorts of book – including the occasional I would say trashy romance.  So there was a time that I picked up The Other Boleyn Girl on a flight and thought what in the world is all this sex and craziness?  Such is the reaction when you grow up reading the Christian versions…  However, now in this stage of life when such things cease to surprise me anymore, I have found a new at least so-so feeling towards this author that blends history and romance.

My brother Caleb just earned his history degree from the University of South Carolina and his last paper was on Richard III – interesting guy.  This is the Richard portrayed in Gregory’s book The White Queen and the one who may or may not have murdered the two princes in the tower.  I know I’ve lost half of you now, but I promise to get to the rambling point (some of you are like – dude this is how she preaches – she just needs to get to the point).  Anyway, I hated that book in a lot of ways.  Loved the romance, loved the survival, but hated it for that mother to lose her children like that and her husband and all that yuck.  In the meantime though I picked up another one of her books, The Constant Princess.  This one is about Katherine of Aragon.  Interesting story.  I’m less than 150 pages into it and I already want to stop reading it because at this point everything’s happy and knowing the little bit about British history that I do, it ain’t going to be happy long.  What I got though for this time and in this place is that this lady and many before her knew how to survive.  She’s a daughter of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand and much of her identity is that she is this royal princess that’s going to kick butt.  (Okay Renee I know you don’t like when I use butt, but it is what it is.)  This queen stuff is crazy and I wholly believe that this whole royal thing in these books is crazy and that the whole business was completely dirty, but I think about what my brother Josh writes to us in letters and what I read from in this past week’s lectionary from 1 Kings.  We are children of the Most High God.

We are children of the Most High God.  That’s not a phrase that I’ve particularly jived with over the years, but it’s growing on me in this context.  This doesn’t mean that I’m going to start walking around with a long train and royal septer, I want to say bahahahaha to that.  But it does mean that I can do this.  I am a child of God and that’s all I have to be.  period.  Philippa Gregory may not speak to you and heck she may not speak to me again, but I think it’s absolutely amazing that we have a God that is not someone that looks at us from afar but is a God that gets messy and personal and in the mix with us and somehow in the midst of our insane little worlds breaks in and gives us what we need to keep going, no matter how random that may be.

Don’t know if I’ll finish the book but I got what I needed for the journey.

Posted in Culture, Faith, Family, Music, Television

Blest Be The Tie That Binds

Posted on by narciejeter

So I love this old hymn.  We sang it at the end of every worship service when we were at Wesley Chapel in Lydia and it was played at my Gandaddy’s funeral with Ganny’s alto voice ringing out as always.   It’s not the greatest sounding recording, but it’s about like I remember in UMC’s with a bunch of different voices and a lot of joy in the harmony and singing out as loud as you can even if you’re not the best singer in the history of the world.  The second video – different tune but also familiar and I think the images are cool with the words. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=9OfSm2LfX48&feature=related.

What is the tie that binds us?

Love that great cloud of witnesses always before us (can’t help but mention the LOST finale) and that great community of Christ followers that is ever behind us, beside us, and before us.  Love, love, love that in this crazy blog system that people’s posts look like patches in a quilt.  God is sewing community together all around us and that is beautiful.