Prepare Ye

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?         Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;         and by night, but find no rest. from Psalm 22 My mind and heart are heavy with grief this morning. Nine people are dead in Charleston, South Carolina - executed during a Bible study at Emmanuel AME Church. I do not want to believe that someone would want to commit this act of terror. The more details that come out, the more I can not understand where this destructive hate comes from. I had planned on posting today to share Pope Francis' encyclical letter on the environment, Laudato Si (Praise to you.) The Pope lays out his case for how we are responsible for the damage to our planet and what we can do to address these issues. You can download it below. I have also included a study from the ELCA on awakening God's call to Earthkeeping. But ...

I'm going to try to make this blog functional again. The key part that was missing ... my motivation. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. PREVIOUSLY ON PREPARE YE: Since the beginning of March, when I had my last "real" post, ( The In Between Times ) I did get the call, and was assigned to a synod in the northwest part of Wisconsin (you can figure it out if you try really hard), flew out to meet the Bishop and his staff, received profiles for a two-point parish (two churches that work together to call a pastor and do other ministries). When I was preparing to come out to meet with the call committee, my mother had a heart attack. Instead of coming for the interview, I went back home to Michigan. I wound up spending the last two weeks of my Senior year with my mom in the hospital or recovering at home. She was bound and determined to come out to Gettysburg for my graduation, and made sure her doctors knew that. We drove out and she saw me graduate. W...