Month: January 2021

I wonder about this often?

I have been a life long member of the Christian Reformed Church.

There are many things about my Church that I hold dear and close to my heart. I feel hesitant to claim some things about my Church and even struggle with when is the right time to speak up. 

There are so many individuals from my Churches over the years who have shaped me, and I am grateful. For as long as I can remember, Church has been “done” the same way, for the most part. We did go from two services on a Sunday to one service. We have relaxed in what you are “expected” to wear. Coffee seems to have made its way into the sanctuary for some on Sunday mornings. There seems to be less expectation that the Church’s children will go to Sunday School. I am pretty sure the teenagers are not memorizing the catechism anymore. I miss the celebrations of Professions of Faith. I believe we have to talk more about living our faith as believers with adults and kids alike. 

I was privileged to serve as a Director of Children’s Ministry at a large Christian Reformed Church. I loved so much about my time at Sunshine. I was young and learning, but I am so grateful for what I learned about Worship and community and faith-building in those years. So many of those lessons are still deeply embedded in my heart today.

Then COVID came and changed how we “did” Church. I love the shirt I saw that said The Church has left the building. We have had to consider who we are as a community of believers when we are not gathering on Sunday mornings. 

It seems that there is some hope that our Church will gather again in 2021. We have not been together in the building for almost a year. I am sure some people think that is awful. Still, as Church leadership, we agreed to follow our State leadership’s recommendations and only reconvene when permitted to do so. For us, that has been the right thing to do. 

And so now I wonder what is it that we should take away from our interruption of service. Should we resume as we were, or are we being called to something different? What might change if we were to consider this interruption as a gift to change things up? How would we restructure Worship and Gathering if we embrace the freedom that has come from “letting go” of our weekly rituals? 

I would like to hear from people near and far about how you envision the Church responding to this interruption of service. What do you think God may be calling us to do or be when we are a reconvened people? Somehow it doesn’t sit right with me that we would reconvene and carry on just as we did. So much has shaped us and changed us. It is my prayer that we live and converse honestly with one another about how that affects our local Churches as well. 

Blessed Be His Name,

Trish

 

 

I have been struck by this question often in the recent past. Sometimes I believe these two have a clear sense of how they are different. Today provoked alot of emotion and again, I am aware how different that emotion may be, depending on where you stand politically.

Regardless of where your stand in your views, I think we can acknowledge that today had significant moments that are shaping history. Tonight I want to share a few pictures that speak to our changing times.

Blessed Be His Name,

Trish

I have had the privilege of writing a daily CaringBridge page for a dear friend of mine. In mid-November, I would have called this academic guru an acquaintance. But when I learned he was facing surgery, I offered to be a medical advocate for him and his wife. A few zoom meetings and some honest heart to heart conversations and I now consider them both to be dear friends.

As I have written his updates almost every day. I am committed to living authentically and it is essential to be honest when the challenging moments feel insurmountable and equally important when one feels on top of the moon after a therapy session.

I have begun to reflect on what if we all had a daily page. What if someone else was writing yours or mine. What would they notice about you or me, and what would they share honestly with others about what they observe or experience? As I have processed this thought, I have caught myself at times and shifted my tone or words or attitudes.

I am honored to be representing Phil and Marie’s journey on Phil’s CaringBridge page. I invite you to live with kindness, gratitude, integrity, and grit as you live each day of your life. As you can see in the video above, life does not have to be perfect to bring goodness to someone else. Life does not have to look like we think it should to love someone else well. Consider what you would like others to share about you and your journey, who is essential to you, and what brings you joy. Consider how you invite people into your vulnerable spaces, and do the words you speak match how your heart feels?

We have a lot of work to do in our world. We need to work hard to become a healthy and united Country. Let it begin within your own being and faithfully influence the people who surround you. We can do this, people, if we commit to caring deeply for one another!

Blessed Be His Name,

Trish

I listened to Jemar Tisby tonight. He wrote the Color of Compromise and is a truth-teller. As he said, you may disagree with him, but he hopes his words cause people to think. He uses history to support what he is saying, and it is hard to not call it truth, as painful as it is.

There is so much that he said that I could reflect on: Complacency, the color of compromise, how we identify who we look up to, and so much more. But tonight, I am feeling like this question is powerful. I am struck by how resourceful we are in so many ways. We can solve so many problems. I have to believe there is truth to this. There is silence in our leadership in the Church about Race. It is time that we, as a community of believers, hang up the how and move into action. For such a time as this, God has called us to live at peace with our brothers and sisters. Let it be so and let it begin with me/us. There is work to be done.
Blessed Be His Name,

Trish

 

I am grateful that winter has been very mild so far. With almost no snow to speak of, how can it feel like winter has been forever long? I am starting to realize that it is not snow that I mind, but I struggle most with the lack of sunshine. 

So yesterday, when I heard Tulips were available, I set out to find some. It sounded like a lovely way to bring a little Spring to my world. I found a nice bouquet of 10, doubled it for extra pleasure, and headed home to enjoy them. 

As I got them set up in the water, I was sadly reminded that it is only mid-January and maybe my hope for beautiful tulips is premature. Somehow even the Tulips looked winter-weary on my counter.  I was disappointed and reminded myself that winter is winter and I can make it through.
I then added some nutrients to the water and headed to bed. 

This morning I woke up and felt sheer joy at the way my tulips came to life. They stood up and felt as if they were doing just what I hoped for. There is just something about the beauty and movement of tulips that remind me of warmth and sunshine. (Maybe it is all the Tulip Times I attended while living in Holland, Mi.)

Today I am grateful for the beauty that greeted me this morning. This winter seems as if flowers are speaking to me. I am in awe of the simplicity and beauty. I am struck by their very basic needs but their very predictable response as long as you are faithful in their care.

Today I am reminded that even in the gray of winter, beauty surrounds me. I want to open my eyes to that beauty every day this week, no matter how much the sun shines and no matter the season. Thank you, Jesus, for Tulips and gentle reminders of your goodness!

Blessed Be His Name, 

Trish

 

I am fascinated by my family story.

One of the best trips I have ever taken is when almost my whole family traveled to The Netherlands, my Dad and Mom’s birthplace. It was such an amazing experience to spend time there, hearing the stories, visiting their neighborhoods, and being together in those spaces. It was not the first time for my siblings and me, but experiencing it with my nieces and nephews was such a gift. 

Learning about our family history’s richness has invited us to embrace many different aspects of our heritage. We likely would not have found many meaningful traditions if our parents had not committed to sharing their stories.

This past Christmas, in the odd COVID style celebration of our Christmas worship via Zoom, I was deeply impacted by one of those generation-to-generation moments. I remember Ere Zij God from when I was very young. I always knew it was powerful, even if I did not fully understand why. I learned to sing it, but I am pretty sure that no Dutch person would understand my pronunciation. To this day, this song carries a very worshipful feel to me.

I want to share the video with you of my friend Pete singing Ere Zij God. Even if you don’t understand the words, I think you will feel the worship! I have included a bit of a description below:

Glory to God” is a Christmas carol popular among American and Canadian Reformed churches with Dutch roots. It is translated from the Dutch “Ere Zij God” and is one of the most beloved carols sung in Protestant churches in the Netherlands.

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The lyrics are inspired by the words that the angels sang when the birth of Christ was announced to shepherds in Luke 2:14. The song first appeared in print in 1857 in the hymnal Het nachtegaaltje (The little nightingale),^[1] compiled and written by lyricist Isaac Bikkers (1833-1903).^[2]

The hymn is thus one of a series drawn on that text, including Angels We Have Heard on High, Angels from the Realms of Glory, While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks, and, by far the most ancient, the Greater Doxology or Gloria in Excelsis Deo.

The music is attributed to F.A. Schultz, of whom little is known except for others that a Franz Albert Schultz wrote a songbook while working at a college in Königsberg in 1731. No copies of this book are extant. The music is grandiose in style, in the A-B-A form, with an extended, flowing double-Amen ending.

Amen and Amen…Blessed Be His Name!

Trish

Today I was setting up my new MAC computer. One of the things I have committed to is storing our family photos so that whenever we are creating something to celebrate or remember, they are organized and accessible.

It is a bit overwhelming that there are 27,297 photos and 634 videos. But I find that sorting, deleting, editing, and sharing is such a joy that I am filled with gratitude to have that many photos when I realize that means so many good and sweet moments.

Tonight I was going to sort videos, and the two I came started with were random and touched such a tender place in my heart. The first video flooded my memory with the joy of being together with my family at Thanksgiving in years past.

A body memory goes with this video: the people, the faces, the music, the place. I am so glad to have had my phone, to have recorded the moment, to have held this memory and all it represents.

The second is from my aunt’s funeral. Again, the people, the music, the feelings, the place, the reminder that in all that is unfolding, at any moment, I can sing Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.  I am reminded of God’s presence.

I wonder what video’s or pictures you have that hold positive body memories for you. Where would you find a picture or video that would cause you to stop and lose yourself for a moment? What would you name the feelings to be? What do you remember about the people you were with, their voices, the warmth…

Tonight I am grateful for my family, music, memories, and faith. I wonder what you are grateful for today?

So often, an even split is a good thing!

Some of those might be when sharing your favorite sweet treat, splitting your prize money, or when the final score is tied at the end of a game. In those situations, most people walk away with a sense of satisfaction or at least holding one’s own.

Tonight on the news, I was struck again by the poll on how the Nation views impeachment. 52 to 48%. This blog is not about which view was 52 and which was 48. It is more about how often this year our political divide seems pretty much split.

I have a sense of dread every time I see just how divided we are.
It is easy to wonder how the other side could see it differently (often the honest thought is how can the other side see it so wrong?)
It is feeling pretty normal to hear political leaders or individuals of both sides villainized.

I have always liked Ecclesiastes 3.

3 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

But now that “time” doesn’t seem so easy to understand. When one believes now is the time to plant, and another thinks it is a time to uproot, how do we know?

It is hard to know how to live with transparency when you are left wondering if what you share will be received and respected by those you know and love. (or thought you knew and loved)

Politics makes life hard right now.
Politics causes anxiety to be high right now.
Politics has divided our Nation and brought violence in so many places.

As we go into a weekend where riots and violence are expected, may we guard our tongues and hearts, pray without ceasing, speak the truth with kindness, and cling to hope.

Lord, heal our Nation,
Blessed Be His Name,
Trish

Today one of my favorite clients decided to go on Hospice. I admire the courage it takes to say on any given day, today I am ready to begin the journey of releasing. I loved my work as a Hospice Social Worker, and it shaped me so much for the work I continue to do today as the owner of Visiting Angels of West Michigan.

One of the things that struck me most as a new grad with my MSW, as I met with Hospice clients and their families day in and day out, was that people often came to Hospice tired. They were tired from treatment. Tired of navigating medical systems. Tired from feeling sick, tired of the wondering, the uncertainty, the limitations, the blood draws. So much of the journey of treatment takes everything we have to give it.

And then we say welcome to Hospice where we want to focus on the quality of life. We would talk about how that felt hard to dream that quality could come easily to this tired body and soul.

If Hospice’s philosophy aligns with how someone wants to live life, education needs to continue to happen. We need to encourage individuals to consider hospice as an option earlier. Hospice is very much about how we live and how we die.

When I had the opportunity to buy Visiting Angels, I did so because I was deeply convinced that life’s quality needs to be our focus way before we engage a terminal diagnosis. I am committed to living out the quality of life in my living and my dying and facilitate that for others with every chance I am given.

I will write more about quality of life, living and dying, advocacy, Visiting Angels, and Hospice in the coming year. But tonight, I leave you with this. If you were going to commit to quality of life in your living and dying, how would your choices or thoughts change?

Let’s do it, my friends. In honor of my dear client Betty. Let’s commit right now to live our lives with intention and purpose. What a gift to be able to go to bed at the end of every day, knowing that we did our best with what God gave us on that day. I hope we can all say that we commit to creating quality of life in our living and our dying, both for ourselves and those around us!

This quote has been a meaningful one to me since my early 20’s. It comes to me at certain times when I know deep in my gut that I have been resisting something. As I grow in courage and move into whatever I am resisting or fearing, I start to hear and envision these words. I become aware of my tightness (when I have been a bud too long) and my hiding. I begin to think about the tunnel of risk. This is what I see when I move from hiding to blooming. I can envision an animated scene on Disney where I go from a tight bud through a long tunnel of risk, and I come out the other side as a beautiful blossom. There is angst, movement, darkness, uncertainty, perhaps some pain, anticipation, exhilaration, and beauty in that scene. There is a looking back and a looking ahead. An understanding that the bud was part of the process, but being a bud too long is not how it is meant to be.

I wonder where you have been aware of your journey from being a bud to a blossom? Is there anywhere you now feel that it might be more painful to stay where you are than to risk blooming.

I hope and pray tonight, in my story and each of yours, that you will risk blooming. That we will notice in one another the risk and the beauty of blooming. May we tend to one another with kindness, compassion and invitation.

I received this flower from my Mom for Christmas. I love watching it every day as it grows and changes. It is close to breaking out from a bud to bloom! This beautiful gift has invited reflection in my own life, and I am grateful.

Thank you, Jesus, for buds and blooms!

Blessed Be His Name,

Trish