Well, a few weeks of posting for a few months off, thats natural right?

Things have been busy. I was out of the office a week for training for the Card Access System at Concordia University, St. Paul and that was great. I had so much fun getting to know the people in my class and then learning about our system. Then I was back for a day and then Katie and I left for a conference at Willow Creek Community Church.
The conference, titled Arise, is geared for Worship and Arts ministers and workers. This was my second time at the conference and I highly recommend this to anyone working in a church. It was great to get loaded with ideas. I attended a session on Biblical principles for worship and the arts that was out of this world. I also attended a session on Building and Leading a Music Ministry that gave me new ideas to come back to my Worship and Music committee with and push them forward from looking at the individual Sundays to looking at the vision and the future of the worship life of St. Stephanus.

I also have been appointed to the Central Lutheran School Board.  This has been interesting because they are stepping into strategic planning and I am excited to be involved in the process.

Last night was the season opener for the North Suburban Church Softball League (www.nscsl.org) and it was a cold one.  The temperature started at about 40 and dropped.  The game was fun and the people are great but the pride was certainly injured a bit last night.  We lost both games by more that I want to admit.  The opposing team hit more home runs than I thought possible.  Overall, the night was great fellowship, I ended up not hurting too bad and hopefully the pride will heal before next Sunday.

I am tired today.  Yesterday was a great day but it didn’t end.  I arrived at CSP at 7:45 am and left at 10:00 pm.  It was all good and fun but so tiring.  I am also getting annoyed by people who say one thing and promise things and then don’t follow through with what they say.  They call and say we can’t do this anymore or this way.  I am seeing more sides and faces to people than I knew were there.  I really think about how this relates to faith…we all have two faces, the sinful face and the saved face.  The sinful face is washed away in baptism to that the saved ace can shine but sometimes we forget about that.  It is hard to wash away the sinful face and expose the saved face but then I realize that the washing isn’t something that I do, it is something that God does.  God, though Jesus, scrubs away the sin and all that is left is the shining saved face.  Our task then is to show that face to everyone that we encounter.  We are called to be Christ to others and one way of doing that is always looking at people with the face that has been saved and show that to others.

Spring is reluctantly here. The sun is shining and the green of spring is beginning to show up. This brings many new thoughts and feelings to the surface. Again the idea that the years are going faster comes up again. The feeling of growth and newness is always in the forefront of my mind. I look at the yard and the gardens and dream about what they will be.

I feel that my spiritual life is the same. I have dusted off the snow and it is beginning to blossom into something that I have been waiting for for years. The seasons in my life seem to be changing.