Daily writing prompt

What fears have you overcome and how?

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The one that emerges is offering words before a crowd. My internship while at seminary was at a large congregation that worshiped hundreds at multiple services on a Sunday, and I had to help lead worship every week and preach once a month.

The difference for me was that, when I preached, I never tried to speak without a manuscript. I knew what I wanted to say and had the words in front of me. And I had a pulpit to stand behind, though I did eventually leave it every once in a while.

I had no desire to stand before hundreds of people with a sermon insufficiently memorized. I never wanted to put that kind of pressure on myself– even if, for some, this would make the sermon more authentic and personal.

Other than that, I still have fears to conquer.

Daily writing prompt

Describe one simple thing you do that brings joy to your life.

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I make a batch of cold brew coffee every few days. I break out my Toddy system– the same one I’ve had since I started writing in WordPress eight years ago– and whip up a batch of the heavenly concentrate that ends up lasting four or five days, depending on how many end up using it. More often than not, it’s just me.

Daily writing prompt

How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?

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I know when I need a break from the news feeds, or being available. It all becomes too much, for a time– sensory overload or mere distraction– and I realize all I need to do is put the device down and walk away. The phone or the tablet go on a shelf, or my bureau, and I do something else– read, play the piano, take a walk, head to the Y, work in the yard for a bit, start supper.

Daily writing prompt

What quality do you value most in a friend?

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When I think of someone, besides my wife or siblings or collegial relationships, who I would consider a friend, only a couple people come to mind, and they are old college buddies who live halfway across the country. There aren’t many people in my life who fit in the category of friend, but those who do, it seems, have always accepted me for who I am, and we still make the occasional effort to keep in touch and visit.

I have a number of acquaintances by virtue of serving as a pastor in a couple of congregations, none of whom I’d consider a friend or confidant, but kind and decent people, just the same, with whom I golf or can still strike up an occasional conversation.

Now that I think about it, the only true, through-thick-and-thin, brutally honest friendship I’ve had in my life was probably with a classmate throughout most of the grade school years, but we drifted apart during the college years and after. Life took us in different directions.

Daily writing prompt

What jobs have you had?

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Early on in high school, I worked on a farm for a summer, doing odd jobs and mowing grass. I vaguely remember the first paycheck– a relative pittance, but it was my first legitimate paycheck. Then it was on to a restaurant part time through the later high school years and for summers during college– dishwashing, short order cook, prep work, occasional busboy. I also started working at a corrugated container manufacturer towards the end of college.

I substitute taught for a year or so after college graduation, then it was back to the corrugated container factory, working various shifts, including the “graveyard” shift (11-7), which I did for ten months before deciding it was an assault on circadian rhythms and wasn’t gonna work for me.

The closure of the container factory precipitated a bit of downtime, i.e unemployment, so I got into a bench assembly training program and was able to get a job at a company that made high-powered CO2 lasers. It was probably the best job I’ve had– fascinating technology, interesting work and people to work with.

In the early 90s, I left the laser company and we headed to seminary in Gettysburg, PA. I spent the next 26 years after graduation as an employee of the church, pastoring a total of three congregations, technically speaking, during that time (my first call became a consolidation of two congregations that ended up staying in the building and changing its name).

Since retiring, I’ve occasionally helped my son with his landscaping business.

And once a parent, always a parent.

Daily writing prompt

Do you practice religion?

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I used to. Not so much anymore. I guess maybe I’m a late-onset agnostic. I want to believe, but I’ve always been something of a skeptic, wondered about a closed canon, read Sapiens, dared to listen to people like Sam Harris, and simply looked around, which has all contributed to the current spinning of wheels when it comes to actively looking for a worshiping community.

Faith is faith, and reason is reason, and it’s always been a matter of finding a workable melding of the two. I guess I haven’t found that yet.