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revdorothyl at 08:40am on 04/04/2008
revdorothyl at 08:40am on 04/04/2008It's pouring again in Tennessee, and has been off and on for several days. This morning, there are flood warnings (not watches -- actual flooding has occurred as the result of yesterday's rain), and I have a funeral to preach at noon and a committal service in a cemetary right along the flooding Harpeth River at 2 PM.
I hope the gravesite is on a hill (pretty good chance of that, actually, since the area is all hills, and nobody in their right mind would put a grave on low ground near a river that floods every other year).
At least the miserable weather matches the mood of the day for the family. The grief is finally hitting them full-on, now -- at first they were just understandably relieved that this wonderful, kind, elderly man was no longer suffering as he had been over the last month of his life; after we finished planning the service Wednesday night, though, the 'missing him' part had time to surface.
Oh, well, time to say my usual minister's prayer before preaching: "Dear Lord, please don't let me screw this up by trying to be impressive or clever or cute, but let me be as transparent as possible, so that I disappear and only your love is discernible to your people."
Or there's also the abbreviated version (sort of like the 'Shorter catechism' of the Westminster Confession): "God, please don't let me be a jerk."
I hope the gravesite is on a hill (pretty good chance of that, actually, since the area is all hills, and nobody in their right mind would put a grave on low ground near a river that floods every other year).
At least the miserable weather matches the mood of the day for the family. The grief is finally hitting them full-on, now -- at first they were just understandably relieved that this wonderful, kind, elderly man was no longer suffering as he had been over the last month of his life; after we finished planning the service Wednesday night, though, the 'missing him' part had time to surface.
Oh, well, time to say my usual minister's prayer before preaching: "Dear Lord, please don't let me screw this up by trying to be impressive or clever or cute, but let me be as transparent as possible, so that I disappear and only your love is discernible to your people."
Or there's also the abbreviated version (sort of like the 'Shorter catechism' of the Westminster Confession): "God, please don't let me be a jerk."
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