Flowers Make Life Better

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my brother Leslie has planted a garden in my backyard. One of the many items are 96 gladiola plants – my favourite flower. I got to cut the first three spikes today.

The past week and a bit was tough. It started last Friday – ten days ago. I got to have lunch in Moose Jaw with Doug, and Rhett and Leah. They were in from Calgary for a wedding party. Why was it tough? Well, you see … I got to see them twice at the begining of June, then I saw them three weeks later when we camped in Cypress Hills … and now three weeks later I’m sitting in a highly prized Thai resturant with them. It’s starting to feel like I see them every three weeks. You know the bottom is going to fall out of this story.

It was just an overnight trip to Regina. I got to watch a movie with Rhett and Emily. I got to have two great visits with Suzanne. Doug and I went out to lunch. … here comes the bottom … okay … there were tears shed … the nose-running kind of sobbing tears. A ‘poor Doug’ is appropriate here as he got to deal with my wails. Sometimes it is really hard to live away from family and friends.

But I love ministry and I make the drive back to Swift Current. And there were high points and sad points in ministry this week.

My Mom is doing very poorly. She has had another significant fall, but no broken bones. She sleeps all the time now and it is so hard to get her to wake up. If I can wake her, it is an accomplishment to keep her awake for twenty minutes. Yet I make many lovely connections with other family members of residents. This week I had the privilege to preside at the graveside service for a resident. I had chatted different times with his wife and she gave me helpful advice. It was an honour to be asked.

A congregational member that I have visited numerous times over the past year died. I knew he was poorly but I hadn’t seen him for 10 days (we rotate our visiting between pastors). He was so poorly when I saw him on Thursday I couldn’t believe my eyes. He died on Friday and I got to be with his family at the hospital. Ministry is an amazing gift.

I couldn’t quite figure out why I was feeling so punk on Saturday morning. Then I realized that I’m falling in love with these wonderful folks that I serve. I hadn’t realized. It kind of snuck up on me. God is so good!

Doug left this morning to go camping in the mountains for a week before coming back and heading out on a motorcycle trip. I was feeling kind of down to be alone. Then I walked outside and saw all my beautiful flowers. Then I saw Leslie’s gladiolas. Then I saw my little tea rose bloom finally opened. I was inspired to pick raspberries and four big bags of weeds. And while I was picking these weeds God spoke two inspirations. One for my personal life and one for ministry. I’m worried that God only talks to me when I weed … which means I should weed more … and there is more to be weeded. I find it an interesting metaphor! Life is good.