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Using the lifeboat……again.

Though we left at 6 am to go to work in Nashville today, I did not get home till close to 11pm…..far too much for a man my age, let alone in my condition. The new facility is DONE though and you can check it out in person OR at http://www.indianaanglican.com/ Instead of trying to write and just end up rambling, Amanda called me at 10pm and told me she wrote the following blog entry! Thanks Amanda!
If I asked you to close your eyes and picture the most spiritual place you have ever been, where would it be? Think of the place where you have felt God’s presence most strongly; where you can feel the peace and serenity that only He can provide; the place where you feel your heart is most open to giving thanks to Him and you know He is there to hear you. I imagine that many people might picture a chapel that has special meaning, or a beautiful, peaceful outdoor spot where they have seen the vastness of God’s creation.

For me, this place is in my son Ben’s room. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it is the truth! Each night, when I am in his room, rocking him while he sleeps on my lap, the room is quiet and dark with only the nightlight by which to see. I can see the outline of his sweet face and hear him breathing in such peace.

But there is more to this room than just the joy of rocking my son. His room is an ever-present reminder to me of God’s power to change anything. I never wanted to have kids. I would have bet you my life savings that I would never have a child! It is only by the power and grace of God that my heart was changed and I was given the most wonderful gift of my son. The amazing part of God’s existence is that He can change absolutely anything, and most significantly, people. I have tried for years to change people (others and myself), and it never works! So imagine the power He possesses when He can change anyone.

This room is also the place where I am offered the time to reflect on all the blessings in my life, including Ben. In Mark 1:11, it reads “And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” I have read this passage many times and heard it many more at church, but it takes on new meaning to me now that I have a son of my own. And I never could have know this deeper meaning if the Lord had not changed me.

Give thanks to the Lord for the changes He has made in your life, and open yourself to Him so He can change you even more! He has great things in store for you! God bless.

Amanda

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Amanda (again) to the rescue…….

A couple of bad memory days have led me to ask Amanda to write again…..I forgot yesterday, and though I remembered today, I am getting nowhere….my apologies….Tom+

In reading a book today, the reflections at the end of the chapter asked, “Have you told Jesus yet today that you love Him?” Immediately after reading the question, an old Rod Stewart song came into my head. Why, I have not clue….since I am not even remotely a fan of his music. But for whatever reason, I knew the words to the first verse. Go ahead, sing along as you read this, because I know you know the words too! Have I told you lately that I love you? Have I told you there’s no one else above you? You fill my heart with gladness, You take away all my sadness, Ease my troubles that’s what you do.

It struck me that these words are a love song for Jesus! What perfect words to sum up His presence in our lives. I am not a deep theologian (obviously!) if I find religion in a Rod Stewart song. But I went online and searched for the rest of the lyrics to see if it the rest of the song fits. I won’t bore you with the lyrics, but look it up and decide for yourself!

My point in this is to say that sometimes when I try to find words to “summarize” my faith, I get tongue-tied (which is hard to believe for me!). I just can’t seem to find the words that can give due honor to His name or my faith in Him. But I have realized that the words don’t have to be fancy or complicated, they just need to be grounded in what He does for His children. (who are you and I). Each day, we should spend time in gracious thanksgiving to our Lord, and share with Him how much we love Him in return. So if you can’t find your own words to get started, try Rod Stewart’s song as a place to start! God bless!

Amanda

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Expanding the horizons, expanding the ministry…..

Amanda and I were talking about the ministry and this blog tonight. I had originally started it for more serious and expressive ideas, yet the stroke seemed to get in the way. She wrote for me a few times, in much more depth than I either had the desire or ability to do at this point, but people seemed to respond to it positively. It reminded us of two things prior in my ministry. The first was the “Love God with Joy” daily devotion line that you could call from your telephone. I wrote it and recorded it each day, and it was widely used. And the other was Amanda and my Daily Devotions that we would email out every night for the next day. The telephone devotions ended after a year or so, though I cannot remember why (there WAS a reason). And the Daily Devotions ended after a computer failure erased our entire database. It was devastating. The database was hard to keep up though, and there were almost ALWAYS problems, in that people’s emails would sometimes be down, or reject them. With a large mailing we were also often depicted by systems as SPAM, and when people didn’t get them, or when they wanted to comment, they would often write and getting back to everyone was very time intensive.
With that, Amanda and I have decided to resurrect a Daily Devotion connected like this one to our website. I will still post daily here, but our Daily Devotion will be a bit more in depth, and be a bit more Scriptural and………devotional. (I have quite the way with words.) We hope to launch it within the next few days and I will announce it here and on www.IndianaAnglican.com too. Our hope is that you will enjoy and be blessed by both.
Anyway, my intention was not to make this an infomercial, but rather tell you what we were thinking and where we intend to go. We are excited about the possibility. Though it was often time consuming for us both, it was something we both enjoyed and enjoyed doing together. Look for it soon!
Thanks for checking in my friends, and God Bless!
Fr. Tom+
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Reflections on friendships and call………

WOW, this is about the earliest I have been ready for bed without being sick in years! It is just about 9pm, and though Puddy and I have sat down to write, everything else is done, and we are well on our way to calling it a day.

Before we go however I wanted to share a little about my day. We had two services today, one at St. Patrick’s Noblesville,and the other at St. Anne’s in Anderson. Deacon Tony Bender delivered the sermon in both places, and he did a fantastic job (you can listen to it online at http://www.indianaanglican.com/) But what made it even more special was my longtime friendship with Tony. Back in the early 1980’s we were both active lay people in our Church, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Speedway, Indiana. And though I have heard Tony talk on a variety of occasions, as he spoke today I thought about that time many years ago. I believe that both Tony and I would tell you that even though we knew I was going to seminary, neither of us would have ever imagined being in the place we are now, let alone together in it. God’s Vision for our lives and ministries is often different from our own, and for Tony and I that has certainly been the case.

But as is the responsibility of every person, we are called by the Lord to follow His Vision and not our own, and I am thankful we did. We have lots to do and it is always a blessing to be able to do it with your friends. Tony, Chuck, Sean, PT, and even Dan, are all pretty good guys (most of the time) and loyal and dedicated friends. But more importantly, they all have good hearts and those hearts are dedicated to following the Lord. We, as a Church, are all blessed to have them, but I truly feel the most blessed of all, because I also can call them my friends!

Okay……..here is a delay update! Amanda needed to use my computer and accidentally erased this once, so in truth, though is may be the earliest I have been READY for bed, it certainly will not be the earliest I have gone! But tonight I am not upset by that, I just have a thankful heart. The Lord has blessed me by allowing me to do something I love….but even more than that, He has allowed me to do it with my friends!

Goodnight and God bless!

Fr. Tom+

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The ramblings of a mind quite thankful for its own pillow…….

Well we are finally back from Akron, and I have to tell you, it is great to be home! Sadly however, both Ben and Steph have colds, which is unusual I suppose for August, but they seem to be getting along okay. AND TONIGHT I am not sitting in some hotel room, but am back out on my back porch listening to K-Love and hanging with Puddy the cat!!!! The only not so peaceful part is that my neighbors stereo is up so loud that you can hear it from space, let alone from 100 feet, but after I put on these headphones…..well then, everything was and is quite peaceful!! I really don’t want to give the impression that my neighbors and my neighborhood is a bad one. I know the stereo is loud tonight, but it is never really that loud normally, and all the fireworks I have complained about seem to have stopped. The Bible tells us to “love our neighbor” and I intend to! They are as they say where I grew up, “good people.”

Tomorrow we only have two services….one in Noblesville and the other in Anderson. It will be good to be there. It’s not that I don’t enjoy gathering with other Christians in our denomination, particularly at national events, it’s just that I am always more comfortable at home…..I suppose we all are. Dorothy was right, there’s no place like home, and I am quite thankful to be back at mine!

Amanda and her mom are talking in the living room, and I am certain they will outlast me. Amanda is a great co-pilot for long trips if you like a co-pilot who sleeps all the way. So she is well rested and they are catching up, and particularly talking about the genetic superiority of “Ben the Wonderful” I’d bet. I will join Ben in sleeping through that conversation, because I too am going to bed! I do have a bit I want to share, but am far to cloudy to write about it tonight. Please however keep Deacon Dan, his wife Merry Ann, and Father Sean in your prayers as they will be returning home from Akron tomorrow.

Once again, it is great to be home!! Keep the faith….it’s the most important thing you can do!! And may your day be filled with the most wonderful blessings! Nite!

Fr. Tom+

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Of Akron, of Councils and lack of brain cells…….

This trip has been a surprisingly difficult one for me. The stress of too much going on, the lack or rest, and the need to have my brain sharp without the capability to do so has made this exhausting! Fortunately this is our last night here. Though it is great to be around such wonderful and committed people, many of who have been longtime friends, the need to sleep in my own bed and get back to my own life is clearly my heart’s desire.

All and all however the Council Meeting has been a success. Though I have been pushed a lot further than I felt comfortable with, I am surviving. The hard part is missing the kids, which we both do. I worry about them with grandma….after all, who needs all that smiling and being told how wonderful you are?? They are all having a great time, and whenever we do get back, though they will not admit it, I am sure they will feel deep down it was a little too soon!

It really doesn’t matter because we are coming home anyhow! I have to work Sunday, and really we all do! We are leaving Deacon Dan and his wife Merry Ann, along with Father Sean in Akron for Sunday services there so they can talk to people about our work in Indiana.

Anyway, it has been a long day and I am calling it quits! Sorry for the lack of substance or depth here tonight, but my mind is absent at this point.

Nite and God bless!

Fr. Tom+

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From Amanda in Akron……

In Ephesians 6 lies a popular scripture verse regarding “putting on the full armor of God…”. I have heard this verse many times, and Tom has even preached sermons on the topic. Tonight I came across another reference to this same verse, but a different part of the verse stood out to me. In Ephesians 6:16, it follows with “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one”. I was amused by the vision in my head of actual flaming arrows sailing around us constantly from Satan. If only it were that obvious! I’m certain that if the serpent in the Garden of Eden was firing flaming arrows at Eve as he was enticing her to eat the forbidden fruit, she would have made a different choice! If you are staring Right and Wrong in the face trying to make a choice in your life, and Wrong starts aiming straight for you with arrows ablaze, the choice for Right is pretty clear!

Sadly, though, life is not like this. The devil takes on many forms that seem so right in our critical moment of choice. Temptation, greed, dishonesty, adultery (the list goes on and on!) sound so awful to the ear. Anyone who speaks of them would adamantly state they obviously know these choices are wrong and sinful. The very words have a negative, foreboding tone. So why then is sin such a problem in our lives? Because sin is always laced with something that feels good or seems easier in the moment of choice. If you have made a mistake, it is easier to lie about it to another person because you don’t have to face shame and humiliation. We feel better about ourselves in that moment. But the crazy thing about sin is that it always comes with a nasty aftertaste!

I tried to re-think my day and look at it as though fiery arrows were around when the devil was at work near me. If they really existed, they would be everywhere! In the car with me as I become a frustrated driver, on the phone when I am curt with others, and at 116th and SR37 at the Dairy Queen when I hear a hot fudge sundae calling my name. Whatever forms Satan takes on in your life, allow yourself to see it as the flaming arrow intended to harm you, and recognize the right choices to make. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of changing your perspective and it will be easier to see what God wants us to see! God bless!

Amanda

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Of a trip in two separate wagons……..

Tonight I am in Akron, Ohio awaiting the arrival of Amanda from Indiana. We are attending the CANA Convocation here in Ohio tomorrow through Saturday. Don’t worry….the kids are in great hands. My Mother-in-law flew in this afternoon, and is enjoying all three of them! They ate pizza tonight and were having a great time. Amanda is driving with Deacon Morgan’s wife Jewel, because Jewel had to work, and Amanda’s mom had to be picked up from the airport. Since I needed to be here earlier and we were driving tow cars anyhow, it just made sense to do it this way. Sadly, our wives never protested or complained! Go figure!

UPDATE: Amanda has arrived, and it is late! We start very early in the morning so it is off to bed! Please keep me in your prayers tomorrow as all the activity with hundreds of people will be hard for me to process….but day by day and with God’s help, I intend to do fine!

Nite my friends, and God bless!

Tom+

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Of good news and bad news………

My mom’s doctors were worried that her seizure a few weeks ago was possibly a tumor, but we received word today that it is not the case. Though a relatively young woman, just 68, she has been in failing health for many years. She had to retire early and went into assisted living maybe about 10 years ago, and has been in a nursing home for about the last five. I am her last living child since my sisters Stephanie and Sarah died in 2001 and 2004 respectively. But clearly, and my mom would tell you this, I am the least suited to take care of her. We have had a rocky relationship all our lives, yet we are stuck with each other! Fortunately we can laugh at it, and do our best.

My mom is either sharp or confused, and never in between. She is pretty funny when she is sharp, but hard to deal with otherwise. She is diabetic, yet never watches her sugar, and has smoked, as she will confess, since she was 12. She frustrates me by her lack of concern for her health, yet I continue to make sure she is taken care of. The Bible says to honor your parents…….and though she often makes it hard, I will comply.

A few weeks ago my mom began telling everyone she had a brain tumor, which when they ordered the MRI seemed as if it were a possible episode of the Twilight Zone. She still tells everyone she does, and describes a visit with a doctor who told her about it in great detail, yet it never really happened. I have told her that, and told her there is no tumor, and will do so again tomorrow. What I will not tell her is what the doctor told me……..my mom has Alzheimer’s Disease, and this may just be par for the course.

My mom will not notice the difference in her care, or in her world at all. There is however, a difference in me. My frustrations with her for years have clearly been unwarranted, and for them I am sorry. She frustrated my sisters too, yet I am sure they have known all this for years and if they could tell me I am certain they decided not to, knowing I could suffer later instead! Sisters can be cruel! (of course not my sister Anna, she is saint…as long as you don’t ask my brother Mike!)

But I ask that you keep my mom in your prayers…..her name is Kay Tirman. Her road, though it has been difficult, will get better, and I will do my best, as I have been, to make sure she is cared for.

Okay, this day has come to an end! Goodnite my friends and keep the faith!

Tom+

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Of Church and Organized Religion…………

If there is one thing I have always hated about the Church it is the politics. When I was a kid I was quite sheltered from it, but as an adult, and particularly as a priest, I see it all the time! I often ask unchurched people I meet why they don’t go to Church, and am often given the response “because I hate organized religion.” My response to them, without variation or reservation is, “well so do I!”

I think that is part of why we have been pretty successful in the planting of Churches over these last 19 months…..because we have worked hard to not be like other Churches and we have changed our DNA. As a Church are not meant to be an “organization,” we are meant to be a CHURCH. We are the people of God gathered together to build up the Body of Christ in our world. We are to pray, heal, teach, preach, show compassion and mercy, and quite a few other things I would be able to remember if I had a whole mind. But too often churches become “who’s who’s,” and more concerned about monies, budgets, and buildings over Jesus and the people He came to save.

I believe with my whole heart we do not have to follow the bad road (though churches have done it for centuries). Where I have to have a Masters degree to be a priest (and I even have a Doctoral degree) the original disciples were uneducated fishermen and tax collectors among other things. They didn’t form task forces, long range financial plans, nor did they lock their progress up in committees or slow it down in politics. They loved the Lord, they cared for people, and they faithfully walked forward trying to fulfill mission over structure. They never intended to form “organized religion.” They only intended to serve the Lord.

Perhaps this world would be a better place if we hadn’t lost sight of that…..but more than that, perhaps it still can be if we regain that sight. We’re trying here, and I invite you to come join us.

Okay, off of my soapbox and off to bed! Goodnight my friends, and remember, your relationship with God is not about a Church, but about you……and your heart.

Fr. Tom+