I realize that when most people don't know what to do they do what they always do.

In other words, when faced with uncertainty, crisis, or chaos, most of us revert back to what is comfortable and fall back into the familiar.

This realization is especially instructive for those involved in any kind of spiritual leadership.

Because whenever I have times of uncertainty, crisis, chaos, or even "well, things are smooth, what should I do now?" I always go back to what I know how to do: prepare sermons and make visits.  It's what I've always done.  Get ready for Sunday by visiting people in the home or hospital Monday through Saturday.

What I don't do is fall into the unfamiliar or embrace the uncomfortable. 

Which for me would include:

Intentional discipleship of our church's leadership core;

Writing out a thorough, comprehensive ministry plan;

Having difficult conversations that are easier to delay or avoid;

Surprising the staff with gestures of affirmation and appreciation.

None of those are my default mode of operation.

All of them are vital not only to my growth as a leader and Good Shepherd's growth as a congregation.

So today, perhaps, I'll make it a point do some things that aren't natural but are essential.

 

Yesterday included two events not normally on my ministry schedule:  1) a pre-school celebration for our 2s & 3s classes and 2) a high school girls' softball game, cheering on a couple of young women from our church.

So why do I label today's post "Tuesday Trips"?

Because both events were for me trips down memory lane.

See, I remember being the dad of pre-schoolers way back in Monroe, North Carolina -- taking pictures of graduation ceremonies with our 35mm camera.

And then I remember many an afternoon spent watching our daughter play softball from elementary school all the way through her senior year in high school.

I guess what I'm saying is this: to have the memory, you've got to be there in the first place.

We got a lot of things wrong as parents, but through it all we placed a high premium on making memories.

Which means being there to make them.

If you've got young ones to day, what kind of memories are you making?

If you're like me and yours are now grown, how often do you re-live those moments you made?

All of us are a collection of memories.  Some of them need to be healed.  Some simply need to be acknowledged.  And some need to be celebrated.

I pray you'll spend today making the kind of memories you'll celebrate tomorrow.

Rock music is full of songs named after . . . females.

(Note: I almost titled the post "Named After Girls" but that's politically incorrect and I then almost opted for "Named After Women" but that's less-than-accurate, so I opted for the non-offensive and generally truthful "Named After Females."  So there.)

Some of the most well-known songs named after females didn't make the final list for the reasons listed below:

Lola -- Because to qualify for this list, not only does a song have to be named for a woman, it has to actually be about a woman.

Oh Sherry -- Because I have a deeply held personal conviction that neither Journey nor Steve Perry can appear on one of my top five lists.

Maggie May -- If Rod's worn out singing it, imagine how those of us feel who have been listening to it all these years?

Layla -- While it's probably the best song of the bunch, Layla wasn't her real name.  It was Patti, as in Patti Harrison, the wife of George. 

So here goes . . . my top five favorite songs named after girls/women/females:

5.  Roxanne, by the Police.  An absolute revelation of style, subject, and vocalization when it first came out.  This one was a shock to the system in the late 70s sounds fresh even today:


4.  Beth, by Kiss.  A Kiss song on one of my lists?  Really?!  Really.


3.  Billie Jean, by Michael Jackson.  Not that Billie Jean, tennis fans. 


2.  Amie, by Pure Prairie League.  What ever happened to PPL anyway?  If they could do a song that's this pretty, why aren't their more classics under their name?  This song inspired both the name and the spelling of a young woman who is both a former GSUMC staffer and the wife of a current GSUMC staffer. 


1.  Angie, by the Rolling Stones.  How did I know I was getting old and out of touch?  When upon moving to North Carolina in 1990 I met a young woman named Angie and I after I became acquainted with her I mentioned, "you can't say we never tried."  She had no idea what I meant, had never heard of the song, and barely knew about the Rolling Stones.  In spite of that failure, however, this remains a great, great song -- and my #1 named after a . . . woman/girl/female.

 

Back when I was in seminary and serving an internship in a small church in central Kentucky, the pastor let me preach on the second Sunday in May.  So I did.  I have no idea what I preached about.

Except that I didn't preach about mothers.

Afterwards, I was sort of baffled by all the cold shoulders I was getting in that normally warm church.  And that's when the pastor leaned in and said, "You've got to talk about mothers on Mother's Day."

So once I graduated from that seminary and began serving here in North Carolina, I pretty much followed the pastor's advice.

While I've never led a service in which we a) had all the mothers stand and b) gave a bouquet to the oldest mother in the house (a tradition observed by many, many churches), I have nevertheless devoted a fair number of sermons to mothers, motherhood, and even mother & child reunions.

Yet devoting a Sunday to such a subject is fraught with difficulties and even pain if you don't do it with sensitivity.  Why?

Well, just yesterday in our worship services we had . . . .

A woman who had tended to her mother's death and funeral in January;

Another woman who has had years of struggle with infertility and mustered all the courage she had even to show up at church on Mother's Day; 

Several other women I know who have relationships with their own mothers that are rocky at best and abusive at worst.

So while it's a day for celebrating and appreciating mothers and motherhood, it's also a time to acknowledge that for many, many people Mother's Day is more bitter than sweet.

How did we handle it in 2013?  Showed a short, whimsical video clip as the gathering began, followed by Chris Macedo's invitation to "give it up" in applause for our moms, and then launched into a "traditional" (for Good Shepherd) worship set:  All Because Of Jesus, Everlasting God, and You Never Let Go.

Then, just before I gave the second sermon in the Old School series on "And In Jesus Christ His Only Son Our Lord," I mentioned the day again and let the church know that three words describe my own mom:  Freak Of Nature.  Why?  She's 97, lives by herself in Austin, Texas, and still plays tennis.

People gasped, then laughed, then applauded.

Then it was on to the real business at hand: the truth that when it comes to following Jesus -- borrowing a phrase from AA -- "half measures availed us nothing."