Blessed Assurance

Tripp posted a link to the Belief-O-Matic quiz. Since I got up way too early this morning, and I'm feeling a bit punchy, I thought I would post my results. I know, posting two days in row. The world may end. So what else is new?
Here are my results:

1. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%)
2. Orthodox Quaker (99%)
3. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (86%)
4. Eastern Orthodox (82%)
5. Roman Catholic (82%)
6. Seventh Day Adventist (78%)
7. Liberal Quakers (74%)
8. Unitarian Universalism (66%)
9. Reform Judaism (64%)
10. Sikhism (54%)

Its good to know that the Belief-o-Matic thinks I'm in the right place! There is something to be said for consistency, I suppose.

On a side note, our car is dying a slow and painful death. Luke and I will be looking for a used car to buy, something along the lines of a 1999 Civic, or maybe a Saturn or Toyota. People seem to be opinonated about cars, so anyone have advice for us?

Pithy, Witty and Sweet

Its always fun to have friends describe you in a short amount of time. Pithy, witty and sweet was what I got tonight, as part of a conversation encouraging me to post. Being the sucker for flattery that I am (and I am choosing to take that description as flattery), here I am in the computer lab, writing a post when I should be going to bed. With friends like these…
I have actually had several posts in mind, but without my internet at home, I seem to forget about posting most of the time.

First, an update. Luke left tonight for Washington DC. He will be seeing a couple friends tomorrow, then lobbying on Capitol Hill (which sounds completely surreal to me still, so I have to keep saying it), and then attending the 2020 Democrats conference this weekend. His vision statement was selected for this initial conference, along with two friends from college. He is incredibly excited about the whole trip. I am too, except for the part that means him being away for five days.

Backing up a couple days now… CPE is changing drastically for our little group down at Bethany. Those of you who follow Tripp and/or Andrew’s pages may be aware that we have had significant issues with our group supervisor. As of Monday however, she is no longer our supervisor. The group feels an overwhelming sense of relief about this. It is also an adjustment to go from being stressed, tensed and beaten down all the time to having a healthy non-dysfunctional supervisor. Thanks, but I’ll keep the adjustment. I’ll also keep our former supervisor in my prayers. It was really a difficult experience for everyone, and we had a group to support us.

My summer reading is coming along, slowly but surely. I finished Telling Secrets by Fredrick Buechner (Thanks, Leigh!!!). I really enjoyed it. The writing style was very conversational, which I love and is easy for me to follow. Maybe thats an extrovert thing? I’ve been known to say in the past that I don’t particularly enjoy reading because I would rather be chatting with people. Telling Secrets felt like I was chatting with someone, and I liked that feeling. It is about the importance of telling our stories, because in telling our stories we come to understand that the Living God is at work in our lives, all the time, and enables us to witness to that presence. I think I will read the one he wrote about being in seminary sometime. First, though, I’ve started Life Together. The first four pages had so many ideas that I had to put it down and think about it for a day or so though. This could take a while. Luckily, its not too long.

Finally, I’ve been following a bit of the discussion over at Tripp’s page with his friend Megan about forgiveness and the Church. On a vaguely related note, I was thinking about how we accept repentance. A situation at work today led to one of the associates apologizing to most of the chaplain interns individually. It was incredibly awkward. The poor guy had good intentions, but simply crossed some boundaries. Our former supervisor was no different - she had good intentions, but severely missed the mark. We spend a good deal of time talking about repenting our wrongs and very little time talking about how to be on the receiving end of that kind of grace. Is this connected to the trend that we are more comfortable calling others out than being called out? I don’t really know. Maybe I will have to say about this once I get further into Life Together. Maybe not. Only time will tell. Until then, Vaya Con Dios!

Assimilated

Yesterday, I received an email with the subject line "You will be assimilated. We are Blog. Resistance is Futile." The email contained the much-anticipated news that Wes Ono, seminary spouse and computer geek extroidinaire, has started his own blog. Welcome Aboard, Wes!!

As the World Turns

I like to blame my not posting on not having web in my apartment at the moment, but really, I could very easily walk across the parking lot and use the computer lab. So, sorry folks, but I'm just lazy. I'm sure everyone's world will keep revolving. My CPE world is still revolving. It is continually difficult, but we had an intervention of sorts last week, and life is getting better. Also, I had a lovely catharsis today (crying, spouting stupid thoughts that were getting me down) and good conversation with much support ensued. I felt very loved, and really a whole lot better. Gift of tears? Heck yeah, I can tell you all about that.
Not much else in other news. My mom was in town this weekend, and we had a blast. Her and Luke like to talk politics, and we all like to go out to eat. We went to Ravinnia and saw the Chicago Symphony, ate dim sum with Tripp, Trish, and some North Shore folk, and wandered around Navy Pier. It was a good time.
Speaking of good times, I'm off to do a quick round in the ED before nighttime prayers.

The Night is for Stillness

I'm jinxing myself with that heading, oh well. It seems that I only write when I'm on-call these days. So I'm back at the hospital, hanging out in the chaplains office. I read the night prayer over the PA system, and it made me think of a night prayer from the New Zealand prayer book. I don't remember exactly how it goes, but I think it starts "It is night. THe night is for stillness.." My mother-in-law always liked that one. My night has been relatively quiet so far, but I had my first solo visit to the behavioral unit. I was pretty nervous, but it turned out to be a pleasant visit. Just a gentleman needing prayer and strength to turn his life around and continue with rehab. We see a lot of that around here - Tripp sees it everyday. Sigh.
Last night I saw a wonderful wonderful thing: Abraham's Calling (staring the lovely & talented Trish Austin). Luke and Tripp and I saw it, and Frank was there doing the "talk-back" after the show. The show was beautifully done, it was thought provoking, and I really encourage everyone to go see it. You just should. Okay, I may not be very convincing tonight because I'm too tired to think of a better reason, so I'm going to go with the "You should do it because I say so" reason. Ask Tripp, Frank, Luke or Trish for a better reason!

Back Together Again

Luke & I have returned from sunny California, to rainy Chicago. Sigh... we were sort of hoping that our flight would be cancelled because of Chicago's nasty weather and we would be able to stay in the Bay Area another day. Ah well. The wedding was amazing, my best friend was beautiful. (I realize I'm biased, but seriously, she is drop-dead gorgeous.) Luke and I really want to move out there some day, its a really wonderful place. It was also wonderful to come back home, be picked up by Tripp and Trish, and enjoy their company in the car. Now, it is time for bed because I have CPE in the morning.
I added a link to my sidebar - it belongs to Alex, another Seabury seminarian. His blog is fun to read, and he puts funny cartoons on it too. You all should enjoy it, if you haven't been there yet!