safe and sound

coming to you live tonight from the air mattress on the floor of my new bedroom, just to let you know that we made it safe and sound to sunbury, and are once again residents of the great state of pennsylvania. i'm not going to lie: there were a few tears in my eye as i left my old new jersey home, but sitting here on this air mattress with my family in this new house, i feel ready to begin a new venture. the first venture will be unpacking all our stuff which will arrive on the trucks tomorrow. thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

grace|peace,
greg.

time to change

as usual, the brady bunch says it best....

more from maine: random

a few more pics from maine.  this is about all i can sort through right now with the move and all.  as you can tell, the kids weren't huge fans of big al's.  but they did like to play by the water. 

future and fortunes

yes, this is our dining room.  full of so much cardboard and packaging tape.  the soundtrack to the last week has been the squeal of that thin plastic tape, wrapping itself around all our belongings: toys, memories, necessities, and several items that shannon wanted to get rid of buy i lobbied for.  i mean, you seriously never know when you're going to need a box of bread ties. 

what?  it could happen.

anyway, there's not a great deal of cooking going on here, as there really isn't anything to eat on/with, so the other night we ordered chinese.  i've resigned myself to always getting the lamest fortunes that the people at the fortune cookie factory could dream up, like, "this is your fortune."  that's it.  thank you very much.  or another one i liked (hated): "things will continue to happen."  i mean, i guess it's slightly promising because if it had foreseen that things would stop happening, that would be truly ominous.  but this week i actually got a fortune that was appropriate.  it reads, "no one can walk backwards into the future." 

so true.

of course shannon's fortune read, "your fortune is as sweet as you," which is a confusing fortune because the fortune itself isn't that sweet, so is it really saying that she's not very sweet, because that's just not true, and if they are saying that i'm going to have to call and complain.  plus, my fortune cookie was a bit stale. 

anyway, we're moving.  we're moving forwards.  we're so glad for the places we've been, but we have to walk forwards.  and we are starting with squealing tape and squares of cardboard.  in 5 days we will be sweeping empty floors and not long after that we will be reopening these blasted boxes, pulling out our stuff so we can altogether find our way in a new place. 

i have said to many of you that i appreciate your prayers during this time of transition, as it is as emotionally strenuous as it is physically demanding.  it is about looking backward and forward and finding the right balance of all of that.  and so, today i share a prayer with you, one from the chorus of prayers bouncing around in my own head and heart right now.  and if you are in your own time of transition, maybe these are somehow partly your words, too. 

o Author of life,

the creator of somethings from nothing,

of beginnings, and sometimes endings,

i come to you in-between.

meet me here.

in this place so marked with memories,

yet so full of forward-looking fears,

help me find my footing on the holy ground of your presence.

for where you are is holy.

and you are here. 

walking with me, towards the new beginning,

as you walked with abraham in his old age,

and with moses in his daring daylight escape,

and with Jesus, in his face-set march towards his own new beginning,

you also walk with me,

and with all who straddle the chapters in our stories.

and so let me take up the pen, the walking stick,

the boxes packed with the past,

and face the new thing with all the comfort of one

who has read this story before,

knowing that you are not left behind

or in some hidden future,

but right here,

in the journey. 

amen.

more from maine: lobster time

as you can see, we enjoyed some fresh lobster in maine.  nothing quite like taking your food home alive and cooking it in your kitchen.  it has a certain primitive feel to it.  but not quite as primitive as squirting lobster juice across the room when you crack open one of those claws.  it's just a messy dinner, hence the very informative bibs.  hope you enjoy these pics. 

.....we're still packing....

you. are. loved.

this last sunday was my final chance to preach at clinton united methodist church.  preparing for this sermon was rather difficult for me.  first of all you have the overwhelming pressure of trying to prepare something significant and adequate to be a powerful postlude to four years of ministry.  it feels like a much bigger deal than preparing your average sermon.  then there's the question of topic.  what do you talk about?  what becomes the one message that you want to leave people with? 

for me that part was pretty simple.

i once had a mentor who told me that every preacher basically has one sermon, and that you preach that sermon over and over again.  no matter what text or topic you are tackling, you are always still preaching that one sermon.  ever since i heard that, i have found that so compelling, and it hasn't been too difficult for me to put my finger on precisely that one sermon.  it's simple:

you. are. loved.

and so that's what i preached on sunday.  i used zephaniah 3:14-20 as my text (zephaniah 3:17 is my favorite verse in all of scripture - and that's saying something since i typically resist choosing favorites), and tried to find a way to help people remember again that the story of God and the world is a love story.  it's a story of a loving and creative Artist.  the story of a loving and caring Parent.  it's the story of a love and risk and trust and how love still loves even when the beloved violates that love.  it's not a story of sentimentality.  it's not a romantic comedy.  it is not a disney love.  it is a wild and reckless and untamed and and undignified and unfurled and unimaginable love.  it is a reckless and rowdy love.  it is limitless and eternal and relentless.  it is strong, mighty to save.  it takes what is hopeless and gives it hope.  it takes what is broken and makes it strong in the broken places.  it takes what is dead and makes it alive again!  it quiets you when you are anxious or angry or grieving.  it rejoices over you with loud singing. 

in short: God's love for you cannot be overstated.  it simply can not.  if it is a difficult doctrine, it's because we refuse to believe it.  we choose instead to believe the voices of our culture.  we choose to be defined by what we do, what we have done, what we have, or what others say about us.  we devalue God's love and exaggerate our own role.  we try to earn it or deserve it.  we try to comprehend it and shove it into a systematic theology.  we try to forget about it and rebel.  we try to escape it, like jonah.  we try to rationalize it, like good grandchildren of the scientific age.  we spend a great deal of time trying just about everything but accepting it.

why?

why do we have such a hard time accepting the fact that who we are, first and foremost, is a beloved child of God?  why can't we just spend some time basking in our belovedness?  why won't we put our pride aside, and open ourselves to receiving the gift of an unashamed and unparalelled love? 

when we do, even if just for a moment, even if just to let a drop of that love sink into our hearts and souls and minds and selves, then we will begin to change.  we will change the way we talk to others.  it will change the way we get ready in the morning.  it will change the way we treat people in airport.  it will change the way we pray.  it will change the way we love our wives and husbands and parents and children and friends. 

and so my prayer, for all of those who heard my final sermon at clinton united methodist church on sunday, and for all of you who are reading this, is that you will find ways to begin to accept this fact: you are loved.  beyond your comprehension, you are loved.  beyond your capacity to receive it, you are loved.  beyond your ability to earn it, you are loved. beyond the reach of your rebellion, you are loved.  beyond the bounds of good sense or proof or logic, you are loved.  beyond the limits of good taste or convention, you are loved by the God who made you, who formed you, who designed you, who journeys with you, who forgives you, who redeems you, who holds you, who quiets you, who sings over you, who would die for you (and did!).  i pray you will find ways to accept it: you are loved. 

and then i pray that you will find ways to remember it.  that every day you will meditate on it, and go back to the witness of scripture which says it over and over again.  that you will surround yourself with people who will remind you of it, so that you won't sink back into the raging sea of voices that tell you that you are nothing, or you are too fat, or you are too stupid, or you are not cool enough, not rich enough, not successful enough, not funny enough, not something enough.  i pray that you don't listen to these voices, but that you find a way to remember - each day - that you are loved.

and finally i pray that you will find creative and wonderful ways to respond.  because you have to.  if you receive this kind of love, even if just a small drop, like a tiny taste of honey on the tongue, you can't help but respond by sharing it with others.  be this kind of love to someone else, so they can know it too; so they can see it; so they can feel it.  help someone else know that they are loved.

i will pray for each member of my family, my friends, my church, my readers, that each one of you will know, without doubt, that you are loved.  you are loved.  you. are. loved.

grace|peace,
greg.

i love me

well, that may be true to a lesser or greater extent, but i'm referring here to maine (ME), from whence we've just returned.  we had a wonderfully relaxing and isolated 5 days, and i'm glad we took the time to go up, even in the midst of everything that still needs to be packed and done.  it was good for the soul to get away, even to what feels a bit like the edge of things up there, what with all the rocks and the icy ocean crashing itself repeatedly, as if trying to break the world into sand.  i'll probably be sharing several picks from the trip over the next week or so, but here are a few introductory picks from our vacation. 

now only this week remains for us as residents of new jersey.  hard to believe that my 12-year stint in the garden state is coming to a close.  anyway, shannon and i are frantically packing and cleaning and tying up loose ends and trying to get everything done in time for moving day.  i'll be posting some more pics from maine, and possibly some final thoughts on moving this week.  i hope you are enjoying your middle june. 

on vacation - out of pocket

i'm in maine.  on the coast.  i'm on vacation.  i get no cell signal.  and an occasional wireless signal. 

so basically, i'm incommunicado for a few days. 

if you check in here and see that i'm not updating,

just know what i'm recharging. 

i'll get back atcha when i return to the garden state for my last week as a resident there.

peace out.

a new thing

hello friends.  hope you're having a wonderful weekend.  i am writing to you from the inaugural session of the susquehanna conference of the united methodist church.  this new conference is a kind of merger between the former central pennsylvania conference and the former wyoming conference (the part which included northeast pennsylvania).  this will now be the conference which i will be a part of (technically on loan to) for the future.  it is exciting to be here, to be a part of a new thing God is doing in this region, and to begin my journey here.  i know a few familiar faces, and the music is being provided by my friend Mark Miller from new jersey, so it's great to feel that connection to home today.  as i sit here in this conference i feel very much like i'm straddling some border between "here" and "there," with one foot in new jersey and one foot in pennsylvania; one foot in saying goodbye and one foot in saying hello; one foot in fondly remembering the past and one foot in excitedly anticipating the future.  i am on the cusp of a new thing...

swimming in cardboard

just a short note today to say that this whole moving thing, when added to an already busy mix of graduations, vacation planning, annual conferences, saying goodbyes and, oh yeah, still doing my job, is turning out to be quite a bit more than i anticipated.  so please excuse me if my, um, usual dazzling wit and charming prose is somewhat absent during these days.  in the meantime, i'll be working with this, accompanied by the squeal of packaging tape: 

have a great weekend. 

why i am not a hunter

as some of you know, there is no great love in me for squirrels.  next to wasps, they are my least favorite of God's panoply of created animals.  they are basically tree-climbing rats with bushy tails, and, in a former living situation, they enjoyed terrorizing me. 

thankfully, that stage of my life is over because i'm not sure i could handle another squirrel pooping on my bed or jumping out of the garbage can at me everytime i go outside to throw something away.  during that stage of my life i tried various methods of...um...disposing of the troublesome varmints, but everytime i got close my guilt overwhelmed me.  what can i say, i'm a lover, not a squirrel-killer. 

a story from last week illustrates the point well.  i was driving down a road very near my house and i could see something on the road ahead of me.  as i approached i realized that it was a holy moment.  someone had made roadkill out of a little gray furball, and as it  lied there, a hairy gray pancake drizzled with blood and guts, another squirrel had come to observe.  now, it may have just been trying to wrest some half-eaten niblet from the dead squirrels iron death grip, but i like to think that it was mourning.  as i saw the living squirrel seemingly kneeling over the dearly departed, i imagined that it was paying its final respects to his friend, or even worse, maybe even to his squirrel lover.  as he stood there with his nasty claw-looking feet on the macadum, leaning over the cadaver, he must have been imagining what his squirrel life would be like without his nutty princess.  how would he ever frolic again?  would rustling the leaves ever be the same?   as little squirrel tears welled up in his beady eyes, he wondered if he would ever again climb trees and throw black walnuts at passers-by below.  he clasped his eerily-long fingers and began to offer up a prayer of lament when it happened.

i squished him. 

i didn't mean to.  i promise.  i was  just trying to get to work, and i tried to swerve out of the way to avoid the whole sacramental squirrel scene, but he darted at the last minute and i felt the ka-bump of his tiny body under my tire, and a quick check in the rear-view mirror revealed what i already knew to be true: it was now a double homocide.  squirrel newspapers would carry the story in the next morning's news:

MARRIED COUPLE KILLED  Annandale - Police found the steamrolled bodies of two of the Woods' most prominent citizens yesterday, a Mr. and Mrs. Longtooth.  Authorities are still investigating the cause but are calling it a double homocide.  A reward of 4,000 acorns is being offered to anyone with any information about the perpetrators.  Mr. and Mrs. Longtooth are survived by their 14,000,000 children who also live in the Woods, and who look exactly the same as all the other squirrels.  As thrill seekers and adventure lovers, their playful spirits will definately be missed by those who knew and loved them.  One friend and neighbor, a Mr. McRaybee said, "omygosh, this is just nuts, man.  who would do such a thing?  who would kill such wonderful squirrels?"  Services will be held sometime before the town comes and shovels up the carcasses. 

i pretty much imagined all of this in the span of about 90 seconds, and i got a little emotional while thinking about it.  seriously.  i'm not kidding.  this is why i could probably not be a hunter.  i have too vivid an imagination about the loved ones and the hopes and dreams of the deceased.  when i kill something, i can't help but see myself as a killer, a cold-blooded, car-wielding murderer.  the least i can do (and the most, really) is feel a bit of remorse for the wake of death my simple drive to work created.  so let's be careful out there - the road is a dangerous place.  not just for you, but for them. 

and don't even get me started on all those bugs on my windshield.  you know they had families, too....

my son graduated (from preschool)

i'm pretty sure when i graduated from eighth grade, i got a little certificate and a small ceremony in which the principal mispronounced my last name.  that's it.  no fanfare.  no pomp.  no circumstance.  just a pat on the back and a "now go to high school and get 'er done." 

but things have changed, it seems.  two weeks ago my 5-year old finished his second year of preschool.  preschool.  the very word gives you a clue here: he hasn't even gone to school yet!  it is PRE-school.  but, he graduated, had a program, got a diploma, and a luncheon.  some of the other parents brought their children flowers and gifts, which made us feel like total loser parents, but the more i thought about it, the more i was okay with our lack of excessive behavior.  i mean, it's preschool, for crying out loud.  he got a report card and his lowest grade was in "skipping."  so my son can't skip.  he can, however, write his name, draw a line, count to 17 and listen during circle time.  wow!  let's buy him a car! 

still, it was a fun moment, and, just like the other parents, we dutifully lined up with camera and video camera, and digitally documented the drama of the day.  here is the evidence:

his chair

displaying some art

singing

waving the flag

an appropriate use for the diploma/telescope

the official document

jack with his teachers

and so our son is graduated (sniff sniff).  i can't believe he's come this far.  i mean, next year he'll be writing lower case letters!  and before you know it, he'll be registering for college classes. 

taking you with me

it feels a bit strange to write this morning, because i don't often go this long without posting more, but i was at annual conference without a satisfactory connection to the interwebs, and then when i got home i was preparing for the acoustic orange show and then spent all day yesterday recovering from it.  but here i am: alive and well.

it's been a very rich weekend, as this whole season of my life has been.  thursday was the yankee game, and it was an absolutely gorgeous day just to be sitting in yankee stadium, enjoying a baseball game in the gorgeous june sunshine, among the faithful, sharing in the occasional high five. 

from there i drove south to valley forge, pa, for the annual conference of the greater new jersey annual conference of the united methodist church.  normally this is a weekend of business and presentations, votes and worship, and reconnecting with old friends.  and while it was still those things, it was mostly just alot of goodbyes.  i have so many colleagues who are friends, who have journeyed with me in so many different ways through the 12 years i've been in new jersey.  in so many ways, this is my community.  and so there was a great deal of sadness and tears for me.  (imagine that boyz-II-men's "it's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday" has begun playing here and will serve as the soundtrack to the rest of this paragraph)  i've never been hugged so much in my life.  everyone, of course, wishes me well in this new chapter of life, and i return the sentiment, but it doesn't remove the sense of loss i feel about the fact that i will soon be doing ministry in a conference where i will know almost no one. 

i got home from annual conference on saturday and starting preparing for my concert (as one half of "acoustic orange") that night.  justin and i got to the coffeehouse and got all set up and tons of our friends came and we had a great show, just having a good time playing and singing music that we love.  it was a blast.  i also brought a bunch of collages and i think i sold about 25 of them when all was said and done!  amazing.  another incredibly rich night of friends and companions, all in the context of parting ways, knowing that we will all carry a piece of one another with us wherever we go.  its part of being human and sharing air and shedding this skin in tiny little microscopic pieces all over everything we do.  we rub off on each other, whether it be a high five at a ball game, or an embrace from an old friend: we are part of each other.  we are never really independent, and we never really leave each other. 

i slept the day away yesterday, after church, and now i'm here at the mechanic getting new brake pads and rotors. 

so there you have it.  sorry if you've been checking in to find me absent.  i promise to be around more this week, as we continue to pack and prepare for moving day.  thanks to all of you who have been surrounding us with love and care through this process.  you're the best!  i will take you with me!

annual conference

hello friends. i'm blogging from my blackberry, because i'm at annual conference and can't find a wireless signal for my laptop. so while I wanted to tell you how great it was to see the yankees sweep the o's at the stadium yesterday, and how exciting annual conference is so far, this will have to suffice for now. you can follow the proceedings on twitter. peace out for now.

going to the cathedral

today i am going here...

to hopefully see this guy...

do this...

the yankees have won four in a row, and need to keep the trend going against the orioles today, to finish up the series sweep.  a wonderful friend from church invited me to the game this afternoon, which means i get to see cc sabathia hopefully straighten out his recent troubles and have some fun with the orioles anemic offense.  i also hope to see cano continue his incredible hot streak, the cisco kid hustling down the line, gardner beating out an infield hit, and the captain just being the captain.  i'll be the one wearing his #2 jersey, appreciating every moment in the cathedral of baseball. 

last night, in anticipation, i watched this dvd:

and, among other things, it reminded me of the absolute thrill of walking into a ballpark.  i have written about this before, but i still remember the first time i walked into a ballpark.  it was three rivers stadium in pittsburgh, and it literally took my breath away.  i thought i had entered another dimension or another world.  it was like a secret that the world had been keeping from me.  it was as if God had poured a bit of heaven into that giant concrete bowl.  and to this day, i still feel that way.  when i catch my first glimpse of the green grass, i get goosebumps.  this, for me, is sacred space.  not in some sacreligious way, but in a way that is hallowed and special.  this game called baseball holds a special place in my heart, and these are the places where it is convened.  and this particular one - yankee stadium - well it is the mecca of them all, at least for me. 

and so i won't be taking today for granted.  i'll be trying to see every detail.  in my head i'll be pretending that i'm calling the game on the radio.  i'll be hoping a foulball comes my way.  i'll be eating a hotdog and probably some peanuts.  i'll be cherishing every second, every detail, every crack of the bat, every throw to first, every managerial move, and every sound and smell. 

go yankees!

acoustic orange: the farewell show

hey soul sisters and brothers,

if you live in the area and would like something to do on saturday night, then come on out to the friendly grounds coffeehouse in flemington, see acoustic orange (me and Justin Mehaffy) do our thing and help support the fight against cancer at the same time!  all proceeds go to the acs relay for life.  as you can see from the poster, we'll be covering all sorts of artists, including death cab for cutie, train, jack's mannequin, tom petty, steve earle, stevie wonder, and many many more.  justin plays the guitar and sings wonderfully and basically carries us.  i sing harmony mostly, and then tinker around on various instruements trying not to get in the way too much.  somehow, it works pretty well, but this is sort of our last show, since i will soon be moving to pennsylvania, although plans are already in the works for an international reunon tour.  i will also have some of my collages there for sale, so definitely come check it out.  we'd love to see you. 

hit me up with a comment if you have any questions. 

bad haircuts (for a laugh)

everybody needs to laugh.  one good way i have found to make that happen is to do a simple google image search for 'bad haircut.'  when you do so, some of the following gems show up.  thankfully, my 9th grade school picture does NOT show up.  otherwise, it would certianly make this list!  please laugh freely and without inhibition.  thank you and have a nice day.