Passion & Purpose

For some reason YouTube won't let me embed this, so I'll just say that you should click here and be proud of our fabulous church. Oh, and you should be considering the possibility (particularly if you are a very young person) that God may be calling you to the priesthood.

Where were you 15 years ago today?

I know where I was. I began the day, just after midnight at one of those hours that only has a tiny little digit in it, by making a trip to Alexandria Hospital because labor pains had started after dinner the night before. This was our first child, and I had no idea what to expect, but the doctor said come in, so we did.

And, pretty promptly, we came home. So what I did for the rest of this day 15 years ago was walk around in pain. Not like screaming pain, just enough to keep me from sleeping, just enough to remind me that change was clearly on the way.

I was thinking about this today because tomorrow we will celebrate Malcolm's 15th birthday. (Yes, it took another whole day and then some for the darling to arrive...) 15 is not a huge number, but yes it is. For 15 years, come tomorrow, I have been somebody's mother. The pains of this day in 1993 were heralds of the beginning of an adventure I could not have predicted. Dr. Seuss got it right - Oh, the places you'll go!

But, and what strikes me today as important and helpful in light of all the pain and struggle in the world, in my life, today, is that the adventure, the miracle, the pure joy of Malcolm would not have been revealed to this world without the pain. Passage, transformation, renewal, resurrection--call it what you will--is so often painful. And we don't want to go through it. We don't want to imagine our lower lip pulled up over the top of our heads (Carol Burnett's rather accurate description of child birth!), but the pain is part of the journey. Not something to be dwelled upon or something to pridefully proclaim, but a part, an important part, of life.

Change is in the air right now. Change on a national level, change in our community of faith, and, yes, change in the life of a fantastic young man of whom I could not be prouder. Change is good, but change, transformation, resurrection, new life, growth--well all these come with some pain. Rest assured, though, that Jesus walks with us through the pain ('cause, duh, he knows it in his body and soul...) and into the light of new day.