After almost a month away...

Did you miss me? I thought not...



I hit a huge writer's block, which shouldn't make a difference in the world of blogging, but for me it did...Granted, I had a lot of pressing things, but still...I've let the swine flu "emergency" slip by with nary a word of sarcasm...(OK, tell me this...if we all know that using that "sanitizer" stuff just makes for stronger strains of flu bugs, how is using tons of that stuff supposed to help in the long run? We need a little dirt on our lives to make things sutainable!)



Anyhow, I've spent the last month talking MISSION MISSION MISSION! We research it at the seminary where I teach, we are training seven congregations up here in Western North Dakota about it, and we are using the Eagles to help us see how God as it work in the world in our LateNite Worship at PTM. Now, there is not a lot of agreement on what "mission" is, but there are some signposts that the people I've run across recently seem to use. (We use them here at PTM too, but perhaps that's why I hang out with these people?)

But yesterday traveling along the coast of Maine, I found myself in York Harbor. If there is a more perfect Maine coastal town, I'd want to see it. There, in front of the lighthouse, a young couple was being married. (Now, marriages are part of my business as a pastor, so I was interested!) A couple of people wandered around taking pictures, a minister was standing there talking as the breeze blew his silver hair all over the place, and the couple was smiling ravenously at each other. The other 150 people at this park were just doing their own things. Painting pictures, taking pictures, snuggling with a lover against the sea breeze...What caught my attention was just how run-of-the-mill this was. No one, except the couple, seemed to care that a wedding was taking place. People were polite and all, avoiding getting in the way of pictures and whatnot, but no one seemed interested, and the couple did not seem interested in having us be interested in something as significant in taking on a life-partner. (I understand this may be an example of the famous New England taciturness, but really...)

So I left the park knowing there was another married couple in the world, but the people of world did not seem to care...that's why our time together at Prairie Table can be so important...we are a group of people committed to caring about couples, about important events in people's lives, about the stuff we most of the time just walk by. I hope everyone who reads this has a group of people who care about them, and for whom he or she cares about. If you don't, and you're near Bismarck, feel free to drop by, and meet some folks who may just be, down the road, taking pictures of your next big event.