Wondering Presbyterian

On February 23, I went to an all-day spiritual writing workshop at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. We spent some time free writing and going through the process of revising and re-seeing our work. I want to share with you what I wrote about the night before when my husband and I stood at a scenic overlook outside the city. A statue of the Virgin Mary stands across the street in the parking lot of Saint Mary of the Mount Parish, watching us as we stand at a railing overlooking the city. I wonder how many couples she has seen stand in this place. Has she had her fill of heartbreaks and hearts mended, of laughter and selfies? Is she still awed by this view, the sight beyond the railing? Perhaps she is why the street is called "Grand View." To stand there day after day and grandly view the lights of the city -- the blinking warnings on tower tops to airplanes and buildings painted in greens, blues, pinks, and yellows -- to stand and see the lights when they come on ...

        A few snow falls ago, I curled up with Netflix and binge-watched the show “The Good Place.” The premise of the show is this: there’s a woman named Eleanor who dies and goes to the Good Place. The problem is there’s been some kind of mix-up and she’s not supposed to be there. But, she doesn’t want to go to the Bad Place, so she tries to learn to be good: to earn her place there. At some point during her stay in the Good Place, she learns about this point system: each time you do something good, you get points. And when you do something not good, you lose points. Eleanor learns about the point ticker and, hoping that you can still earn points for the Good Place after death, she spends a whole day just doing good things: holding doors for people, saying nice things to people, etc. Later in the day she looks down at the ticker and she’s shocked to see that the number hasn’t changed. She’s still in the red. With the help of her companions, she realizes the prob...

29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. -Mark 1:29-31 As I’m writing this, my husband is home with a bad cold. So many people are sick right now, whether it’s with a cold or flu, or something worse. It’s the time of year when hospitals (and, unfortunately, funeral homes) are busiest. January is just a tough month for physical (and emotional) health. So I sympathize with Peter’s mother-in-law, who is home sick with a fever. I always notice two things about this passage. First, I notice that Peter has a mother-in-law, but no where ever do we ever hear about Peter’s wife. One assumes if he had a mother-in-law, he had a wife. What did she think of Peter leaving his job as a fisherman to follow this religious nut named ...

            I’m always surprised by how much money I spend. I don't know why, because I’m pretty good about keeping my checkbook up to date; but, when I go back and look at things it always catches me off guard how much money I spend, especially on things I know I don’t need. As 2018 came to a close, I came to the decision that I have to take proactive steps to curb spending. My New Year’s Resolution is to give more but spend less, and try to shop local when I can. We’re halfway through January and already I can hear the books on my Amazon wish list calling out to me…             Do you do this, too? It’s great how convenient the internet makes shopping. It makes giving convenient, too. The internet is how I give money to charity (mostly to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance) and to my church (online giving automatically takes the money out of my account so I’m never waffling o...