Wondering Presbyterian

                At the beginning of the year, I handed out cutouts of gold stars to the folks in my congregation. Each star had a different word written on it, and these were the “Star Words.” I had just heard about the concept of Star Words as an Epiphany practice. The basic premise is that as the Magi followed the star, we let the Star Word guide us into the new year. Maybe it’s a word that sticks with us all year and maybe it’s just a word we needed for that day. I know some people have kept their word visually present in 2020, and there were a small handful of stars returned to my office (anonymously, of course!)             My word was “serenity.” I keep the star near my desk in my office, though I admit since I’ve been working from home, I don’t see it much. But, since I am the keeper of the gold paper that was used to cut out the Star Words (a project that took my husband and me about t...

                True enough, winter is coming. It feels like fall just got here. A team of us raked leaves up at church today and while raking, there were flurries. I’ve been hearing from a lot of people that coming of winter, the lengthening of the night/shortening of day, and the upcoming holidays are especially stressful this year. Given our current pandemic circumstances, this is no surprise. A lot of people seem to be in agreement: this could be a hard winter.             When the pandemic hit last year, it came at the tail end of winter and we had spring right around the corner. We were grateful for the warmer days that we could spend outside while we were experiencing the first round of quarantines. Now November is passing, Thanksgiving is next week, and we’re all kind of wondering: how’s it gonna be?               It coul...

              I took the week off last week. I was supposed to be in Ohio meeting a friend that I haven’t seen in over a year, but when we looked at the pandemic numbers in the Midwest, we decided it might be better to hold off. But while we couldn’t go to Ohio and actually be in the same physical location, we did not let that defeat us. We set up our devices and had a virtual play date. For over two hours, we talked and laughed and caught up on all the things about life. It was not the same by any stretch of the imagination, but it was something.             That’s been my sort of mantra lately: “at least it was something.” Something feels better than nothing. Something is filled with possibilities and hope and a promise. And these days, don’t most of us need the somethings that come with possibilities, hope, and a promise?        ...

       As an English/Communications major in college, I took some graphic design classes. Graphic design was definitely not high in my skillset, but it was interesting to learn how to use different features in Photoshop and Illustrator (skills I’m pretty sure are next to useless now because it’s been so long since I’ve used either program and I’m sure both have changed substantially in the last ten years). And yet, while the programs have changed, I know at least a few features carry over into other programs I do use frequently. As I create images with quotes and flyers to post on our church’s social media pages, I find myself especially using the group, ungroup, and move to front features.      Grouping, ungrouping, and moving to front (or to back) feature simply refers to how you collect different images on a screen. If you have a flyer with three different images overlapping (think background, bright blue box, and then a quote), you can arrange th...

  Hello! How are you today? I hope you are doing well and hanging in there with everything going on! Have you found some good survival techniques? I listen to Jen Hatmaker’s “For the Love” podcast (her current series is For the Love of Black Lives and it is PHENOMENAL  and she always ends the podcast with a question from Barbara Brown Taylor: “What is saving your life right now?” Hopefully you’ve found something that is saving your life right now. Maybe it’s a new mac and cheese recipe (is it? You should share it!). Maybe it’s a show you’re binge-watching on Netflix or a daily phone call with a loved one.   I’m not going to tell you how to save your life today, but I do want to share with you a philosophy that I’ve starting practicing when I lead virtual studies. I lead with what I call “The Three Graces” and I’ve realized that the Three Graces are as applicable to real life as they are to online bible study.   1)     Grace for the time . In onlin...