Time for some R&R

'nuff said...

Wanted: Miracle Worker

Position Description:

clean and organize my home while I am away on vacation next week.

Qualifications:

• have the ability to think exactly like me (in order to know what I would and would not throw out as well as to put things where I won't have to go searching for them later.)



• be extremely non-judgemental.

One can dream...one can dream...

Spies

I had visitors in worship today- two members from the Pastor Nominating Committee for this congregation.

I haven't yet had an actual interview with this PNC, but they have viewed a sermon DVD, have had me submit answers to supplemental questions and now have sent "spies" to hear me preach.

I'll take that as a good sign.

They gave me less than 24 hour notice that they were coming, though. I was a little freaked yesterday, but the sermon went well. Not a home run, but a base hit.

The hymn went over very well. I'm glad I chose to use it.

Friday Five: What's In a Name?

1. So how did you come up with your blogging name? And/or the name of your blog?
I have written about this here before, but you may not have memorized everything I've written ! :)

I got Iris from my childhood. You see, when I was about 3 years old, I used to tell people that my name was Iris. My parents don't know where I heard the name, but I guess I fell in love with it and wanted it to be my name. My mom tells me that I would only answer "Iris" when asked, "What is your name?" However, I would answer with my real name whenever I was asked "Who are you?" So, I knew who I was, but my name was Iris.

Growing Where I'm Planted is taken from what my mom used to say to me growing up when I was feeling restless, which was all. the. time. She would say, "Iris, you need to just grow where you're planted." I would get kind of irritated when she would say that to me because my parents transplanted me so many times when I was young (over twenty times before I was ten years old.) I always felt so unrooted and ungrounded. It wasn't until I sensed the call to be a pastor when I was sixteen years old that I felt finally rooted and grounded in a love that had given me purpose and wholeness for my life. Then, I began to believe that I could take my mom's advice to "grow where I'm planted."

I'm still restless as hell, though.

2.Are there any code names or secret identities in your blog? Any stories there?

No, I haven't really used any code names in my blog. I've toyed around with some blog names for my kids and husband, but nothing has stuck.

3. What are some blog titles that you just love? For their cleverness, drama, or sheer, crazy fun?

I love Amy's blog title of Stories From the Red Tent because I love that book and it makes me think of women truly being in deep, sisterly relationship with one another. I also love the sense of hospitality I get from Mrs. M.'s blog name of The Kitchen Door with the subtitle "is always open."

4.What three blogs are you devoted to? Other than the RevGalBlogPals blog of course!

Just three? Just can't do it. Well, look at my sidebar and you can see to whom I am devoted!

5. Who introduced you to the world of blogging and why?

If I hadn't read the article about RGBP in "The Christian Century" in September of 2006, I would not be blogger today. Or at least I seriously doubt it. At the time, I thought blogging was only for narcissists or people who like to argue! I didn't realize that it could also be a wonderful way to build friendships and receive and give support. I had been craving this kind of community for a long time, but every time I would google "women pastors," I would come up with sites about pastors' wives or sites arguing against women pastors. I am pretty sure I know who wrote that piece for the CC and I want to thank her from the bottom of my heart.

Bonus question: Have you ever met any of your blogging friends? Where are some of the places you've met these fun folks?

I have met Linda from Against a Brick Wall on a few occasions. She is a fantastic, crazy-smart woman! I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Towanda last year when I was traveling. Towanda just graduated from the same seminary I did. My husband's family is in the area, so when we were visiting, I took Towanda out for lunch at what was my favorite Chinese restaurant when I was in seminary. Thankfully, it was still good!

Since so many do a "feet" picture for blogger meet-ups, we decided to so a "hands" picture in my sister-in-law's backyard!

It's Great to Have Files!

I took a wonderful class on parables my third year of seminary. My final project for the class was on this week's lectionary Gospel reading, Matthew 13:24-30, the parable of the weeds among the wheat. I had forgotten that I had even written this paper, funny how that happens! I came across my file on this project and it has helped me quite a bit as I prepare to preach this week.

The most delightful discovery in this file was to find a hymn text I had written as part of the project. It is to the tune of "Gather Us In," which is in the Catholic hymnal. I'm a little nervous about it, but I have decided to use it in worship.

Oh, and looking at the first line of the text, I guess I've had the name for my blog in my subconsciousness for a long time!

Inspired by the Parable of the Weeds Among the Wheat

Matthew 13:24-30

1. Here in the field, we grow where we're planted.

Nourished by sunshine, soil and rain.

Planted with care, our lives have been granted,

Food for the many, the earth to sustain.

Grow in God's care, our roots will grow deeper.

Grow in God's care, our plants will grow tall.

We're not alone; we grow strong together.

Yielding abundantly for one and all.

2. We have been sown as good seed to prosper,

Growing together to serve in God's name.

Yet all around are weeds in our number,

sown by an enemy, dark night he came.

It's not for us to weed out the other,

Not to employ the hoe and the scythe.

We have been called to love one another,

Extend to others the hope of new life.

3. Hopes may be dashed; our stalks may be broken,

Loneliness, sadness, sorrow and shame.

Here in the field, life words should be spoken.

Tending the field is the Farmer's domain.

Grow in God's care, from near to the farthest.

Grow in God's care, by the truth of the Word.

We know not the time, so wait for the harvest.

We shall be gathered to dwell with the Lord.

ETA: blogger will not let me put spaces between the verses. Sorry if it's hard to read. grrrrr.....

New Gal in the Blogging Neighborhood

I have a friend who is just now sticking her cyber toe into the blogging waters! Since you need to have been blogging for at least three months to be admitted into the revgal ring, I thought I'd introduce her to my blogging buddies to get her started! (Man, I'm glad that rule wasn't in place yet when I joined. I'm certain that it would have discouraged me from beginning to blog, but I understand that several new bloggers joined about the same time I did and then petered out.)

She is blogging under the pseudonym of soonerpastor. Her name reflects where she comes from, not where she currently is serving. She's a lovely young woman, currently serving in her first ordained call and, just like I was nearly two years ago, is craving the supportive community that we enjoy.

Would you please help me welcome soonerpastor to the blogosphere?

The Big Read

I got this over at Alex's place. This is from something called 'The Big Read', from the NEA came up with a list of their top 100 books and they estimate that the average adult has only read 6 of these books. I will highlight the ones I've read. Cut and paste into your blog and let us know which you've read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks1
8 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I've read 43 of these- not bad. I'm a little sheepish about a few of them that I haven't read, but I just haven't been able to get beyond chapter one of several of them, including Moby Dick and Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Also, I don't think that Mitch Albom book belongs in this company of great books, but that's just me.

Well, looks like I've got some reading to do. Happy 4th of July everyone!