I do not like the experience of pregnancy. There. I said it. I like the fact of being pregnant. I love the gift of life, the sheer blessedness of getting to bring a child into this world. I love the answer to prayer brought by pregnancy after infertility and miscarriage, the undeserved grace that this is how our story turned out. I love the overwhelming abundance of a healthy pregnancy, knowing that – for now – everything looks good with the baby growing within me. But I hate the way I feel and think and act while pregnant. I hate morning sickness that drags months beyond what every expert tells you is “normal.” I hate taking medicine merely to function beyond the overwhelming nausea. I hate the exhaustion that sends me to bed at 8:30 most nights. I hate the nagging back pain and the chronic discomfort and the unmentionable side effects. I hate how big I get so quickly, how eyebrows raise when I tell my due date because it doesn’t fit anyone’s mental math of how I must be … [Read more...] about in which we are all – begrudgingly – images of God
image of God
God at work (and the rest of us, too)
Growing up, I never imagined God sweeping. Or baking. Or gardening. Or helping deliver a baby. For the past few months I've been writing a new program on work and calling for small groups in congregations. Since we keep learning that people's challenges with vocation often stem from a lack of understanding about how God calls, I've been weaving in lots of Scriptural passages that broaden our image of who God is. So lately I've been living and working closely with God as worker: farmer, potter, metalworker, baker and midwife, to name a few. These biblical images of God at work are so rich and so relevant that I'm amazed to realize how easily we skip over them, so stuck is the white-bearded Father in flowing robes in our minds and in our churches. Had it not been for graduate studies in theology, I might have missed many of these facets of Scripture's portrait of God, too. I grew up with loving images of God - a tender shepherd, a caring father - but no one told me till I was much … [Read more...] about God at work (and the rest of us, too)
prayers for childbirth: God as midwife
When I was pregnant with my first son, my newly-graduated-from-theological-school self wanted to compile a journal of prayers for childbirth. Given my fear of the pain and the unknown that lay ahead of me, I was convinced that having prayers to accompany me through labor and birth would keep me calm, centered, cool. Then the kid showed up three weeks early, and my procrastinating self had barely gotten around to packing the hospital bag, let alone gathering a set of inspiring prayers. (And believe me, when the triage nurse informed us that it was indeed my water that had broken, and we would indeed be having a baby that night, the words that flew out of my mouth had nothing holy or prayerful about them.) Thereby paving the beginning of my road to parenthood with good intentions. But the Spirit works in mysterious ways. So thanks to a playlist of Taize chant on the iPod in the delivery room, I was able to muster some meditative calm (at least in early labor, not that devil … [Read more...] about prayers for childbirth: God as midwife
