Half Past Easter

Here we are, half-way from Easter to Pentecost, I'm half-way through Eugene Peterson's book, Living the Resurrection, and I wonder just which of the list of things I've done since Easter really fit that theme. I've

• helped my eldest child move out of the house
• picked up a tux
• managed three hours of solitude on a drive back from business in Edmonton
• drove around the city picking up decorations for the wedding
• tied numerous chair bows, arranged asian screens, setup benches and trees
• pinned on flowers, chatted with guests, smiled for pictures
• watched my son get married
• listened to numerous people rave about how stunning my wife and daughters looked
• kept the wedding program moving, more or less as planned
• dismantled and returned all those decorations
• witnessed three bikers get baptized
• attended a Focus 3 sponsored event in Red Deer, to help us understand how differently we're wired, and how that affects where we'll be most effective in work, in life, in ministry
• went to a high school Jazz concert, ate dessert, and talked about Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy
• watched my wife receive her Masters degree
• chatted with people, took pictures, visited Stanley Park
• turned 49, becoming a perfect square
• read how John Stackhouse became Finally Feminist
• wondered anew at how absolutely fantastic Yvonne looks in black silk and high heels
• talked at length about a friend who is burned out in ministry, wondered about how to help, and what changes this whole thing will bring
• developed the worst cold I've had for a long time
• tried to talk with friends about spiritual mentorship with my head plugged with antihistamine and sinus congestion
• wondered at how patient God is, and how willing to accommodate his plans to where his people are at, and to move them slowly at a pace they can endure, no matter how long it seems to take, how impatient they get, and how totally clueless they can be at where he is taking them
• had lunch with a friend who is higher than a kite over the fact that his son, who was nearly dead from drugs and substance abuse, is alive again, clean since Christmas, and now gainfully employed
• worked too late, coughing and losing much of my mental focus, trying to finish a list of things that really shouldn't wait until my return from a week's break
• tried hard to sleep off this cold
• fixed some fancy cheese and meat plates for a house full of women
• read too many of the wrong blogs
• wondered at how incredibly easy it is for Christians to become so belligerent with each other over so many things, to the extent that they can't hear each other at all
• hardly blogged at all
• watched a movie with my daughter, had coffee with my wife
• did uncounted loads of laundry
• tried to get ready to return to Vancouver for the Pastors' Conference, with my wife, the pastor