Church

Today I received word that someone had died. 

The rumour continued unabated for a short time. 

Others heard via the grapevine!  Some were already rearranging their calendars for the funeral! 

Its amazing how your mind goes into high gear,  your calendar gets cleared and you are soon wondering how you would describe that person if you were asked to do a eulogy.

The rumours of the death, though, were greatly exaggerated! 

I almost felt robbed when I heard they had not died!

In those few short moments — from the beginning of the rumour to the quashing thereof — my coming week had been freed up.  Placing the importance of celebrating another’s life ahead of my own often frantic activities was refreshing.  I’m thinking scaling back my activities and reflecting on the lives of those around me wasn’t such a bad thing.

The election in Canada is less than a week away.

We will be away from our constituency on Monday, at meetings in Manitoba.  So last Friday we were at the advanced polling station at noon and placed our ballots in the box by 12:30.

Now, the excitement of the final week of electioneering is lost on me! 

All the hype, jabs, and momentum mean nothing.  My vote is unchangeable!

In a lot of life I have been ahead of the wave.  I took information science back in the days when we were just beginning to realize that the information age was about to dawn.  I was a part of the beginning of the worship transitions in late 20th century Protestant churches.  I’m feeling like I’ve heard it all when I hear the term “emerging church” – even though that is the current wave pounding on the church!  And now, I’m listening to the electioneering, knowing that I’ve “been there, done that – got the vote cast”!!

Maybe I should just turn the TV off!

I’ve watched people over the years. 

Struggling to live a normal life.  Wanting to be like others.  And knowing they aren’t.

The lady whose husband had to take her to the hospital. For her own good and for his welfare.  To end up as a patient in a wing of the facility, needing assessment and rehabilitation.

Or the weekly visits to the mental health assessment office by a man of my age.  His prescriptions strongly regulated to help him maintain a balance in life.

Or the struggling writer whose cab fares helped to pay for his subsistent lifestyle.  Always aware that a bi-polar disorder could wreck havoc on his life.

And I sit around the coffee table, and we look at each other.  We talk about nothing and everything.  We pray. 

Life is normal, for the moment.

I’ve been preparing a sermon on the legacy we leave behind.

So, I googled my full name – “Ronald James Baker”.  There was someone in the states who died at 52 (my age) – his obituary was on-line.  Another one was the first faculty member at Simon Fraser University and ended up a president of a University in the Maritimes.

My personal favourite!  Ronald James Baker, whose high school yearbook proclaimed that he “plans to drive a hot bulldozer.”  Check it out here!

Oh, the things we want to be known for!!