Life Lessons, If Needed

July 29, 2025

Beloved:
          Sometime this summer, I crossed into a place my mother never went – three months past her sixty-first birthday.  I knew the day was coming but didn’t mark it when it came.  Busy with other things, my grandchildren hopefully, or my little flowerbed.  Working on a quilt maybe.  The sort of thing she lived for, once her nest was empty.  She also played golf and walked three miles a day.  Her Sunday School class kept her busy going out to lunch and shopping for a downtown Louisville men’s shelter.  I laughed when she asked me why I supposed they all put Original Listerine on their Christmas lists.
          She didn’t see my kids grow up.  Or, I didn’t see her see them growing up.  Or then again maybe she has seen even more than me these last twenty-eight years.  For all our hymns and sermons, theology and study, our best guesses at the truth about life beyond this life barely wing the outer tip of God’s ear, as one writer wrote it.  Maybe life within this life as well.  Maybe all I know is far less than what I think I know, and I’d be wise to speak with a little more reservation and humility just in case.  Do my best while leaving room to learn and space to grow.  And spike my grief with hope as often as I’m able – hope rooted in deep memory of God’s goodness so many times before, when I could not see it in the moment.
          Whatever this day hold, I pray you know how loved you are, how much this world needs you in it. 

~ peace & prayers,
pastor annette

A movie – I recently watched and recommend this beautiful movie, Small Things Like These, about the cost of speaking truth to injustice.  Quietly powerful. Cillian Murphy and Emily Watson are incredible in it.  This might be a good theology reading group event.

A Recipe – for when it’s too hot to use the stove or oven

• 2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, seasoned to your taste.  I used salt, pepper and a couple shakes of Slap Your Mama.
  
• 8-oz block of cream cheese
  
• 2 cans Rotel tomatoes, drained (use l can for less heat)
  

Spray your crockpot with cooking spray and lay chicken breasts in the bottom.  Put cheese and tomatoes on top, seal the lid and cook on High for 4 hours or Low for 8 hours.  Shred chicken and serve with rice, pasta or in tacos.  I put mine over spinach, added black beans and cheddar jack cheese.  Next time I’m going to put lots of cumin on the chicken too.