UNIVERSITY BAPTIST CHURCH
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Staff
    • Annette Hill Briggs, Pastor
    • Rob Drummond ~ Music Minister
  • Listen & Read
    • Sermons
    • Pastor's Blog
    • #ITSYOURCHURCHTOO >
      • About >
        • When & Where?
        • Ministries >
          • Worship >
            • Music
            • Worship Arts
            • Worship Resources
          • Fellowship >
            • Wednesday Night Supper
            • Church Recipes
          • Service >
            • MCUM Collections
            • Habitat for Humanity Project
          • Vacation Bible School
        • Our Story >
          • Denomination
          • Who We Are
        • Contact
        • Calendar
    • Social Media Feed
  • Give
  • Newsletter
  • Recommended Reading

Pastor Annette's Blog

"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD . . . NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC

Ordinary as the Snow Outside

12/13/2016

0 Comments

 
Beloved:

    Big fat snowflakes rush past my study window.  The dogs are back inside, exhausted and wet from plowing the skim of snow already on the ground.  My favorite kind of winter day, so beautiful and quiet outside, so warm and cozy inside.  I’d be perfectly happy to stay home in my flannel pajamas taking commentary notes all day.  But alas and just as joyfully, there are students to check on as they power through their final exams.  I’ve oodles of editing to do on the choir cantata narration for this weekend and all those pages are at the church.  Since we vote on the 2017 budget this weekend you’ll need your giving pledge cards on Sunday too.  Meaning I need to find the original, white-out 2016, and type in 2017.  After Global Women’s Gathering clean-up and a hospital visit I’m back home to my sheep pajamas, a fire in fireplace and supper ~ in that exact order.  The most ordinary of days in a life richer than I would ever think to ask for.
 
    But always, I find its edge as well:  the sharp spot of knowing such wealth is so thinly spread across this world.  Reports from Aleppo now include words like carnage and unaccompanied children trapped in a building under fire.  “We can no longer give a body count anymore,” said a member of the White Helmets, a volunteer rescue organization.  Yemen is on the brink of famine due to civil war and this fall South Sudan joined an exclusive club that includes only Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia, by producing more than one million refugees.  Places of daily, unimaginable horror as ordinary as the snow outside my window.  

    How shall I carry both without dismissing the truth of either?  Am I allowed to enjoy this beauty while others suffer so?  I think so.  But only so long as I never imagine beauty as a blessing meant for me instead of them.  The notion “I am blessed to have this life” makes me really itchy. I need another word and I think it might be privilege.  I am privileged rings far truer to me than I am blessed.  Privilege suggests responsibility I don’t hear in blessing.  Blessing carries deservedness privilege cannot claim.  Yes, it is a privilege to live in this particular house and neighborhood, this particular city, state and country.  A privilege one ought not sit with lightly nor ever hoard to herself.  A privilege with the spending power to change the lives of people living in the thin places of this world – if that is how I choose to live.  I am grateful for the likes of you as we share the journey.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC.  It is also posted here. 
     
    Enjoy!  
    Pastor Annette

    Copyright
    Everything on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons license, which gives you permission to copy freely, provided that you attribute the work to me, that you use the work for non-commercial purposes, and that you do not produce derivative works.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    March 2011

3740 East 3rd Street
Bloomington, IN 47401
812-339-1404
[email protected]

Photo from TheReptilarium
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Staff
    • Annette Hill Briggs, Pastor
    • Rob Drummond ~ Music Minister
  • Listen & Read
    • Sermons
    • Pastor's Blog
    • #ITSYOURCHURCHTOO >
      • About >
        • When & Where?
        • Ministries >
          • Worship >
            • Music
            • Worship Arts
            • Worship Resources
          • Fellowship >
            • Wednesday Night Supper
            • Church Recipes
          • Service >
            • MCUM Collections
            • Habitat for Humanity Project
          • Vacation Bible School
        • Our Story >
          • Denomination
          • Who We Are
        • Contact
        • Calendar
    • Social Media Feed
  • Give
  • Newsletter
  • Recommended Reading