Day 28-3, August 27

Day 28-3, August 27

Today would have been my father, Glen’s, 85^th birthday.  September 24 will be the 40^th anniversary of his accidental death on the farm.  That seems like a lifetime ago and I guess it was.

I spent time with DB early this morning after missing our encounter last night.   He began by saying that every human idealized image (dream) brought into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community.  With the awareness that the 50^th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s I Have a Dream speech is tomorrow, I was thinking, “These two should talk.”  I think they would come to agreement that God has already provided foundation for the dream King articulated and that we accept it not with demands but with thanksgiving.  I wonder what kind of a pastor DB was?  It seems he would be a tough taskmaster.  That would make it hard for him to be a “people” person too.

We allow ourselves TV enough to watch the news in the morning and evening.  We ate breakfast while learning what was going on in the world.  Then we had our own devotions and prayers.

I learned at worship Sunday morning that FCC, Black Mountain was having Morning Prayer at 9 am today.  I wanted to learn about that and participate so I went.  There were just four people including me.  We sat in the sanctuary with soft music playing and an arrangement of candles on the Communion table.  After sharing a written liturgy including moments of silence, we lit votive candles placed next to pictures and names of members and friends in need of prayers.  We took turns saying, “May the light of Christ shine in [reading the person(s) name(s).”  There were some candles with no names or faces for spontaneous prayers including for Kay and myself.  We finished with the Lord’s Prayer and were about to leave when another couple came in to pray.  We all sat down again and continued shared prayers.

When I returned to Christmount, Kay was ready for our plan to visit the North Carolina Arboretum about thirty minutes away.  It was a beautiful day and place.  We toured the grounds, gift shop, and art gallery anticipating a free guided walk we had signed up for online.  We ate our picnic lunch we brought and met our group for the 1:00-2:30 pm tour of trees and plants along a trail on the grounds.  We ended at their bonsai exhibit.  We were pretty tired after that so we decided to eat out before going back to the apartment.  We had some great Mexican food in Black Mountain.

I saw through social media that my mother and older sister visited the farm where we became family in celebration of Glen Grandgeorge’s birthday.  I’m glad we could be there somewhat together in this way.

Kay and I watched the evening news and then caught up in our journals.  It will be early to bed tonight.

Tonight, DB said that Christians need other Christians who speak God’s Word to them and he quotes a verse from this coming Sunday’s sermon text, “Remember . . . those who spoke the Word of God to you.”  I have often said that to be a part of the Church, one must be present.  There are more and more Christians in name only.  Many of those blame organized religion.  As one of the “organized” I can only say that they are bigger fools than we are.  We fools should communicate better.