It's Just Not That Easy In A Telephone Booth

"Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's Superman!" If you don't recognize that famous TV and movie line, you'll probably not know that in the years BC (before cells) there were lots of phone booths to be found many places. If you don't know about the Man of Steel, you might not have ever even seen a phone booth. Superman, cleverly disguised as Clark Kent, a mild mannered reporter for the Daily Planet, often found telephone booths handy for a quick change of clothes. You know, you just can't rip off your business suit and prepare to fly off in your tights right in public. That will blow your disguise completely. You have to find a place to change in hiding, therefore, the phone booth changing room and the maintenance of the clever disguise. Tuesday morning, I got up early and met my friend, Burnie Little, for coffee and conversation. Tuesday was a work day for me so being early wasn't much of a sacrifice. It was Burnie's day off though, so I really did appreciate his giving up some early morning sleeping hours. Readers of my blog know that I haven't been excessively happy lately. When I returned from the Navajo Reservation, I really wanted to go into full time religious service. That was my prayer. But it just doesn't seem to be God's plan. Although I was deeply disappointed at first, and am still disappointed, I am becoming more comfortable with whatever God's plan for me may be. That is some of what Burnie and I talked about early last Tuesday. My pet phrase has been, "full time service," as in church ministry or social outreach ministry or domestic / foreign missionary work, whatever, as long as it was full time service. Burnie shared an interesting take on this notion. He feels that all Christians are in full time service. We are all full time disciples of Christ cleverly disguised. Perhaps we are disguised as a physician's assistant. Perhaps we are cleverly disguised as a volunteer at Old Salem. Perhaps we are disguised as a thrift shop manager or a retired minister. Maybe our full time Christian disciple disguise today is as a friend with the right word of encouragement at the right time or an ear to listen. I, for one, have decided to disguise myself as a short, pudgy worker in a local office (this is not an easy disguise for someone 6' 6" tall with a 32" waist, but I am managing quite well, thank you.) Burnie made his point with me. Now I just need to try to live his philosophy. Oh, yes, it wouldn't hurt for me to know where the closest phone booth is either. I wouldn't normally do it this way, but I want to take blog space to say thank you to all those friends who have taken the time to be so supportive of me as I've struggled with some of my own demons. You've taken the time to speak to me, to write to me, to pray for me. I've heard from friends that I've not seen nor spoken with in months, if not years. You will never fully know how very grateful I am. I also have to share a real blessing with you. Today was my extended family's Christmas party. We had 31 people that I love very much there. Ages ranged from 2 to 88 years old. One of the great things is that no one left us this last year. My mother, who has been moving from extended care to the hospital and back for the past several months was there. My brother-in-law, Will, is great with her and managed to get her to agree to come out on a pretty messy day. I began the day knowing that I would be able to lead the blessing. This is something that comes hard for many of us, not because we don't pray, but because we love our family so very much that we get choked up from the blessing of reunion. Each new arrival at the site, every person hugged, brought tears of joy and thanksgiving to my eyes. By the time for the blessing, there was just no way for me to get through it. Once again, it was Will to the rescue. He sure is special! Bailey, Mary Lynn, Danylle, Cindy, Jason, Mindy, Patrick and Kim, Adam and Petty, you were all missed. My prayer is that you are all well and will all be able to join us next year. To quote Tiny Tim, who had also just finished a big meal with his family, "God bless us everyone!"