Answer Me This
Answer Me This: Goodbyeing, Superheros, & That Time I Got Stuck On Table Mountain
This week I am participating with Kendra Tierney's Answer Me This link up. I discovered her blog, Catholic All Year, a couple of weeks ago and have been so encouraged by her faith and fun spirit.
SO, without further ado and just because I wanna, Answer Me This...
1. What’s currently on your To Do list?
Editor’s Cut:
- Finish well at FBC Decatur
- Pack at least 5 boxes
- Purge at least 2 boxes of excess STUFF
- Moving paperwork
- Prep this week’s meals
- Pack (clothes, meals for the road, etc.) for Grandma Carr’s funeral in Illinois
Extended Version:
I am really focused right now on leaving well.
My husband and I are moving in just under two weeks. Cardboard boxes and hopes for the future are piled up all over our little apartment. This fall I begin seminary in Winston-Salem, NC and Aaron will pursue his first call to pastoral ministry.
We have lots of goodbyeing to do before then.
The FBCD Youth Group just before we left on our summer mission to Asheville, NC.
I had the honor this past year to pastor a rambunctious group of incredible young people at First Baptist Church, Decatur, GA. Being youth pastor has been a (challenging, edifying, beautiful) grace that I could not have imagined. Though I am confident in God’s call to seminary this fall—and though I believe this congregation and its beautiful teenagers have prepared me more fully for this next step of faith—it is a certain kind of mourning to say goodbye.
It is also a lot of work. :) I have been prepping the kiddos for my transition out and the new pastor’s transition in for quite a while, but that went into hyper drive this month. Now, here in my last three days “on the job,” the work of goodbyeing well has reached new heights.
I resist feeling “harried” or “hurried” and try to embrace it. Transition is the name of the game in my current season of life. My husband gently reminded me last week (during a particularly acute moment of AGGGHHHHH!!!) to “just roll with the crazy, babe, just roll with it. Don’t try to control it. Let it happen.”
That has taken some effort because this month has been quite full of other things.
Pictured from top left corner to right:
- Grandma Carr passed through death on July 4th
- Aaron had his first interview with a church--while we were traveling down I-85
- Mawmaw Coyle turned 80-years-old
- We started celebrating Sabbath (really)
- My brother Nathan is getting married in ONE MONTH--this was taken at he and Calyn's wedding shower
- The kids gave me a surprise going away present at Bible study yesterday--the extra "E" means it's extra special
I will embrace it all—the transitioning, the crazy, the unexpected—and I will goodbye with my whole heart.
I will try, at least. By God’s grace. And iced tea.
2. Better type of superhero: magic/radioactive powers? Or trauma/gadgets/hard work?
Oh my goodness. My first thought is HARD WORK all the way!! I love stories of how people overcome and subvert their darkest hour into a force for Good in the world. It is inspirational, semi-believable, and simply badbooty.
I do feel a certain affinity for folks like The Flash, though, who make the best of weird situations thrust upon their very bodies. I respect how they, too, choose to serve the world and the greater good instead of a) taking over the world, b) supering for their own personal gain, or otherwise c) terrorizing creation. There is a certain kind of lesson to learn from their stories too. :)
My husband, by the way, is a walking superhero encyclopedia. A mean storyteller, too. I didn’t think much of comics until he started telling me stories—and applying comics to preaching.
3. Finding out if baby is a boy or a girl before birth: Good idea? Bad idea?
I am not sure yet.
A part of me finds it incredibly romantic to wait and hear the joy upon birth. Another part of me wants to know the sex so that my husband and I could call baby by name in our murmurings to her/him and to God.
Both ways have their pros and cons.
Aaron thinks he wants to know as soon as we can. I want to wait to make the decision while pregnant. It might feel different then. We shall see.
I will say this, if we do find out before baby arrives, I would DEFINITELY plan for a sweet moment like this one:
NOT like this one:
4. Have you ever appeared on a stadium jumbotron?
Naw. Honestly, I am not really into sports (or its $$$ empire). However, I don’t think I missed a single baseball game my junior year of high school. It is fun to cheer for friends!
5. Are you more book smart or street smart?
Hmmm… I think I am pretty intuitive. So, that is to say, both? Reading is like air to me, but I am not one to remember authors’ names, theorem titles, or (sometimes) even the names of main characters.
However, I DO remember moves of stories, scientific proofs, and overall implications of a book’s aim.
Weird? Lazy? Okay? I'll let you decide.
I prize knowledge and understanding. Book learning and personal experience both come in handy.
Like the time I got stuck on top of a mountain in a foreign country.
Once upon a time I got separated from my group on top of Table Mountain in South Africa. It had been a BIG week on mission, and I sat down to rest for moment.
Uh hem.
About an hour later I woke up and my group was nowhere to be seen.
Me having to explain myself...My poor group was distraught! :)
This would not have been a stressful moment normally, but Table Mountain has special requirements. You take a cable car up to the peak and you have to present your ticket stub for the ride back down OR ELSE YOU HIKE. For hours. Alone. In a foreign country.
The team leader had all of our ticket stubs for "safe keeping."
Long story short, it took book knowledge, street smarts, and a little Southern charm, but I got through to a shuttle car and down that mountain.
My group was *so* relieved to see me. :)
Wanna play along? Link up with Kendra or leave your answers below in the comments!