Happy Birthday, Dad

We celebrate birthdays each year - usually in the warming presence of family and friends. Birthdays are wonderful because they signify the precious gift of life, that moment when we entered the world for the first time unprotected by the mother's womb. Which brings to attention the fact that our mothers deserve just as much recognition on our birthdays as we do! Their willingness and struggle to bring us into the world demonstrates that our existence is one born out of both their love as well as the Creator's love (a deeply profound theological implication!). A day to celebrate life...that's what a birthday is. But what happens when the person whose life we are celebrating is no longer physically present?

That's where my thoughts currently linger because today would be dad's fiftieth birthday celebration. It would be a grand party - my grandma, mom, sisters and other family all celebrating dad's fifty years of life. I tried (or am trying) to think back to the last birthday we celebrated with dad. It would have been his thirty-seventh. I can't remember it. I can't even recall one birthday celebration we had for him. I don't know why...I wish I could remember something about at least one of them. But memories, like many things, fade with time, and I am all too aware of that reality.

My thoughts today lie with my Grandma Jean, who will be without her son on his birthday. She's one of the strongest women I've ever known, and continues to be a strong support in my life. My thoughts are with my mom, also one of the strongest women I've ever known, on this day as she will be without the man who she deeply loved. My thoughts are with my sisters with whom I sympathize because, together, we will be without our dad on his birthday. And my thoughts lie with dad as I ponder the significance and meaning of birthdays, especially as today would be his fiftieth. 

So how do we celebrate a person's birthday when they're no longer with us? Should we even celebrate that person's birthday? Yes, and this is what I'm going to do today on dad's fiftieth birthday: I'm going to light a candle for him and think about the precious time I had with him; I'm going to celebrate the life he had, his accomplishments, his music, his passion for the church, his desire for strong relationships, his love for his wife and children, for his family, his excitement over "the latest electronic gadget", his inexplicable desire to be daring on a motorcycle (despite the number of accidents), the great value he placed on his family, the joy he found in seeing his kids happy, and his example as a husband and father. I'm reminded today of these things, and I'll let my mind wonder into those places where I normally keep it on a tight leash and well-guarded. Today is a day to celebrate the gift of his precious yet ever so vulnerable life.

Happy birthday, dad. You're loved and missed, and the memories of your life still give us cause to celebrate.

Hannah's Visit!

This past weekend was especially wonderful. My wonderful sister, Hannah, came to Pittsburgh to visit Friday to Saturday. She's a junior at Mount Vernon Nazarene University studying early childhood development. And she loves it there! Which makes me really happy for her. It's also really cool because, unlike most of us who go back and forth between what we want to do with our lives, she has always wanted to be an elementary school teacher...ever since I can remember.

On Friday night we enjoyed an authentic Indian meal at a restaurant just a few blocks from our house in the Garfield neighborhood. It was such good food! And we got to talk a lot about each other's lives in terms of where we are with relationships and what we want to do in the years to come. Hannah shared about her desire to teach overseas for a period of time. Awesome! I'm excited to see how that works out for her.

Saturday morning we took the bus downtown to a place called the Strip District which a really cool marketplace full of lots of neat shops and sidewalk vendors. We enjoyed a couple hours down there before taking the bus back to our house.

Although our time together was short, it was great to spend time with Hannah, let alone see her! She left for college in mid August so it's been almost two months since we last saw each other! And it's been almost two months since I've seen the rest of my family. I miss them! But I'll be visiting them in about two weeks so I'm looking forward to that! Oh, and they get to meet my wonderful girlfriend, Anna (some of them for the first time!), so it's going to be extra fun. Can't wait!

I guess I just want to say that I'm proud of Hannah for the things she's doing at school and for the direction she's going with her life. I hope things work out for her and that she's happy no matter what she does or where she ends up. Thanks for the visit, sis :)

Sometimes You Have to Create Opportunities

This past summer was the second I spent working in a factory, Classic Products. On my last day I vowed not to work in a factory again. The work there was terribly monotonous and menial; I mean, when you eagerly anticipate the next chance to jump up on a forklift and take a spin - even if it's just to put away a skid of boxes - you know something's not right. Despite my strong distaste for the work, there are things I will always value from that experience, and I realize if I hadn't spent two summers in the factory I would be deprived of those experiences and life lessons all together. In other words, I wouldn't trade those months for anything. The guys I worked with - no matter how rough, backwards, ultra-conservative, bedraggled and unadulteratedly weird - came to be like family to me. They became my friends. We laughed together, argued with one another, complained about "the man" and "those spoiled office workers" together, suffered in uncomfortable work conditions together, and of course made hundreds of thousands of square feet of metal roofs together.

I have lots of stories I could share, but this past week has specifically reminded me of one, or rather of a bit of wisdom I gleaned from the most unusual source. One of the plant mechanic's name was...well...we called him "Chock". That was his nick name I assume. When I picture ol' Chock I see that balled head of his perched atop his stout shoulders and unreasonably large, round belly. The man stood stood about five feet and five inches off the ground and weighed close to 300 pounds I would guess, and his commanding personality and I'll-take-no-s**t-from-anyone attitude definitely derived its authority from his weight and not his height. This dude was rough. And you didn't want to push his buttons. And let's just say he wasn't the most beloved worker in the plant. But for some reason good ol' Chock seemed to take a liking to me.

Chock would occasionally ride around on this electronic cart because he had bad knees (we gave him crap for this because everyone else had to walk to wherever they were going in the plant...even the other grandfathers who worked there). One day I saw Chock's bald head come bobbing my way as he rode that little cart. He stopped and we had a somehow related conversation about what I wanted to do with my life and about a time some angel visited Chock while he was sick (I don't know if I was more surprised that Chock believed in angels or that an angel actually came to stand at that man's bedside). You'd be surprised at the weird, twistedly strange and unbelievable stories I heard in this place.

Anyway, I told Chock I didn't think I'd be able to find the kind of job I wanted around the Sidney area and that I might have to move away to find it. Chock looked at me and said, "Lemme give ya a little piece of advice I learned over the past 35 years of being a mechanic: sometimes you have to create opportunities. You have to make things happen." I took his advice (as I did with ANY piece of advice I received in that facility) with a large grain of salt.

This past week I've struggled with feeling unfulfilled at my job at the church. I don't think I've been used to my full potential or that I've accomplished a lot since I've been there. This is because I've been somewhat passive in my role in the congregation because I don't want to come across as "the new, young, non-Mennonite pastoral intern who's trying to impose his will on us."Just for clarification, I was assured that my being young and non-Mennonite was not an issue. But in the midst of this struggle I remembered Chock's words: sometimes you have to create opportunities. That's exactly what I need to do. I need to stop waiting for opportunities to come to me. I need to take initiative, do new things, let go of my fear of disappointing people and start taking advantage of the position in which I find myself.

I would never have guessed that I would one day blog about something Chock said. Most things that came out of his mouth would burn the ears off of those who heard them and probably leave smoke wafting from the eye sockets of anyone who read them. But alas, this is what I love about my experience in the factory: amidst so much stuff that is unwholesome and unlovable, it's still possible to find goodness and truth. I will be forever challenged and encouraged to create opportunities in my life thanks to wisdom from the least-expected and most dubious source: good ol' Chock.

Midwest Country Boy...

It's been exactly one month and four days since I moved to Pittsburgh, and my experience so far has been wonderful. I really enjoy my job at Pittsburgh Mennonite Church, my housemates are wonderful people, the city is awesome, PULSE is a really cool organization....oh, and my girlfriend lives less than a half mile from my house (which is great). So life is good! This weekend though I realized that I do miss the country; I miss bean fields, corn fields, and being able to look out across ten miles of land dotted with forests and church steeples. This realization came to me as I drove across Ohio to visit my friends at Bluffton University.

This weekend was homecoming weekend for Bluffton so I decided I would go see the homecoming game and reconnect with my friends. It was absolutely wonderful. I didn't realize how much I miss the really cool people at Bluffton University, and I enjoyed listening to them tell about their studies and involvement this year. Not only did I have a chance to catch up with current students, but also friends with whom I graduated. That was just as great! I love hearing about what people are doing after graduation.

Roomies for life

Among the people I was able to see was my old roommate, Nate Stroud. What a guy! He was a senior representative on the homecoming court this weekend. I stayed with him in his room...just like old times, and it was nice to reminisce about those nights where he literally scared the crap out me with his outbursts in his sleep. Yes, Nate was a sleep talker...sometimes in English, sometimes in gibberish, and occasionally in French. No matter which language came out though, it never ceased to give me a jolt and wake me up. Good times.  

I just want to take a moment to encourage the few of you who read this blog to never take for granted the relationships you have with other people. There are those people in your life who you make a connection with who end up being a part of who you are. This doesn't have to be in a romantic sense; it's simply those individuals who you care about. Those people who you can be separated from for a period of time and when you finally meet again you experience one of the warmest and joyous feelings by being in their presence. I felt that a few times this weekend. Don't ever neglect or take for granted the primacy of relationships. 

I definitely was reminded of how important relationships are this past weekend, but I also came to realize and embrace the fact about myself that I'm a Midwest country boy at heart. I love the city...I love being in Pittsburgh; but my goodness, I've never been so happy to see a corn field in my entire life. So here's to a good weekend of spending time with old friends, weary driving, and Midwest lullabies (I should write a song about that).