IHOP Girl: Life...

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Life...

Life here moves at an insane rate! Sorry that it has taken a little time for a new post, but we've been really busy. This past weekend the intern staff brought in a guest mini-seminar on Relational Wholeness, to really give the interns a chance for some healing and ministry. Needless to say, the weekend was very emotionally draining, but people's lives were changed so I think that it was definately a good thing.

You can also be praying, cause the flu (or some bug) has been running rampant through the internship. About a third of the intership was sick (fevers, achy, cough, congestion), and although I'm fine this has really been hard on everyone.

We also started our Fourunner School of Ministry classes (Excellencies of Christ and Intro. to End Times). Both classes are incredible, I can' t wait to get into them. Allen Hood (AWSOME teacher) teaches EoC, and Dave Sliker (reminds me of my dad - hilarious) teaches ET. I'm using abreviations or else I'll spend have the post spelling out the class names! Anyway, last night in EoC we just reminded about how all the rest of eternity is going to be focused on Jesus (not like we aren't now, and other things will happen in heaven), but the point of eternity is intimacy. I think that I use to be afraid of heaven, thinking that it would be boring, but be real with yourself, how do you view heaven? Allen said something that captivated my heart - "He *God* is pleasure immeasurable, delight consummate, and the highest honor and joy He could give us is to base our relationship around the subject matter of Himself", basically the greatest pleasure that God could give us was the pleasure of experiancing Himself. Then Allen said, "The highest definition of faith is the faith that has the greatest encounter with God, and then because of that encounter is willing to do anything (unto death) for God. Hummmm...Chew on that for a while!

I'll put another post up about ET class, cause it's time for dinner and then I have to sing ON STAGE at IHOP (ACK!) for the 8-10 intercession set. Insane right! Yep, but I'm pretty calm now, I keep asking God to let me sing with an audience of one - Jesus - then it won't matter if the President shows up because I'm not looking for the approval of others. Man, that's good! I think that I make more sense to myself if I right it! That is kind of crazy....Ok, so once again I've talked your ear off, but still you come back for more :-) hehe, it must not be too bad. Love to all....

*P.S. Please pardon any spelling mistakes, that is not my strong point! Sorry!

1 comment:

Jess said...: Hey Jess! My mum and dad and I got together and prayed for you at 8 o'clock the other night, as you were starting your IHOP singing career. Hope it went well. Luv ya hon! ~Me; 4:24 PM

Movie Night In...I love a good movie!

Mega Mind
Taking Chance (Will make you cry like a baby)
Charlotte Grey (A bit of a different take on Nazi Germany)
Series - Merlin (I LOVE BBC)
Robin Hood (Okay, a love Russell Crowe, you'll have to understand that about me...)
Kingdom of Heaven (Chuck full of acting power with an epic tale)
Miss Potter (Such a great film! Story of the creator of Peter Rabbit)
How to Train your Dragon (Possibly my favorite animated movie ever...I'm like a little kid, I watch it over and over)
Buck (Sundance winner, Biography of Horse Trainer, heart touching)
Lost in Austin (Modern day spin on Pride and Prej.)

Life as a nurse...

Great words by Reb Jeff: Vayishlach: Facing Death

"Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrat — now called Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar above her grave. It is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day."–Genesis 35:19-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism), and preparing the notifications to the community, feel like little fragments of the sacred. I have been entrusted with the care and tending of the most powerful, complex and difficult emotions that a person can experience in life. I have been made, in some small part, a guardian of the memory of a departed soul — a life that touches upon many other lives.After dropping off my older daughter at her high school this morning, I made a stop at Treasure Coast Hospice http://www.tchospice.org/, a remarkable organization that sets a very high standard for the loving and respectful care of the dying. There, I visited a lovely man whom I have seen a few times in his hospice room. I sat by his bedside and listened to him (in full possession of his faculties) as he told me about his worries about his family, the support of his wife after he is gone, and the future of his children and grandchildren. I was deeply moved by the way he put any concern for himself — even while facing death — in a distant backseat to his concerns for his family. When my own time comes, I can only hope to have his awareness of the way that one life can touch so many others.Also at hospice, I visited a woman I have known for the past two years — a dear soul who is a former Jewish religious school director. I sat with her, too, singing psalms to her as I listened to her heavy and labored breathing. I have no medical training, but I have come to know the sound of a person who is close to death. The body begins to fight for each breath as it slowly looses it grasp on life. As I held her hand and sang, I realized that being a rabbi is no protection against becoming one of the people caught in the web of connection. I, too, am changed by the loss of a life that has touched mine.Later in the day, I met with a couple from our congregation. She had just learned that her brother died yesterday in a car crash. Coming to terms with the loss is made more difficult for her by the fact that she and her brother had not seen each other or spoken in five years. Sometimes, people think it is easier to mourn the death of someone who has moved out of your life. In my experience, though, it's harder. Grief is magnified by wounded love and regret. I have no magic words to say to ease the pain of mourning. All I can do is listen, become a vessel in which people place their stories, and offer compassion.Actually, there is one more thing I can do. I can have faith that "all I can do" is all that I need to do. It is enough.In this week's Torah portion (Vayishlach) Jacob watched Rachel, the love of his life, die in childbirth. He was overcome by grief. Jacob had worked for his cruel uncle Laban for fourteen years to earn the right to marry Rachel. Now she was gone. Because she died while they were traveling, Jacob had to bury her by the side of the road. He built a pillar of stones on the spot to mark the place as sacred.This is what we all do, in one way or another, when death enters our lives. We grieve and our hearts break. We wish that we could continue to walk along the path of life with our loved ones forever, but the dead cannot fully join us. We have to leave something behind in order to resume our own journey. So, what do we do? We mark the moment as sacred. We erect monuments — both in cemeteries and in our hearts. The stones we place on top of stones remind us that a life may end, but its sanctity is forever.The Torah says that the monument Jacob built for his beloved continues to stand until this day. A life that touches the lives of others never ceases to send living reverberations throughout the web that binds us all.