We watched him from the screened porch and speculated over his origins. Had he been dumped? Probably not. Too suspicious of people, too feral in nature. So were there other brother and sisters out there in the woods? If so, they had traveled an opposite path.
We would see him peeking at us over the day lilies at the edge of the woods, his keen green eyes a match to the green of the grass, his black coat giving him the look of a panther on the prowl. But he wasn’t just hungry for food. He was hungry for love.
Weeks and weeks we talked to him; we told him he was a pretty cat. We set the food bowl closer and closer into our territory, slowly edging him toward civilization. I would walk tentatively over to him from time to time as he ate. When he retreated I would back off, hoping he would see I was not the enemy.

More weeks passed, and he finally graduated to eating on the uncovered deck next to the screened porch.
Soon after I would put the bowl within arm’s distance and sit while he ate, talking to him. I would inch the bowl closer and closer each time I sat with him until one day he was so close I extended my hand and stroked his head. He didn’t display much surprise, but he let me know he enjoyed it. From that moment on he was a goner; I’ve never seen a cat respond so quickly to the human touch, nor become so trusting where there had once been suspicion. Every so often a noise or an unfamiliar movement will give him a suspicious stance, but it’s quickly dispelled. The cat has fallen in love with us….and we with him. We wooed and the cat responded. Now the old cat nature is gone and a loving, wonderful nature has taken its place, and the cat will never be the same.

Isn’t it funny what love will do? Jesus talked about love a lot, about loving your neighbor as yourself. When the disciples showed some confusion
over what Jesus meant by ‘neighbor’, Jesus set them straight with the parable of the Good Samaritan: everyone is our neighbor. I don’t
know how the disciples felt when they heard that, but sometimes I find it easier to love stray cats and roving raccoons than my neighbor.
Yet I ask…what would the world be like if we wooed our neighbor to Christ with a love like we showed to that feral cat? What would my little world be like? How would it change?

So, what am I missing here? If I do not love my neighbor I’m missing Christ’s point and His admonition to love others. I am also missing out on the opportunity to witness how Christ can change lives, human lives, for the better.
They say cats have nine lives. I only have one. I’m going to pay more attention to the fringes and ask the Holy Spirit to help me listen for the cries. Someone somewhere is walking along the spiritual outskirts waiting, and wanting, to be wooed.

And with God’s help, I will respond.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, June 6, the 81st Annual Blessing of the Fleet will begin. As tradition stands a wreath remembering those fishermen who lost their lives at sea will be dropped into the water signaling the beginning of the blessing parade. Most Reverend Robert P. Morin, Bishop of the Biloxi Diocese will then bless each boat and its crew one by one for a safe and bountiful season.

As this takes place we invite congregations across the Seashore District and the Mississippi United Methodist Conference to join our Catholic brothers and sisters in prayer for our seafood industry and our community as we face the uncertainty ahead. Use this prayer in your Sunday worship service or take a moment and join wherever you are at 2 p.m. to pray.

May we be bold to pray…

For our seafood industry, especially the fishermen and their families
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
For those businesses whose livelihood depends upon the Gulf
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
For our local, state, and national governments as they guide the recovery
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
For BP
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
For the families of oil rig workers who lost their lives and those who’ve lost their employment
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
For our Gulf Coast community as we face this uncertainty while still recovering from Hurricane Katrina
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
For our neighbors in Louisiana who already face the devastation of this disaster
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
For the wisdom to use the gifts and graces that you have given to be a part of the solution.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures. Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great. — Psalm 104:24-25 NRSV

Let us pray,
Eternal and loving God, we pray with humility this day as we confess our failure to protect this wonderful world given to us as home for this span of our lives.

By the mighty wind of your Holy Spirit, move once more upon the waters, giving capacity to those who work to stop the gushing of oil far beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

Protect your creation through us, giving us wonder, wisdom and will to be faithful stewards of everything you have given in the natural world to grace our lives.

We do in this moment consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. Through Jesus Christ, we offer our thanks and praise to you, Mighty God, Three-in-One. Amen

(This closing prayer was offered by Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, Bishop of the Mississippi United Methodist Conference immediately following news of the oil spill.)

Be prepared. Don’t put off finding spiritual ground until a storm hits. Like a candle in a storm shelter, God’s love and strength can fight off any darkness, but you need to have it in place before it happens.
Be watchful but don’t worry. Like the odds of being hit by a tornado, most of the things we worry about never come to pass. They are dust devils and will dance around only to fall apart.
Remember the ground troops. These are the people who are there, like SKYWARN, to help you recognize lightening so you can get out of the way, people with godly counsel, so you don’t walk into a storm unwittingly, or to pray for you when you’re in the midst of a deadly storm. You should have several spotters like this in your life.
Be a member of the ground troops. Learn what real storms look like. Challenge yourself to discriminate where the devil is stirring up the dust. It’s amazing how the deceiver can distract us with counterfeit storms. Know the difference.

Storms will come. If not for this fact, Margo and I would not have attended SKYWARN classes. But because we know storms will come we wanted to know how to spot the ones that can damage and destroy, to protect ourselves and perhaps one day protect our community.
As Christians how can we do any less?

My Mom remains:
In love: Her love for Christ simply glows. She holds tight to her hope in Him. If I could paint a picture of what my Mother’s love for the Lord looks like, I would say this: She has one hand extended to the world and the other grips Christ.
Inquisitive: Avid reader, news watcher, she never tires of learning more.
Interested: Her world has not shrunk. She loves people and has a genuine, caring interest in their lives.
Involved: She remains involved in as many activities as she can do and she can do a lot! That’s because she doesn’t let limitations intimidate her. She’s…
Inventive: Where she is limited, she finds a way around it!
Intuitive: About her health and her health needs. She’s keenly aware of her own rhythms and when something is wrong, she knows it and takes care of it.
Intentional: No wishy washy stuff here. She is into intentional living, full of purpose and promise, seeing the positive more than the negative, an over-comer.
Invested: She invests herself in people, with resources and with her time; she gives of herself. The awesome thing is, it really is an investment where she reaps the bounty of a multitude of authentic friendships.
Inspired: My Mother sees God’s hand in so many things, in everything. She is inspired by God’s grace and mercy in the small things, and rejoices gladly in the big things as well, and becomes an inspiration in doing so.

Can the things on this list be fostered outside of the Christian life? Of course, some of them can. Are some of the things on my list achingly void in some Christian lives? Absolutely.

But the people I see who are living fabulously joyous lives in their latter years, no matter their present circumstances, are the ones who hold tight to Christ, for it is in Him they have their hope.

Not part of the ‘in’ crowd yet? Not to worry. They’re not exclusive!
And I can’t think of a better crowd to join.

Dallas is a big city. According to Wikpedia, in 2007, Dallas is the 4th largest city in the nation, spread out over 384 square miles. I know it wasn’t that large when I moved there, but I can tell you even then…it was BIG.

One day after work, I was walking to my car in the rental lot when way down the street I saw something white and I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It was walking toward me and I felt magnetized to it. It was a person dressed in white. What once was a white blur became defined, and I saw something very familiar yet unrecognizable. Closer still the person drew until I saw my friend, Gayle, my high school buddy, drenched in tears walking toward me. We walked straight at each other until I was standing before her, asking her if she was okay…and what was wrong?

Gayle was a physical therapist, and had found a job in Dallas. She was one of the friends I knew was moving, but I just didn’t know when. And there she was, in Dallas, standing before me, crying. She hadn’t known it was me until she had gotten closer… her eyes were brimming with tears, and I certainly hadn’t known it was her, either.

And what had happened to her? She had taken a bus from her new job and had gotten very, very lost. She was walking, trying to figure out what to do and where to go. Gayle is one strong gal and had to be pretty upset to walk around in broad daylight in Dallas, crying like that. And there I was. In the whole expanse of Dallas, she and I had found each other, perfectly timed, right by my parking lot. She got in my car and I drove her to her apartment. All the way there we mused…what were the odds of our finding each other like that?

This Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who came to us in our lost-ness, to where we are, to give us eternal life. And He’ll come to where we are now. There is no street in Dallas, Texas, or any place in the whole wide, huge, world, where He will not meet us.

Are you lost? Like my dear friend, Gayle, you can be found.

Thank you, dear Lord, for Easter Sunday.

A former boss’s father has Parkinson’s. A relative is suffering from advanced ALS. An aunt is falling more and more into Alzheimer’s. Grief.

Grief grabs us with great big hooks and swings us around in a cycle of sadness. To be a Christian does not mean there is no grief. The sorrow over an impending loss, and the loss itself, can be all consuming even to those of us who know that this is not the end. Christians know death is the REAL beginning for those who have placed their trust in Christ. But sorrow still has it’s edge, the serrated edge of a knife that cuts so deeply. Someone is gone; there is an absence. And we are forced to continue without them.

Christ knew what it was like to have a dear one pass. He stood and wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Grief. Christ understood it, and understands it now. And He is there with us as we go through it.

For there is a time for grieving, a time for sorrow, and this is that time for some people I know and love.  It is with great empathy and sympathy that I wrote this poem. I dedicate it to all who are feeling the pain of loss.

It’s not an easy poem. It’s a poem about grief.

Grief
By Mary Hughes

Scorched by fire,
Blistered by heat,
I feel grief’s coals
Beneath my feet.

I breathe grief out;
I breathe grief in.
And watch the ashes
In the wind.

From a young age, our daughter, Julie, mumbled. We would have moments of high stress when we had to ask her to repeat herself not once, but twice in order to understand what she was saying. With eyeballs rolling she would sigh that ‘how can you not understand’ sigh. No amount of cajoling worked. My husband and I felt like ‘Pete” and “Repeat”.

At the age of 20 our little mumbler went to college. It was in this freshman year she had her first heartbreak in the form of a broken relationship. Feeling hopeless and not able to cope, she moved back home. She found jobs here and there, but nothing that she saw as a future for herself. I must tell you she was pretty despondent and her Dad and I were very concerned. Then one night she went with her Dad on his overnight shift as videographer for a local station in St. Louis and she had a blast. Overnight she found a new sense of purpose, a future. That future came in the form of The Broadcast Center, a school for media and radio. And we enrolled her, not knowing what field she would choose, or where she would excel. We weren’t sure of anything really; we were just happy to see her involved and interested in something. But before long it became clear: she loved what she was doing! The only thing that concerned us was: it was radio. She wanted to be on the radio.

Her interest progressed as did her education. When she came home with a professionally done radio demo we held our breath in the form of a prayer.

When we listened we were floored. We could understand every word!!!! It was a moment of pure…..incredulity! And we thought, “This was worth it just to be able to understand her!”

Then one day Julie called and left a message on our answering machine. Her Dad and I played it and re-played it, trying to understand what she said. We saved the message. We saved it for Julie.

She came over, listened. She shook her head and said, “I have no idea what I’m saying.” Ah, the absurd!

Since that time Julie has been in radio, from Cape Girardeau to a part-time job in St. Louis doing traffic.Amidst the ups and downs of the economy, and the ensuing havoc it wreaked, she has hung in there. She found full time jobs here and there, but could never quite let go of her part-time job in radio. We encouraged her to stay. We just had a crazy feeing she was supposed to be in radio.

Recently we were at a crisis point. There was a full time position available where she was working, but there was a big hitch. Two people with loads of experience in the St. Louis had applied. One had fifteen years of experience. The tension was incredible. Julie would call us, asking for prayer. So we did, and we asked others to pray, too. Julie would call and ask me, “Mom, do you think I’ll get this job?” I honestly had no clue and it was painful for me to tell her that. One thing I did know was if she didn’t get the job it would probably be the end of her radio career. She simply would have to move on, find a full time job somewhere.

After weeks of a gut-wrenching wait, Julie called. I had no problem understanding her.

“Mom……….I GOT THE JOB!”

It was huge! It was momentous! It was validation. It was affirmation of all that had happened before, the awful break-up, the quitting school and moving back home.

“Mom, please tell everyone who prayed for me I said thank you!” Her voice broke.

“And, Mom. You know what? I wish God was right here beside me so I could give Him a hug.”

You can imagine how I felt hearing that. And as a dear friend said when I told her this, “She did give Him a hug. She gave God the credit and the glory!”

She’s right.

It’s been a five year journey. Julie just turned twenty five this December. It’s been rough at times for her and for us. At times we probably lost confidence. But God is good and He knew all the time.

There will be rough patches ahead. The newness and excitement will give way to reality. Work is always going to be hard no matter what you do. You go through valleys and back up to the mountaintop. And back down again.

We thank Him. Oh, we are still in praise mode big time!

We are glorying in the absurd.