A Positively Poetic Priest

I've heard many whispers in my life that I have been grateful to have followed. The first was the whisper when I was a child about belonging at the church altar. Since then most of the whispers have followed in that vein, I enter a space or meet a person and hear/feel, I belong here, not knowing what that will mean, but knowing I need to listen to that whisper. Every time I have followed that whisper of God I have had an amazing adventure.  Kid President came out when I was in seminary. @KidPresident was one of the first Twitter accounts I ever followed. Before Twitter, I watched the videos on YouTube and I was immensely grateful for the creativity, gratitude, and wisdom of the series. Last year, towards the beginning of the pandemic, I found out about the book that the creative mind behind Kid President wrote, Becoming Better Grownups by Brad Montague. I immediately bought and read the delightful and thought provoking book. I even drew out an emotion map for my (at the time) fia...

"So they [Mary Magdalene and the other Mary] left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples." (Matthew 28:1-10) The first Easter Sunday was not the glorious celebration we are used to having. The first Easter Sunday was a few women and men who were absolutely confused, frightened, and a little bit hopeful. The first Easter Sunday dawned sad and grief stricken by the early disciples. Their teacher and loving friend was dead and they were afraid and didn't know what to do. But the women did what women always do, they took care of the business at hand. They went to Jesus' tomb to prepare his body for proper burial. Only, he wasn't there, which was outright confusing and frightening all on its own, not to mention the earthquake and the angel speaking to them. I think it is helpful to remember the real Easter morning story this year. We are not in a place to be able to celebrate wholeheartedly. We cannot laugh off the care...