Reverend Ref +

JUST GET THROUGH THIS NIGHT

We did the dinner thing last night at Jane's place. Her husband was pitting cherries for a dessert pie, and she and Mrs. Ref went to the sewing room to work on some shorts for The Kid. Dinner consisted of beer brauts, slow-cooked sliced potatoes with a special sauce and -- I think -- bacon (very yummy), and fruit salad. It was a good time and, after fighting Chicago traffic because of the Taste, we got home around 11:30.

This morning we got ourselves to church one last time. It was good. The associate rector asked me to help serve communion bread, and we got to see several people that we either weren't able to see previously, or had a chance for one last goodbye. During the service I leaned over and told Mrs. Ref, "That lady in the blue, in front of us looks alot like Alice from St. David's (the parish we attended from 1986 to 1998)." She thought so too, and then during the Peace it turned out that she was. Kind of wild. What made it even more weird for me was that I had come across two people from that same parish at the Chicago ordinations last week. After service, The Kid went with one of her friends for an all-day party. She will be home sometime tonight. It was a good day.

After service, Jane came up here and helped Mrs. Ref pack up The Kid's room -- always better to do that when she isn't around. It was nice to have her help, and great to be able to spend the day with a good friend before we disappear into the Wild Wild West. But like I told her, with e-mail, IM, and blogging, it'll be like we never left. As for packing, the living room is almost finished, The Kid's bedroom is practically finished, the office is finished, my room will be worked on tomorrow and Wednesday; by which time EVERYTHING must be done because we leave here early Thursday for the drive west.

Things are coming along. It'll be good to finally get off the block, into our new place, and start life in our new communities. This inbetween time is not alot of fun.

But then, isn't that where we live as Christians anyway? In that inbetween time of the already but not yet. Already in that we know "Christ has died, Christ has risen." But "Christ will come again" hasn't yet happened. So we live in this uncomfortable inbetween time. The problem is that we've been living here for quite awhile, so we have become comfortable with it and treat it as "normal." It's time's like these, when I have a job but nowhere to yet, when I know when I'm going but not sure when my stuff will arrive, that reminds me of how I really should feel -- uncomfortable in the position we are, and eager to make the "not yet" a reality.

I hope I can do as well with that thought in my new ministry.