Every Diner – Losses and Gains

Greetings Dear Reader,

In every diner there are good days and bad days.  Sometimes the cook is on his game sometimes he is not.  There are good meals and bad ones at even my favorite diner.  Very little of what happens is under my control or authority.  It is how I respond to the good and the bad that matters.  How do I treat my server?  How do I interact with the owner or manager when he asks if everything is satisfactory?

Photo by Echo Michelle 02/2015

Whilst I write this it is -10 degrees outside my Wisconsin window with a wind chill of -35.  In my home state of Georgia ice has sheathed the world in crystalline beauty that is both amazing and dangerous.  We endure the weather.  We do not control it.

My friend Will has reached the clearing at the end of the path.  I am not sad for him but I am for his family and friends.  He is a good man who from our limited perspective is gone too soon.  He no longer needs his strong and vibrant faith.  I wish I could pass it on to those who so desperately do need it.

There will be gains and losses.  The journey will have good moments and bad ones.  The days will be long and short.  It is up to us to find the beauty in all of it.  It is up to me to look for Christ in the moment.  It is my responsibility to follow no matter where the path leads.  It is not a blind following but a following of faith. 

In that following I must treat others well no matter the pain or disappointment of the moment.  My pain does not give me leave to be unkind to others.  My frustration does not allow me to treat others with impatience or harshness.  If I do this I will be able to find the beauty in all of it.  It is how we actualize the community that is the diner, the church, and all of life.

The Basin and The Towel – Michael Card

Photo by Echo Michelle 02/2015

In an upstairs room, a parable

Is just about to come alive.

And while they bicker about who's best,

With a painful glance, He'll silently rise.

Their Savior Servant must show them how

Through the will of the water

And the tenderness of the towel.

And the call is to community,

The impoverished power that sets the soul free.

In humility, to take the vow,

That day after day we must take up the basin and the towel.

In any ordinary place,

On any ordinary day,

The parable can live again

When one will kneel and one will yield.

Our Saviour Servant must show us how

Through the will of the water

And the tenderness of the towel.

And the space between ourselves sometimes

Is more than the distance between the stars.

By the fragile bridge of the Servant's bow

We take up the basin and the towel.

And the call is to community,

The impoverished power that sets the soul free.

In humility, to take the vow,

That day after day we must take up the basin and the towel.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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