Lucky. (Sermon for Sept 12)

I grew up in a strict home
With a list of rules
... made Leviticus look like a nice poem
(ok, that's a little dramatic).

So if I walked in the house after a day of school,
Just to hear "I'm giving you a new rule"
I might have cried.

"Love one another."
"That's it? What's the catch?"
"No catch"
"...we'll see about that..."

But you see
"No catch" isn't synonymous for easy.
With only 3 words
We don't expect complicity.

Love. One. Another.
It doesn't sound hard!
But when "one another" means
Absolutely "every other*
Palms get sweaty and the pressure starts.

It's the difficult moments in life that try us
And it doesn't help that
Our differences are highlighted
With retractable yellow markers.

....

In the last two days I've been spilled on twice by strangers.
And of course neither time was anywhere near my closet.
Love one another.

My first year here during VIESHA
A very confused, very inebriated gentleman
Broke into my dorm at 4am.
Love one another.

Unfortunate things happen in everyday life.
Thank God.

Lucky I got to meet two people this week who are just as human as anyone else.
Lucky for the awkward phone conversation between myself and a wrong number.
Lucky I had to repeat statistics, only to find out that sociology isn't where my passion lies.
Lucky in High School I didn't make varsity show choir right away, so I met one of my best friends.
Lucky a scared, confused young man broke into my room and reminded me that life in unpredictable.
Lucky our ministry found itself in financial trouble, to remind us what it's really all about.
Lucky I consistently get lost...
And am reminded that I need other people.

Lucky the frustration.
Lucky the fears.
Lucky the heartache,
Lucky the tears.
Lucky the sleepless nights.
Lucky our personal limits.
Lucky the conflicts.
Lucky the tough classes.

And:
Lucky our Savior died on that cross.
Lucky the purpose and message wasn't lost.
Lucky the Martyrs, the rebels, and critics,
Lucky the revolutionaries who refused to quit.

Lucky that God brought us here together.
And so lucky we're commanded to Love One Another.

Emily Martin
September 12, 2012

a Presidential address

Words of promise and too-optimistic hope
travel on a sheet of well-rehearsed  silk
Covering the collection of people who have gathered
Hoping to take away just one message, thought, or sentence,
wanting to put it in their pockets to store in their arsenal of good-intentions
and "one-day" wishes.
A vague statement to withdraw from an account
of well-meaning one-liners.

Cat nip for the quote saps.

But I don't see a politician speaking.

It's my High School principal,

speaking in front of a crowded stadium filled with barely-adults

clad in red tents and cardboard hats.

She's telling us that today is great,

but it's tomorrow that matters.

I look around.

Waiting for others to catch on to the 

anthropomorphic properties of our elected official.

But they're recalling their own histories.

I'm writing mine. 

Emily Martin

Aug 28, 2012

Ballerina Dreams

I take daily comfort in knowing that somewhere,

someone who once called themselves a writer,

still finds pleasure in carefully constructing grocery lists.

She used to be a dancer

but now the only choreography she knows

is the syncopated rhythm of her children’s schedules

The grace it takes to make stir-fry

while re-learning algebra.

and enough rehearsal etiquette to realize that

tomorrow she’ll have to start all over again.

Plagued by unfulfilled strings of ambition

she wonders if the life she has

is her punishment for not working harder,

being more dedicated,

or drawing the line when

“what it takes” was too much for the reward.

She drops her child off at dance class

wondering why no one ever warned her. 

Emily Martin

Sept 11, 2012