Tidd Bits

Superheroes tend to fly below the radar...

Tickets to see the Godfather of superhero comics, Stan Lee, sold out in under two minutes for the Denver 2013 Comic Con.

Lee is credited with creating Spider Man, the Hulk, X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor and more. Just because I wrote that, please don’t come up and start talking to me as if I actually know or care much about it – I got my info from a reliable source I like to call Wikipedia.

A Big Week for Justice on the courts, and on the court

What a week! 7 foot tall, 12 year NBA veteran Jason Collins , practically crashed Twitter after he wrote a first-person article posted Monday on Sports Illustrated's website that begins: "I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay."

He said that after having "… endured years of misery and gone to enormous lengths to live a lie," he was ready to come out. Collins became the first active player in one of the four major U.S. pro sports leagues to come out as gay. We can hardly imagine how far ranging the implications of his truthfulness will go in changing stereotypes both of gay people and professional athletes. It is telling that even the military lifted it’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of willful naiveté before anyone, yes, ANYONE in the high paying, high profile macho world of football, baseball, basketball or hockey came out.

Another One of My Sterling Spiritual Disciplines

Last week I mused about my tendency to nearly lose my faith a few times a year but then, somehow, I end up back in love with the Lord, believing not in the strength of my faith, but the strength God’s grip that won’t ever let go. I’d like to call my flaky faith one of my spiritual virtues but don’t try to mimic it; you’ll have to develop your own flaky faith yourself.

This week I’d like to share another one of my spiritual virtues for your great inspiration and wonder. This is the grand virtue in which I don’t take sin very seriously. Yes, I know, talking like this doesn’t put me on the fast track to being canonized as a “saint”, but allow me to explain.

My Tortured Cloudy Afternoon of the Soul

Don’t panic anyone, but Sunday at supper I told my family that during church that morning I found myself praying, “Dear God, don’t let me lose my faith.” Well, I didn’t, at least that Sunday, and when I shared it with staff Tuesday I said that it hardly constituted the proverbial “dark night of the soul” St. John of the Cross referred to in his 16th century poem. Rachael came back with, “It sounds more like a cloudy afternoon of the soul.” Perfect!

Help is on its way!

One of the hardest adjustments for me as a pastor at Highlands Church is that with almost 500 people, that’s getting to be more names than my brain can remember. I had to let go of being the proverbial bartender at Cheers, “where everybody knows your name”, a while ago. Thankfully, many of our folks have found their own little “Cheers” through their involvement in a Deepen Group.

Even if I knew everyone’s name and spent an hour every month with them, that wouldn’t provide enough pastoral care for all our folks. The truth is, at different times in our lives, many of us are going through some particularly difficult passages and we need a lot of extra support and a listening ear for more than an hour a month.

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