It’s Friday, and I’m at the Pines Resort above Oakhurst, California, near Yosemite.  It’s a beautiful sunny day, and the temps right now feel like they are in the 70’s, maybe even the 80’s.  I came up early to get some work done before our Chamber of Commerce retreat begins this evening.

A luxury I don’t normally have is to be able to stay basically on one task.  In this case that is to write sermons, read, and rest a bit.  Most of the time tasks are broken up by conversations, meetings, and ministry—all good but still interfering.  So this Chamber retreat has opened an opportunity to get additional things done.

One of the things I’m going to complete while here is reading Redeemed by Heather King.  The byline of the book reads “A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity, and the Peace That Passes All Understanding.”  I just finished writing a sermon about the importance of having contact with fellow disciples.  Then I read this from King’s book.

The Eucharist is the ultimate participation in something greater than myself, and the fact that it require participation reminds me that, much as I’d often like to, I can’t trod the spiritual path alone…I think maybe he [Jesus] was saying that the flesh-and-blood human encounter, in all its messiness, its awkwardness, it’s necessary incompleteness, is the way we come to God.

Our Chamber retreat begins tonight.  I’m looking forward to that a great deal.  I think there’s no end to the good that people can do when they create joint visions.  Our Chamber board is made up of extraordinarily talented people, and it will be interesting to see what they dream.

Epworth-by-the-Sea was the venue for January Adventure.  Epworth is located on St. Simons Island, adjacent to Brunswick, Georgia.  It serves as a retreat center of the United Methodist Church, and it holds the ‘January Adventure’ as a yearly renewal opportunity for church leaders.

The median age of the people attending January Adventure was striking.  There were nearly 700 in attendance, and most of the attendees were 55 or older.  I specifically looked for people aged 40 and younger, and I’d guess there were less than 20 in the whole group.

I doubt that age demographic is unique to the UMC.  Other groups are suffering the same situation.  The absence of younger cohorts is surely a call to action.  Otherwise who will take the place of these aging Baby Boomers?

It was sweet to hear “Southern” spoken again.  “Hi sugar,” was told by young and old alike.  “How are y’all?”  “Y’all” works as both a singular and plural pronoun.  When I hear the word it conjures up okra, real cornbread, purple hull peas, and Southern hospitality.

I loved the steaming white grits I got to eat with my breakfast.  The pecan pie I got with dinner on Tuesday was another tasty deja vu.  When I was a kid they called them “Georgia ice cream.”  With a pat of butter and some pepper on them they send me into breakfast heaven.

As we waited for the first session to begin, background music was playing softly.  I’d have expected it to be hymns or spirituals of some sort.  Instead it was bluegrass and fiddle music.  I expected to see Alison Krause walk out on stage.

The human voice is a wonderful musical instrument, capable of creative and interesting music. The a cappella group, Straight, No Chaser recorded a new version of the Twelve Days of Christmas which is fun and worth watching. I’ve attached it below for your pleasure.

Our California grandsons had never seen snow, so our son suggested a family trip up to the mountains.  We didn’t know how far we would have to go.  At Mariposa we asked some locals at Burger King where we should go.  “Go to Fish Camp,” they said.  “Tenaya Lodge has a groomed sled run on their property, and it’s a great place to take kids.”

Sure enough, the snow was plentiful and the sled run was groomed and fast.  Caleb, our 5–year-old grandson loved the snow so much he would cast himself into it as if jumping on to a feather bed.  He went down the sled run time after time, grinning and giggling all the way down.  Will, the 3–year-old, preferred rolling snow balls and throwing them at whoever was available. 

Our little snow trip was simple, cheap pleasure.  Caleb went down the sled run on his boogey board, designed for ocean use not sledding.  Will preferred the simplicity of snowballs.  None of this fun cost anything, but the laughter was real and priceless.  Come to think of it, this would make a good Mastercard ad.  “Gas to go to the snow, $40.  Snacks for the ride up, $10.  Sliding down the mountain, priceless.”

Last Sunday Bev said she wanted to drive up to Lodi to see Kathy.  She said that she was afraid she’d never see her again unless we took this opportunity.  Kathy was in intensive care suffering from the effects of both pneumonia and cancer.  She had been struggling with cancer for years, cancer caused by her long cigarette use. 

It was a good thing that we made the drive.  They removed the respirator on Monday evening.  By 2:00 Tuesday morning Kathy had left this life and gone to the next.  Of the two events, seeing Kathy alive and suffering and learning of her death, seeing her alive was the most painful.  Now that struggle is over.

Kathy was blind, absent her voice box, and not rich.  But having known her I can say that she had great vision.  She could tell from a tone of voice how someone was feeling.  She was gifted in her knowledge of how to deal with people. 

Her mechanical voice, though sometime hard to understand, was still a lovely sound.  With it she told us jokes and spoke about her life.  And though she was poor, she made all of us richer by knowing her.

I will miss Kathy.  She made this world a better place.  But I am grateful that she no longer has to struggle to breathe and be seeing her new world in technicolor.