My 48th trip around the sun!

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes near and far. As I begin my 48th trip around the sun, I am sure of a couple of things. 1. Family is really really important, whether it is the family you are born with or that you choose, it is the thing that keeps you grounded and a place of shelter in the storm. 2. Good friends are a treasure. The sort of people that celebrate not only the good things with you but are there in the not-so-good. The past two years have been filled with both, and so I am grateful for those of you who are on this journey with me. 3. Life is short, so dance as often as possible, even if you do not feel like it. A good DJ makes everything better! 4. There is a lot to be said about the baggage of religion, but faith in something bigger than you gives hope and strength. As long as we love God and love one another, all of the pieces fall into place. 5. Love what you do and the people you work with. We spend so much of our lives in these places we work, and they can be just a job, something that pays the bills. But when you love what you do, it gives you a sense of purpose and meaning. I am glad to have found that sense of purpose in several places throughout this journey. In all sorts of experiences and professions, I have grown as a human being and found a deep understanding of joy, some pain but mostly joy. So if you do not love what you do, make a change; your life and well-being will be better for it. I am blessed and feel lucky to make my way around this big ball of gas again. All the best, my friends! Cheers! Joe

Roof Digging Friends. Luke 5:17-20 Moreover, the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. In this story, we hear about a man who is paralyzed and on a mat. Word had recently spread about Jesus and his ability to heal. We do not know much about the man or the specifics of his life as paraplegia. We do know, however, that he has true friends. Not good friends but, indeed, great friends. We know this because, in all likelihood, the roof through which they lowered the paralyzed man was made of mud and straw. We do not hear about tools the friends used to dig this massive hole so we must assume that they dug by hand. They embarked on this challenging roof digging endeavor so that Jesus could heal their friend. We all need friends like that. Friends who go the extra mile to show kindness or a helping hand. A friend who will drive in the middle of the night to meet you at the hospital or a friend who will take your call no matter what show they are watching. The sort of friend who will change plans just because you need some help. Friends - true friends - who dig a hole in a roof so that your life can potentially be forever changed. I believe, however, that it is not merely that we need friends like that in our own lives, but that we, too, are called to be that friend. Who are your people, your tribe, your friends that you know would dig a hole through the roof for you? Do you strive to be that sort of friend in return? Maybe it is God’s plan that we be the sort of friend who stands up for what is right, be the sort of friend who is there in a time of need, be the sort of friend who listens and offers encouraging words. Be the sort of friend who is willing to dig a hole through the roof. When this sort of kindness is shown it is contagious. Why not start a friendship revolution and show the world what it looks like to be a true friend? Be a Saint of a friend.

Gratitude “ As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy[a] met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’ 14 When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?’ 19 Then he said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has made you well.’ ” Luke 17:12-19 Jesus was walking to a village when ten sick men came to him and asked to be healed. The scripture says that they went and they were cleansed. The next part of the story, however, is my favorite. After the healing, only one of the men returned to Jesus and says thank you. There were ten people healed, their lives completely changed, and yet only one person came back to give his thanks. How often do people do kind things for us not receive thanks? Maybe we are busy, maybe we forget, or maybe we just do not pay attention. Saying thank you is a verbal recognition that a person went out of their way to help us. Saying thank you is our form of showing appreciation of others and acknowledging even small gifts of kindness. Giving thanks is an outward sign that we appreciate the gifts we have. It is my prayer that you will be the One in Ten. That you say thank you when someone holds a door or serves you lunch. That you say thank you when people treat you with small acts of kindness. It is in giving thanks that we show how grateful we really are. Be the One in Ten.

The Good Stuff 11 “I, the Sovereign Lord, tell you that I will look for my sheep and take care of them 12 in the same way as shepherds take care of their sheep that were scattered and are brought together again. I will bring them back from all the places where they were scattered on that dark, disastrous day. 13 I will take them out of foreign countries, gather them together, and bring them back to their land. I will lead them back to the mountains and the streams of Israel and will feed them in pleasant pastures. 14 I will let them graze in safety in the mountain meadows and the valleys and all the green pastures of the land of Israel. 15 I will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will find them a place to rest. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. Ezekiel 34:11-15 In this passage in Ezekiel God compares himself to a good shepherd and is the one taking care of His sheep. He leads them to places of food, shelter, and water; He gives them rest and security. The things God gives his sheep are good. It like being at Thanksgiving and getting the good turkey or the good seat. God takes care of his sheep with goodness. Recently my youngest daughter was collecting can goods for a can drive at school and she asked for my help. So I went to cabinet reached way in the back and pulled out several cans. I pulled out two cans of beets and a can of cream of mushroom soup. Proud of what I was doing I gladly handed them over to my daughter to take to school. She looked at me as if I had three eyes and a horn coming out of my head and said:" Dad what is this stuff ?" Canned food I said, and she responded, " I do not want to give hungry people this I want to give them the good stuff, I want to give them the cans of corn or the chicken noodle soup, nobody wants beets." If you are a canned beets fan, I do not want to discredit your taste, but she was right. I had given the stuff that I did not want and probably not the good thing. What if God were like that towards us. Withholding the good gifts from God's children what if God did not love us with the best but only that which was left over. Sometimes when it comes to giving we do not offer our best, we provide what we have left or what we do not want. What would happen if we gave the very best we could, what if we showed our gratefulness by providing the very best things that we can give? I believe in those moments we live into more of the image of how God has us. If we live into the image of the Good Shepherd we give with grateful hearts the very best we have to offer.

Hold on to what is good. Romans 12:9-10 9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. This past weekend I went rock climbing with my girls at a local rock climbing gym. We do this from time to time and we all love a good challenge. On this particular day, I found myself on a particularly challenging route that was testing my limit. I got to a spot and I was stuck. I was not really sure how I was going to continue and was just about ready to throw in the towel when the person who was belaying me said, “ there is a really good hold just to your right, if you make it to there you will make it to the top”. A good hold in climbing terms is one that gives you a really great grip either with your hands or your feet and you can use it for great leverage. Often a good hold is a difference between making it to the top or not. The problem is that there are often bad holds as well, ones that might look nice but just are not stable enough or good enough to get you to the top. IN FACT, THEY OFTEN GET IN YOUR WAY and keep you from making it to the top. When Paul is writing to the church in Rome he says as much, Holds on to what is good, not just hold on but cling to it. Paul knew that the only way we are moved forward in our life is if we hold on to things that are good. Relationships, friendships, beauty and caring for one another. When we hold on to things that are good, things that are of God it moves us forward, it calls us higher. Unfortunately when we hang on to the bad the opposite happens. When we hang on to hate, judgment, nonforgiveness those things pull us down they keep us from realizing our own potential. Recently, we have seen with Hurricane Harvey that even in the midst of a terrible situation where people have lost everything they are still holding on to the good, people are helping one another, giving to one another and there for one another. They could hold on to the bad but it is not going to move them forward, it is not going to pull them higher. Cling to what is good and be devoted to one another in love. We need to do more holding on to the good. So I reached my right hand out and sure enough, there was a good hold. I grabbed, I clung to it and I was able to continue up the face. I made it higher than I ever had. I made it to the top. May we be people who cling to what is good and allow God in Christ lift us higher!

Jesus Wept. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept. John 11:32 -35 So often when we think of what a real man looks like we envision a lumberjack sort of man. Chiseled jaw, great beard, and a handsome flannel. In fact, if we push this stereotype further we can probably picture this man eating a slim Jim and drinking Mountain Dew right from the 2-liter bottle. Real men think and act kind of like this guy. The problem is that I do not believe that it paints masculinity in a fair light. I mean don't get me wrong I love a great flannel but is this really what being a man is reduced to. Of course, we cannot forget the added clichés of "real men don't cry" and "toughen up buttercup". All of this leads to an image of what we think manhood is about but Jesus in this passage paints a very different picture. First, when Jesus sees Mary weeping and the other Jews, Jesus is deeply moved. He is empathetic towards what is happening. He feels the pain that is happening around him and instead of sweeping it under the hypothetical carpet he moves towards it. Jesus moves towards Mary not away. Jesus embraces the moment and is present with Mary in the midst of the hurting. Secondly, Jesus shows respect. How do we know this by the sure fact that he asks Mary a question. “Where did you lay him"? This is a big deal because women during the time of Jesus were not considered equal and here is Jesus directly speaking to Mary and being compassionate towards her. Jesus respects her in a day and age where that was not the norm. Jesus is being a gentleman and not looking past her for someone else. He deeply cares for Mary and her sister Martha and shows that in the respect he gives. Lastly, Jesus weeps. I have always loved this verse mostly because when I was younger and in Sunday school this was the easiest verse to memorize, it is the shortest in the Bible. So it was my go to. But more recently I have understood that it shows Jesus' humanity. He had just lost one of his closest friends and he was sad. So often as men and boys, we are told to have a stiff upper lip and to keep our emotions from showing. I would agree that being emotional is not always beneficial particularly anger but what we have taught is that you ought not to feel. Good, bad or sad. It is as if we are some sort of robot with programmed responses for everything. None of which are real or accurately depict what is going on in our hearts and souls. We do not know how to grieve so we just act as if everything is ok. THIS IS SILLY and Jesus gives us a better way. He weeps. Jesus is the MAN literally he is Son of God and all so if he can cry for the loss of one of his dearest friends it is ok for me to act like I care too. I do not have to pretend I have my stuff all together all the time. Jesus gives us permission by the example he sets forth. He understands empathy and being in a moment, he understands what showing mutual respect to others is all about and mostly when he feels something he does not try to cover it up he is just present in the moment. Obviously we cannot go around crying all the time, we would run out of tissues but we can certainly practice not trying to hide when we have been hurt or mistreated and find the words and language to use to talk about what is going on. We do not have to be afraid of emotions just learn to talk about them like real men and boys becoming men. Rev Joe Torrence Lower School Chaplain Sermon given to 3-5th Grader Chapel on Monday. April 3,2017.

Everybody should do this once

Today I had the great honor of going to the 10th Annual Kickball game between the 4th graders and 5th graders of my kid's elementary school. She is a fifth grader so I had my own bias. Showing up I heard chanting and banter between the two sides and of course I was cheering for the 5th graders. They ended up being a little short staffed for the event so they asked if I would mind being the Ref. Being the good dad that I am of course I said yes and thought "this will be fun". WOW lapse in judgement. I was not far into calling the game when I realized this is "for real" and I had better get out my best A game for umping. I do not have an A game for umping so I made it up as I went along. I made every one mad both sides expressing their outrage at me with equal intensity. In fact one of the teachers was so agitated with me she called a time out in which I was the focus of the conversation. I am not sure if I have ever been so disliked by so many people at once. And I really like for people to like me so this was incredibly difficult and way outside of where I like to be. I realized by the fourth inning that I was not going to make anyone happy or make any new friends so I could only do my best and let the chips fall where they may. I could only call the game and call what I saw. So that's what I did and I am still here to write about it. I missed a lot of calls but I got a couple right as well. At the end of the game I did not get asked for many autographs but I knew that I had done the best I could with my limited umpire knowledge I had and so that had to be good enough. I realized today that when everyone dislikes you it is not the end of the world. It was actually kind of freeing. I gave up trying to please people and just did what I thought was the right thing. I think so often in leadership and in ministry we are so consumed about what others think and how they will "like " us we give up our ability to do "right" to make the good call or stand in the gap for those without a voice. Most of us ministry folks really liked being liked in fact we suck it up like a big gulp from 7-11 but we often compromise our own ability to lead because being liked takes precedent over leading our needs take precedent over the needs of others. We need to make the tough calls, take a stand and mostly do the best we can with the skills and talents God has given us and in the end that is enough. That is all we are really ever called to. To do those things is really all we can ask for from ourselves and from others. I don't know if this whole ministry thing does not work out maybe I have a second career as an Ump. Play Ball!