Our Last ELM class is complete. Just a paper to complete and graduation awaits...

I have no idea where this little Church is located
but I love the composition of this photo and the emotion
it invokes.  WmRoy Karlen

Well last Thursday, Friday and Saturday marked our last class for the 'Educating Lay Ministry' program.  My last class was over Presbyterian History & Polity, and all that is left to complete this class and the entire 'ELM' experience is to write a 7 page paper.  This class was held at the St. Benedict Center near Schuyler, NE.  The retreat there is just so serene, it's a wonderful place to stay and become refueled and renewed.

It was sad to end our last class, next is the graduation in October and then the reality that at least a few of us will likely never see each other again.  It has been a very interesting experience these last three years.  One in which I've seen myself grow and change a great deal.  My personal theological beliefs have changed considerably in this time.  This change is definitely for the better and it has been due to a combination of the ELM classes, life experiences both current and in looking back in meditative reflection on things long ago as well as reflections on the mentor ship of my late friend Jesse.  But to be honest the hand that shoved me off the cliff so to speak was a voice (in an e-mail actually) from the past bearing grace where grace was certainly not deserved.  For numerous reasons I cannot and will not go into more detail; but suffice to say that it was the greatest display of human grace I have personally experienced or witnessed.

Lately I have had so very many tragedies strike for folks around me.  Numerous diagnoses for cancer, deaths, abuse, family disruptions, divorce and hospitalizations.  My prayer list has expanded profoundly, so much that a couple of times at night I have fallen asleep as I was still praying my way through the list.  Part of this is a function of my age I'm sorry to say.  At this stage in life not only are my friends parents subject to disease and death, but my friends and contemporaries all too often are contracting disease and far too many have succumbed to their illnesses.  It's also a time where not only are my friends subject to divorce but they also have children who may have marital issues and become divorced.  Until one is older one fails to fully grasp the impact of marital unrest and divorce outside the immediate couple and their children.

For that reason I have taken my own advice and started once more reading through the book "All Our Losses / All Our Griefs".  I have mentioned this book several times in this blog and I will again say it is one of the most revelatory books I have ever read.  It is such a profound little book (it's only 173 pages) that I've decided that starting this week I will blog about it.  Starting with my next post I will go chapter by chapter through the book with direct quotes and then my personal reflections upon it.

I hope you'll like what I share enough that you'll run out and get a copy (or more they are well worth sharing) for yourself.

In His Love & Unending Grace!
Roy