Chapel of the Abiding Presence

As a student at Texas Lutheran College (now University...sorry I can't say it...doesn't sound right) we had the opportunity to attend chapel at 10:30 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As a theology major, I was kind of expected to be there...and I was, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It was a 25 minute service with scripture, song and a meditation by the campus pastor. The pipe organ was played by a rotation of sacred music majors. Then we would all pour out into the gathering area just outside the front door of the chapel and eat doughnuts and drink coffee till we finally didn't want any lunch. Some of us had class right after chapel and stuffed pastries into our backpacks and filled our mamoth refillable coffee cups from the Sack and Save before running off to Greek or Philosophy in Literature or Business or Ethics or Homiletics. It was interesting. It wasn't just the theology majors in chapel...most of my friends were Biology or Chemistry majors...and there we all were, worshipping together. Ah...college. The best place I can think to receive that really rude awakening that everyone isn't just like you. Believe me, I was shocked...actually more pleasantly surprised. I don't know if that was glimpse of what I might be doing later but as I look back, I accidentally had people coming with me to chapel. People who told me later that they never would have believed that given a choice between a quick toes up or chapel they would have chosen chapel.

Ah...Evangelism. Another great equalizer :)

Glory in the Morning

I tend to be a creature of habit. Some would even say stubborn and set in my ways (quiet Alvaro!) I'm highly aware of this, shall we say, negative personality trait and truly give it my best when it comes to the growth department and strive to be more flexible and bending. However, one thing that can throw my day into a horrible tailspin is if I don't get to start my day by spending at least 15 minutes in my back yard with my coffee and toast. I get up and with one eye open make the coffee. It's usually pretty early. Then I turn on the TV to see if it's going to rain or not. Then I turn on the oven and make toast and spread a little apple butter that my friend made me recently. Then I go outside, sit in the same chair that I always sit in and eat my breakfast. But there is one wonderful addition during the summertime. I get to count morning glory blooms. Yesterday from the size of the buds I saw, I predicted that I would have 11 blooms this morning...I HAD 17! I know what you're thinking...perhaps Rachel doesn't have enough to do. Perhaps Rachel should just get in the shower, get ready and go to work early if she has all this time on her hands...perhaps she should go to the gym! (bite your tongue!) I say, no way! I've tried that and it's just all wrong for me...and I've learned that in order to be the best person I can be I have to start the day out with a little quiet, a little thinking and maybe a little counting. The best way to appear to be a happy person is to be a happy person...no poser ever conviced anyone of anything for very long! In a society that tries to convice us that an overly busy person equals a person of worth, we can easily be pressured to participate in the constant sprint that surrounds us. Me?...I choose to predict and view 14 blooms before I leave for work tomorrow. Everyone around me will be the better for it!

I gotta have it!

What is it about coffee? What is this hold it has on me? It is the aroma? The memories of sitting in my Grannie's kitchen when I was only 4 being poured a cup? (yes, it was mostly milk but still) Actually, I think that might be it. Every time I have a cup of coffee, especially in the afteroon, I think about the fact that my Grannie is probably doing the very same thing at that very moment. Coffee meant we were about to all sit down together and talk about something important or at least about something juicy that Mrs. So and So's daughter did last week.

How many times have you heard people say, "ewwww, church coffee!" But we still stand around and drink the stuff and visit, build on our relationships, get to know that girl and guy over there I never met before. It's all about the coffee...oh wait, I mean it's all about the relationships :) Somehow they just go together for me. What else in my life should be linked to time spent with people I know and don't know? For now, I'll use the coffee angle!