Friday, March 29, 2024

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Speaking in the Light – 8-12

By Pastor Rudy

I had the chance to go to Hollywood, Calif. this week. I felt a little bit like Lucy and Ricky Ricardo as I even got to eat lunch poolside at the world famous Beverly Hills Hotel. My cousins Herb and Mary Ellen have lived there since the mid 70’s and it was actually the first time that I got to spend any real quality time with them since way back then.
While many adventures never live up to the hype and expectation, let me tell you that it was a glorious and remarkable reunion. Even though many years had passed since we last all “hung out,” it didn’t take long for us to remember and realize that we definitely share common genes. We are a family who both love to entertain and also love being entertained! I got the grand tour as both of my relatives gave up their entire weekend to be with me. Just that sacrificial act alone spoke volumes to me of how kind and giving they both are.
Mary Ellen is a makeup artist to the stars. She shared amazing tales of all the incredibly interesting celebrities that she has worked with over time. I even learned that in her younger modeling days, she met and went out on a date with an up and coming actor named Tom Selleck.
Herb is an interior decorator and is as creative a guy as they come. I saw the passion in his eyes and sensed the enthusiasm in his voice as he constantly poured out the tales of his travels to me during my visit. He also took a genuine interest in helping me with my radio show and was going to get some of his famous friends to join me in my future programs. I drank in it all in as a humble receiver of a gift I felt I did not deserve.
My Dad’s sister was my Aunt Helen. Aunt Helen was Herb and Mary Ellen’s dear Mother. Both she and Dad are no longer here on earth with us, but somehow they were alive and well and I believe smiling from above as their kids gathered once again.
My Pop was actually Mary Ellen’s Godfather. Needless to say we didn’t have to create or force a pseudo common bond, we just had to give the family flame the chance to be rekindled.
I have to admit though that I did hesitate about heading west. It didn’t make a whole lot of common sense to suddenly venture over 3,000 miles to drop in on individuals who could have been easily categorized better as strangers after so many years had come and gone, but something made it clear and dear to my heart that this was a journey I needed to make and take. And in only a matter of a weekend, we were knit together in all that should remain most important.
If so many of us would change our daily routine to drop everything and head to a funeral, isn’t it a whole lot more meaningful and memorable to do so while we are all still very much alive and very much able to still love on one another?
After my time in Los Angeles I wanted to go back home but I didn’t. I sojourned from there back to Omaha, Nebraska where I had spent four wonderful years from 1993 to 1997 as the youth, college and singles pastor at Christ Community Church. They were made unforgettable to me not so much because of what I accomplished during my tenure there, but more because of how blessed I was to have had the privilege to work with so many incredible young people during our days together.
I got to reunite and reconnect with a few of them these past few days as the “older me” got to observe the older version of my “kids!” I spent some treasured time as a grateful guest in their homes and was given the delightful gift of getting acquainted with their expanding families and while I was there, I came to the realization that I am very proud of who Maygon and Georgette and Sjon and Dana and Rick and Brenda have become. While they may eternally be teens and 20s in my mind and in my heart, they are not too shabby at being the 30 something impacting and enlightening adults they have grown up into. I love them dearly. I always have and I always will.
I share my tale of Rudy’s pilgrimage with you all because for a brief moment, I almost made a foolish decision that if I had gone through with giving in to the awfully strong temptation to just chicken out and stay home, none of my excellent adventures would have came to fruition. There’d have been none of these brand spanking new precious memories to paste into the scrapbook of my soul.
There’d have been none of the heart to heart talks that we shared where family was rediscovered and friendships were reignited and partnerships were allowed to blossom and driven to delve into an even deeper and more intimate level.
There also would not have been the personal victory that I got to celebrate because my faith was given wings and had the chance to be let out of its cage so that it could trump the fear that was trying to convince me to play it too cautious and conservative.
It would have been so easy to take the short cut and just send a card rather than show up myself. But if I had, it would have made what turned out oh so right. to be oh so wrong.
Regret is the result of personal parties passed up because we are so preoccupied by the rut and routine, we miss the invitation to the miracle that occurs when we follow our hearts.
If we are still alive and breathing, it is never too late to give new looks to our old loves once again. Today is the day to make the decision to break bread with those to whom we are being led to and to do so before we are too dry and dead to participate in the bountiful banquet prepared for those we would call family and friends.
And rather than hide out in a sterile hotel when we come to town, it’s the time of the season to open up our homes so that we may become hospitable hosts to those we would benefit and be blessed by if we would just leave the formalities behind and invite the ones we love to sit and stay awhile.
And finally, and probably the most important thing of all, is the lesson that I learned about the special moments of our lives not so much being out the places that we are looking to go and see, but more about the people that are in those places that make the magic that causes minutes to last a lifetime and more.
While there is still no place like home- it is nice when you can be at home anywhere your heart is allowed to be open enough to be let in by those that you love and are loved by.
Write Pastor Rudy pastorrudytlc@comcast.net

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