Pastoral Ministry

Last week I finally got around to doing a job that I dislike and usually put off as long as I can. I moved all of my plants into the greenhouse for winter. By this time of the year I am tired of gardening and want a break. There is, however, this one final job that has to be done to wrap up the growing year.

Homecoming was a wonderful day in our church this year. The day was topped off by a great meal with many wonderful dishes that the cooks in our congregation had brought.

This past June, amidst gloomy reports on the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the following cartoon appeared. The cartoon showed a man in a suit talking to a couple of workers outside an office door. The man was saying, “I regret to inform you that we are closing this department.” The name on the door of the office was “Silver Lining Department.”

You hate to see a department like that close. In the darkest times, we have stubbornly clung to the belief that every cloud has its silver lining.

A five-year-old girl had an older sister who had misbehaved. As a result of her misbehavior, their dad was scolding the older sister. The little girl listened to this with a certain amount of pleasure. At one point, the father said to his older daughter, “Young lady, you have disobeyed me, and you are going to have to live with the consequences.” When the father was through with his speech, the younger girl crawled into her father’s lap and said, “Daddy, when my sister goes to live with the ‘consequences,’ may I have her room?”

Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley until his death in 1977, annually attracts over 600,000 visitors. Graceland was originally owned by S. E. Toof, who was the publisher of “The Memphis Daily Appeal.” He named the estate after his daughter, Grace. Presley bought the estate in 1957 and retained the name “Graceland.”

Bret Favre has had a hard time making up his mind. In 2008, he decided to retire from football after a great career with the Green Bay Packers. But then he changed his mind and signed with the New York Jets. At the end of the season last year, he announced that he was retiring from football again. But then he had second thoughts. A few weeks ago he signed with the Minnesota Vikings and is now their starting quarterback.