We Are Meant to be Free

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  (2 Corinthians 3:17)

 

If I could give one gift to everyone in the world I would give freedom.  I would give freedom so that others would be able to freely work, worship, serve, lead, and administrate their lives.  Freedom is so important.  It makes people unbound, uncontrolled and set loose to do what people are meant to do.  Granted freedom in itself will not make us productive, loving or helpful but it is a certain starting point.  Without freedom we are not able to truly follow the Spirit (God) and we are unable to move and be who we are meant to be.  With freedom we can dream, we can change our minds and we can rethink solutions for problems.  With freedom there are less hindrances and ties to unhelpful anchors or stumbling blocks.  Freedom gives us the air under our wings to fly and to become. Freedom is like oxygen.  Without freedom we can lose breath and lose spirit and lose life. 

 

I believe that our spiritual journeys have built in struggles.  In those struggles and pain we can learn to grow and learn to be free.  We can use the St Francis saying (summarized), “accept the things that we can’t change and change the things we can.”  Change can bring freedom.  Freedom allows us to grow and to follow our heartfelt desires and goals. 

 

Are you free?  I hope so.  I am free.  I am free to live, to work, to worship and to love and help others.  Freedom gives me the ability to do these meaningful tasks of life.  I love being free.  It is a gift from God. May God grant all who struggle the freedom they need to become and do what they are meant to be and do. 

Picking Up the Pieces

 

Most everyone knows that the Head Ball Coach Steve Spurrier resigned as head coach.  You do know he resigned and didn’t retire, right?  I am not sure that mattered to anyone other than the HBC but sometimes wording and “spin” are important in making a point.  I will miss him.  He did more for the University of SC than many former coaches combined times ten.

Coach Shawn Elliott was named interim coach.  I thought he did a great job.  I followed him on Twitter and noticed that his wife tweeted a “thank you” note to him for a great job of “picking up the pieces” of the team after the HBC resigned.  I agree with Mrs. Elliott.  Well said mam and well deserved for Shawn.  Coach Elliott really did pick up the pieces and served the Gamecocks in admirable fashion as they moved on “Spurrier-less.”  Changes have a way of deconstructing the established structures and after 10 years of leadership that is a lot of structure that can come undone.  Yet Coach Elliott worked to bring the team together and to help them revision and remission their goal as a team.

Sometimes we have to pick up the pieces in our lives.  That can mean job changes, coping with the death of beloved pets, moving to a new state, becoming an “empty nester,” retirement, divorce, relationship changes, and even changing faith communities.  Loss is always around and a woven piece of fabric in our daily lives.  No one is immune to loss.

We are not without hope though.  We can build love, faith, hope, joy, and beauty into our lives and these spiritual values can help us create resiliency for the current loss and resiliency for losses that await us in the future.  I have had my fair share of losses.  I have done my fair share of weight lifting and exercise (not so much lately) and I know that today’s workout will help me with tomorrow’s workout.  Exercise and workout today leads to greater strength and resiliency for tomorrow.  As we pick up the pieces, may we grow stronger, wiser, and even savvier with the hope of achieving the good goals of peace, happiness, and having a new purpose and new mission in life.

20 Something: Growing Up Emotionally and Spiritually is not for the Faint of Heart



 



My adult children are now ages 26, 24, 21, and 19.    I recently shared with them that some of my most challenging and difficult days in life were in my 20’s.  I left home at the young age of 18 and have been gone ever since after joining the US Air Force right out of high school. It was a good way but a hard way to grow up—quickly.   I struggled to work through relationship building, spiritual connectedness, relating to parents and in-laws and finding my way in and through the emerging ministry world that I was entering.   I have attempted to relay some of my struggle so that my kids and even others their age can know the normalcy of growing pains as a twenty-something.  I can even say that my most challenging decades of my life were my 20’s and 30’s. 

The past year I have talked with my mother (age 76) about the role and job of a grandparent.  I wonder about that role having not yet entered into it but I certainly hope to do so one day.  I suggested to my mom that grandparents have many roles but one important one is helping and guiding their grandchildren as much as the kids want and as much as grandparents are invited to do so.  It’s a great mix.  Elder wisdom meets younger adults looking to explore their world with great energy while having a foundation that anchors each young adult to faith, family, and elder wisdom. 

Let it be known that grandkids don’t always stay age 2.  I know that sounds obvious but it is an important point.  They are cute but they also grow up and need a new kind of grandparent wisdom, direction, and even spiritual guidance.   Influence is earned and invited as people trust and love one another.  I am very blessed to have four young adults and one living grandparent even as I write today.  All of my grandparents are now gone yet their influence (some more than others) stays with me.  It’s up to the young adults and grandparents of the world to connect, encourage and learn from each other.  What a great challenge with such promise and gift.  It will probably not be easy but most things worth earning are not easy to attain or achieve and twenty-somethings connecting with grandparents is probably one of those. 

Body and Soul: Creating a Life of Integrity

The other day I asked a couple of our emergency department radiological technicians if the CT SCAN machine can detect the patient’s soul in the CT.  I said it in a joking manner to lighten the moment of a usually stressful work environment.  I work at a large, downtown academic medical center that is a level 1 trauma center.  It is very common for patients to have a CT following a car accident or other traumatic event. 

This week is Pastoral Care Week and the theme is “Pastoral Care Together.” The theme is all about health care workers assessing and meeting the spiritual and pastoral care needs of patients, families, and staff.   All clinicians are empowered to assess spiritual needs of families and to call upon the chaplains and clergy to help meet those needs.  It is a shared work.  Together we meet the physical and spiritual needs of patients. 

In Genesis 1:31, we read:   “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”  This is one of my favorite verses because the created order, and especially human beings, are declared “Very Good.”  I affirm this important idea because we are amazing physiological and spiritual beings.  It is amazing that the body works and performs in an effective and efficient manner.  Humans can run, analyze data, create art, and learn new things every day.  Yet, that is not the whole story.  The narrative of humanity also includes living faithfully as persons who can offer unconditional love, forgiveness, mercy, friendship, and hospitality to strangers, family members, hospital patients and friends.  Living is more than just a physical experience or just a spiritual experience.  I propose that we continue to cherish and tend to our bodies and our souls as one.  In our human “oneness” and integrity we truly find and become fully spiritual and fully human and it’s an amazing way to live.  You are truly Very Good!

Sharing a Birthday

September 17, 2015

Today my fraternal twin brother Mark and I turned 52.    We were born in Flushing Hospital (above) in Queens NYC and mom says they did not know she was having twins. I imagine ultrasound technology was not as sophisticated then as it is now. 

Mark and I shared the same small bedroom growing up.  We had bunk beds.  I had the bottom bed and he had the top.  Not sure why he had the top and that’s just the way it was.  We shared the same clothes.  Times were tough and our parents did the best they could. 

Both of us graduated from Upper Merion HS, King of Prussia, PA in 1981.  We walked in the graduation line together, played football together, wrestled in the recreation league and played baseball.   It was the generation where kids played outside from sun up to sundown. Face Book friends like Brian Ross, our back door neighbor, still remind me of pick-up games like tackle football and ghost-in-the-graveyard.

No one from the Upper Merion High School class of 1981 would have ever guessed that the Rossi twins (Mark and George:  he is a few minutes older) would end up being Baptist ministers and pastors, now 34 years later after high school graduation.  Mark and I both found salvation in Jesus Christ and we were called into the ministry by God.  I think that some people still wonder if it is really true!   Mark is a full time pastor in Cheyenne, Wyoming and I serve as a clinical chaplain at MUSC Hospital in Charleston. 

The Apostle Paul said that the gospel came to him from Jesus Christ and it was not the work of any man or woman (Galatians 1:11-12).  I can’t answer for Mark but I know for sure that salvation and Christian ministry were God’s will for my life.  Looking back it is an unbelievable story; something that could not be scripted nor improvised.  It’s been a great ride so far for me and I look forward to sharing more birthdays with him.      

Unplugged and Still Learning

“Unplugged and Still Learning”

                I have social media accounts with Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.  Some people have rightly called them “time bandits” and I certainly agree.  No doubt surfing all of the accounts can be time intensive if not time wasters.  For me they are not time wasters.  Social media lets me stay connected with family and friends and acquaintances which is something I greatly value.  Social media also allows me to read the diverse ideas, opinions, feelings and thoughts of others which are both in line with my own thoughts and sometimes very different.  It’s a learning experience and challenging.

                Today is a cool day for me and some in my family. I am beginning another online class via Webster University in an effort to earn the necessary academic credentials to become a LPC (licensed professional counselor).  My son Austin and daughters Heather and Emily are also in academic programs.  Austin and Emily are studying at Coastal Carolina University and Heather is a new student at the The Clinton School of Public Service (part of the University of Arkansas system).  So, all four of us will be challenged with managing our time well. 

                How will we manage our time and challenges?  I say via excellent time management.  For me that will include practicing more “Unplugged time” from social media and avoiding the other “time bandit” of too much television.  I don’t plan to unplug totally since I enjoy TV and social media.  Instead I want to use social media for me and in the advancement of my goals.  It’s up to me.  My goal is to find balance.  That will include writing a blog entry once a month.  Like most people I give my time to the activities, people, and events to which I value and that includes lifelong learning and staying connected via social media.    Time: It is our greatest commodity and it is all we have!

My Love for Texas: A Look Back at its Beauty

I recently wrote a blog on living in South Carolina, The Palmetto State, for 21 years of my life.  I added that I would follow up with a blog about the 9 years I lived in Texas, during the 1980s and early 1990s.  In some ways, Texas (The Lone Star State) was the place where the Lord planted me, allowed me to mature some, and prepared me for the next steps in my life. I will forever have many special places in my heart for Texas and its people and places after living there for the 9 years.

 Here are my Top 10 Reasons I love Texas:

1    Spiritual Rebirth.  My spiritual rebirth happened at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, Texas in 1982.  

      San Angelo is in the heart of west Texas, southwest of Fort Worth and northwest of San Antonio.  It has roadrunners, tumbleweed, snow and ice in the winter and strong heat in the summer.  Most of all it will be the place where I look back and see where my life was forever changed during the 6 months I lived there in 1982.  It is a spiritual marker of grand proportion for my life.

      Our daughter Heather was born in San Antonio at the UT Health Science Center/Bexar County Hospital.  I remember that day like it was yesterday.  She is now 23.  Dr Higby was there and I cut the umbilical cord! 

      Big Bend National Park.  It has mountain peaks that hover at 7,800 (Chisos Mtns) and then drop down to about 1000 feet above sea level at the Rio Grande River.  There are evergreens at the top of the mountains and flora of great color amidst the dry desert in the lower levels.  By far my favorite national park that I have visited.   An amazing place that I highly recommend.  You can camp, raft the river and hike to your heart’s desire for miles and miles.

      The Houston Astrodome.  Been to a bunch of old Astros games in the famous Astrodome.  It was built in 1965.  If you have ever been to Houston you know why the Astrodome was built:  the heat and humidity are almost unbearable! 

      The Texas Hill Country.  The blue bonnets and Indian paintbrushes that bloom in March are spectacular.  Note picture above! 

      The Riverwalk in San Antonio.   It is no wider than most creeks in the north and south yet it is home to great food, entertainment and a short walk from the The Alamo.  The Mexican-American culture is dominant and so full of life and energy on the Riverwalk.

      Padre Island.  This is the beach and island that runs southward from Corpus Christi towards the southern Texas and Mexico border.  In the 1980s one was allowed to drive a car on the beach which was cool and fun to do.  The water is always warm and the beaches are huge. 

8    The People.  Actually, this should be higher than number 8.  I have often noticed and shared with others that Texans and South Carolinians are very similar:  Both are very proud of their state and its heritage.  Both tend to have a strong religious and spiritual fervor in its people.  Barbeque and the love for great food is well known for both.  Many residents in each state are very happy with where they live and seem to be content with never moving from it.  Finally, both are made up of some of the friendliest and kindest folk in the lower 48!

  

      The Military.  I was stationed at Lackland AFB (San Antonio), Goodfellow AFB (San Angelo) and then for most of my 4 years at Brooks AFB (San Antonio).  South Carolina was recently voted the most patriotic state and I would bet that Texas was right behind it.  There are military bases all over the state.

  

      Brookhill Baptist Church and Village Parkway Baptist Church.  Both are in San Antonio.  I made my adult profession of faith and received baptism by immersion in 1983 at Brookhill and then in 1991 I was licensed to the Gospel Ministry at Village Parkway.  Some deep spiritual experiences and some religious mile markers that continue to define my life and allow me to anchor back to two important spiritual events in my life.