I am supposed to write one more blog post for my class project. Somehow though, as I sat here taking a break and surfing my facebook community I learned a close friend lost her battle with cancer today.
My heart is broken.
I want to hit this screen and yet- it is all I have right now to connect me to her and all our old school chums as we gather virtually in our grief. It IS my community right now.
This is where I will find solace through shared prayers- even though they are typed. This is where I will be able to express anger and pain- to laugh over old pictures and then shed a tear that no more will come with her in them.
This post just seems impossible to write and yet...I cannot seem to think of one quote from our books and yet- every page seems to scream the same message to me: do not discount the power of the gospel, no matter what the medium.
This is exactly why we need to take the lessons from this Media in Parish Education and RUN with them- run into the wind, the sun, the rain- run far and wise, spreading the news- the gospel. In these moments- in this grief, I have little to offer her or the community except words through a digital screen... and that- that is a gift. 10 years ago I would have sat looking at an email and cried. Now I can go to her page, see her pictures, the posts and share, right now in community.
This- this is not some passing fad. It is a gift to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Dedicated to the precious memory of Shannon Riedel, mother, wife, friend and sister in Christ who lived and died into her Baptism on this day, 13 December, 2013.
My heart is broken.
I want to hit this screen and yet- it is all I have right now to connect me to her and all our old school chums as we gather virtually in our grief. It IS my community right now.
This is where I will find solace through shared prayers- even though they are typed. This is where I will be able to express anger and pain- to laugh over old pictures and then shed a tear that no more will come with her in them.
This post just seems impossible to write and yet...I cannot seem to think of one quote from our books and yet- every page seems to scream the same message to me: do not discount the power of the gospel, no matter what the medium.
This is exactly why we need to take the lessons from this Media in Parish Education and RUN with them- run into the wind, the sun, the rain- run far and wise, spreading the news- the gospel. In these moments- in this grief, I have little to offer her or the community except words through a digital screen... and that- that is a gift. 10 years ago I would have sat looking at an email and cried. Now I can go to her page, see her pictures, the posts and share, right now in community.
This- this is not some passing fad. It is a gift to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Dedicated to the precious memory of Shannon Riedel, mother, wife, friend and sister in Christ who lived and died into her Baptism on this day, 13 December, 2013.
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