Thoughts on Mothering the Church
I have all of these thoughts all day long about church planting and how that is similar to raising a child. Everyday I feel like God gives me this new view on how hard it is going to be to plant a church and on the flip side how great it is going to be.Yesterday I was taking Jake and Lily to playgym and I decided to stop by Starbucks to get some tea. Why I cannot just buy a box of the Tazo Zen Green Tea, I will never know.
So here is the process drawn out into 20 steps:
1) Get out of car, get Jake and Lily out.
2) Look for wallet, find it and set it on Lily.
3) Hold Cole's hand, with seat on other arm. Go get bagel for Jake.
4) Walk to Starbucks, get in line. Set Lily down, to hold onto to Jake.
5) Cannot keep ahold of Jake. He wants to touch the display with the colorful breakables.
6) Encourage him to look at sis and play with her.
7) Pay for tea. Jake drops his bagel that he was holding.
8) Furiously grab for more cash to buy new one so that he doesn't freak out. Heidi insists that we have it for free.
9) Grab panino, small children, and tea and head for car.
10) No free hands, Jake tries to push door open. He succeeds.
11) I put drink down, set sis down, bend to his level and explain the waiting for Kat process.
12) Grab tea, sis, and have small child grab onto sweater.
13) Get to car, put tea and girl on ground, buckle boy.
14) Grab girl, put in, get keys.
15) Get into car. Start car. Damn it. Get out and grab tea.
16) Wipe sweat from my face.
17) Ask Jake if he is ready
18) Say a little prayer for safe travel
19) Put the car in reverse
20) Drive to destination
During the little prayer I thought...hmm...being a mother would be hard. You have to do everything in slow-motion and in stages. You cannot just get into the car and drive. You cannot just go and buy a cup of tea. You are carrying children, and children take time. You have to be patient. During the times where things need to be explained you need to take time to address those things to teach, so that hopefully the child will learn why we do things the way that we do.
Now I imagine my day would have been a little less stressful if I had avoided the trip altogether. If I would not have stopped for tea, which I didn't really need. It was more because I knew we hadn't made a morning run to Starbuck in awhile and don't want to break tradition. If I had not stopped I would have missed the opportunity to see Jake say," Bye, Bye Cheeelaa" to the bagel lady, or missed an opportunity to experience the kindness of Heidi giving Jake the panino.
There was beauty in the midst of a seemingly chaotic exhausting process.
How does this tie into church planting? I think that at times, for me, in this internal process, it felt like I have been dragging, it is taking too long. The reality is, and will continue to be, that it takes time. Nurturing takes time, birth takes time, and that I need to be patient.
Last Saturday I said I feel ready to give birth...yeah today I am not. I think that is part of this emotional process. Some days I will be jacked, some days I won't, but it does not take away from the ongoing transformation in me. It just means somedays I am ready and some not.
posted by Kat @ 9:03 PM
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