New Beginnings

It's been awhile since I've posted anything on here.  It's been a busy few months.  If you don't know me personally, on February 5, I accepted the call to be the pastor of Sharon Baptist Church in Smithfield, NC.  I spent February and March transitioning out of my position in campus ministry, a ministry I'd been a part of in some way for eighteen years and a campus minister for almost nine, and got my first house ready for the market.  I had great aspirations for lent but the truth is, I really wound up trying to survive the lenten season with all of the transitions going on in my life.

I began at Sharon Baptist on April 1.  I knew I was doing the right thing, was certain this was where God was leading, but honestly, I was not sure how I felt about leaving campus ministry.  I wasn't sure if I was ready to be the pastor of a church.  I found myself thinking, "What am I doing?  What if I don't have what it takes?"

But it's been incredible.  I know we are still in the honey moon phase of our relationship (the church and me), but I love being a pastor more than I thought possible.  Here are some of the things I love.

-  I love preaching.  I love "hosting" worship each week, welcoming people into the sanctuary and a time of worship.  I love offering prayers over people.  This is not very eloquent...but it's such a big deal. I get to step in on their behalf and communicate with God directly for all of us.  It is an incredible responsibility.

-  I love the children.  I did not expect for the kids to take to me so quickly.  I love that a three year old crawled in my lap at an event on Sunday afternoon to snuggle with me and have a tickle fight.  I love that one of the four year old girls in the church was so excited I was coming that she was announcing it to everyone, including random people in Walmart, that they were getting a new pastor and her name was Charity.  I love that a seven year old has nicknamed me "PC"...Pastor Charity.  I love that a four year old boy would say a prayer in church because, "If Pastor Charity asked me to do it, then I will."  It such an incredible opportunity not just for me to feel loved on, but an opportunity for them to feel loved by me and then see me offer prayers for them, preach and lead worship.

-  I love how I am using all of my gifts in ways I didn't know they could be used.  Only in the pastorate would one afternoon find you kneeling in the halls of a nursing home holding the hand of a woman who doesn't know who you are (and sometimes who she is), lead a Bible study discussion that night, have lunch with a well known business man in the area the next day (a lunch that is interrupted by a phone call from a gubernatorial candidate) and then go sit on bleachers into the night cheering on the softball team.

I love how God is using every part of me for this role.  I love the people of Sharon Baptist Church already.  I am excited to see what God has in store for our future.

The Body and the Spirit

So, I have a confession to make.  I've fallen off the band wagon.  In one of my earlier posts, I admitted that I was a food addict.  Naming that out loud was hard to do, but made a huge difference for me.

My life has been crazy since about November.  I lost my grandmother, then got a really nasty cold and then came the holidays.  In the middle of all of this, I interviewed and got a new job!  I'm incredibly excited (and overwhelmed) to be the new pastor of Sharon Baptist Church in Smithfield, NC starting April 1st.

The truth is though, I did not handle all of this stress very well and I slowly started turning to food to make myself feel better.  It started harmlessly, as I learned how to make many of my favorite Christmas treats gluten free.  But when the stress started coming, I could not stop the eating.   The more I needed to escape the stress, the more junk I ate, and the worse I felt.

Tomorrow marks the start of the season of lent in the church.  It is the season to make sacrifices.  It is a season of deep reflection to remember what Christ gave up for us.  As a tradition, christians give up something or take on a new discipline to encourage us to focus on Christ and his sacrifice.

These next forty days mark the end of my time in campus ministry.  I've been involved in campus ministry since I was seventeen.  Not only will I take a team to Manhattan for a mission trip, help set up student leadership for next year and try to leave a job well, but I will also be getting my first house ready and putting it on the market to sale and transition into a new position as pastor.  I wasn't even sure women should be pastors ten years ago.  While I am excited about the possibilities that are ahead, this is an overwhelming time.  My normal response would be to continue eating to make myself feel better, sleep as much as I can, and avoid making the time for exercise.  

This season for lent I commit to make intentional choices about the food I eat.  There will be some good eaten in Manhattan...I mean, really....but I will make good choices about what and how much I eat.  I commit to exercise every day.  This is not just an exercise to make myself feel better (a reason many choose to commit to something or give something up for lent) but I commit to honor my body and honor my soul while I do it.  I have downloaded a number of sermons from Itunes U to listen to or will listen to sacred music.  The purpose is not just to be healthier but to combine the body and the spirit...which I believe honors the lenten spirit.  How will you unite body and spirit?

Seriously?

I have a confession to make.  I recently decided to give online match making another try.  I am nothing if not an optimist.  I'm happy with the improvements I've made in myself personally and physically and thought I'd give it another whirl.

One guy came up in my search and I thought he seemed interesting, nice looking, etc.  He seemed normal in his profile so I sent him a brief message.  That may seem forward for a girl if you've never done online dating, but if you just wait for guys to contact you, even in the online world, you won't communicate with many people.

His first message claims me to be adorable and that he keeps looking at my picture thinking, "is she really still single?"  It also says that he is quitting match and asks could I personally email him.  My radar go up that there is probably something fishy about this but since I'm trying to keep an open mind and a lot of these date sites do specials for a free weekend during the holidays to suck us in, I decide to just set up an email account that could not be traced back to me.  His second message claims that my eyes are like the "eyes of doves by the rivers of water" and "their dynamism is what makes them unique." If you know me, you know I have a low tolerance for "bs" and my bs meter was rocking off the charts at this moment.  I do have great eyes but seriously.....

He then tells just enough generic information about himself, including the fact that he and his mother were watching TV and saw a match.com ad and she asked him to sign up.  That was a month ago, and unfortunately he has lost his mother to cancer in that time...in Nigeria.  Because that's where she lived by the way, Nigeria, which he says is very nice except for a recent uprising that killed about sixty people.

In case you're wondering, I will not be communicating with this individual anymore and so glad I trusted my gut!  I feel certain forthcoming emails would continue to praise my "adorableness" but would also follow with pleas for some kind of money.  I'm sure I'd hear that he would pay me back when he was back in my area but he just cannot access his money because he's in Nigeria...and I couldn't strand him in a foreign country, could I?

Seriously?  Does anyone fall for this?  The sad thing is that women must be falling for this.  I know it's probably not just one man, it could be a woman or a whole group of scammers creating a profile and messages such as this.  If it wasn't working, they wouldn't be doing it.  What about our society is so broken that people can get away with this?  Why are women so desperate to hear how lovely they are, they will believe words like this?

When I was in Japan, we did some work in a train station.  While we were practicing English with those moving around, a group of well groomed young men caught my attention.  They had stylish hair and wore nice suits.  I was told they were waiting for young, beautiful women that were coming off the trains.  As I watched, they would surround the women and walk with them.  I was told they were complimenting them but also going beyond that to say sexually inappropriate things to them.  They were assaulting them verbally.  Can you imagine just trying to make it to your next train and being surrounded by a group of men, all trying to break you down by speaking unthinkable things to you.  These men were supposedly recruiting for "restaurants."

In the US, it is not always so blatant, but we have created a world where women's beauty is supreme.  Still in 2012, if a woman is not attached to a man, there is something wrong with her.  It is tough to be single and know that many are wondering what is wrong with you.  In the church, we emphasize the roles of wife and motherhood to a level that if a woman isn't a wife or a mother, she is nothing.  Her salvation is in those roles and so what happens if those roles don't come along?  While we may not preach that abuse is acceptable, women will put up with the unspeakable in order to hold onto what they have.  So many women feel they need some legitimacy in this world.   They need someone telling them their eyes are like the eyes of doves that they will do anything to have it.

There must be a culture shift! We have got to start treating women with more respect and value them for who they are as individuals! Women have got to stop being competitive and, even catty, with one another and step forward to create a world where we support other women.  Men and women have got to start being so hard on women.  We have to create a world where women can succeed.  Women, we have to stop being so hard on ourselves, and love who we are right now, not ten pounds less or at a younger age.  We have to find our value in our gifts, calling and passion.  Women...you are amazing just as you are!  Spend some quality getting to know who you are and what you bring to the world.

What will you do today to create equality?  What will you do today to encourage a woman?  What will you do today to help a woman discover her own individual worth and live up to her God-created potential?  What will you do to create a culture shift?

Lessons from my Dog

While I've been on a journey of sorts over the last few years, 2011 has been a year of big changes for me.  I got some of my ducks in a row and started taking more responsibility for my health and well being.  I also got a dog.  I've never had a pet before.  We never had pets growing up, so this has been a big deal for me.  But on July 20, I adopted Sophie, a six year old yorkie poo rescue.  She has been a "breeder" dog all her life with very little human interaction and, from the way she responds to people, I'm assuming that interaction wasn't very positive.  It's been a tough journey at times, but I've learned a lot from her.  Here are some of them.

- There are good parts to every day. I was the kind of person who would avoid going out of the house at the smallest hint of a rainy day.  I'd stay in bed longer to let the snow melt.  I'd avoid leaving the comforts of air conditioning during most of the summer months. It has taken some serious weather watching on some days but I've learned there are good parts to every day.  In the summer, early in the morning and late in the evening can be quite pleasant. On rainy days, there is usually a little break which makes those moments feel like a special little treasure.  Each day has redeemable qualities.

-  Sometimes a patch of grass can be more than just a patch of grass.  I don't know what she is thinking in her mind, but there is this one patch of grass in our neighborhood that Sophie loves to run through.  It actually looks more like hopping as she lets herself go. I encourage her and run right along side of her wondering what the neighbors are thinking. It may just look like a patch of grass to me, but there is something magical about it to her.  Maybe there are other patches of grass in life that are more magical than they first appear to be.

-  Don't listen to all of the advice you are given.  It must be what parents feel, but when I got Sophie, everyone had an opinion about what I should be doing with her.  The neighbors felt like she should be willing to meet all of their dogs, no matter how huge or spastic they were.  I should force her to interact with other dogs.  I have one neighbor who feels like he is doing a favor if he forces some interaction with him because "that's the only way she'll get over her fear."  The foster mom wanted me to let her do anything she wanted and the rescue place wanted me to let her know who was boss.  Sometimes you have to just quiet the other voices and listen to your gut.

- Anything can be scary if you let it.  Today when we were walking, leaves were blowing around.  This seems to scare Sophie, along with the Christmas tree when we first put it up and a long list of other items that do not seem scary to most of us. The truth is though, we all have things that we think are scary that aren't really.  We've got to learn to walk through the blowing leaves swirling around us and past the twinkling lights of Christmas trees and not let them hold any power over us.
  

-  It takes courage to trust.  Sometimes we forget how hard it is for others to trust us and we treat their trust flippantly, but the truth is, trust is of great value.  We need to remember that some people may have a harder time trusting because they never had anyone they can really trust.

-  Sometimes progress comes as slow as grass growing.  You've got to learn to celebrate the little things.  The little things may be that she no longer runs when you kneel down to pick her up or that she does not always shake when you get in the car.  In adult life, progress and change in life came seem to be nonexistent, but we have to learn to celebrate the little things.

-  What's a little pottying on the floor?  I walk around fearing that she is going to pee or poop on the floor.  And we have had our fair share of that.  However, I often am so afraid of her having an accident on my floor or, worse, someone else's that it limits what we do or what I expect of her.  And, why?  What's a little potty?  It can be cleaned up pretty simple.  The truth is though, I find that I spend a lot of time worrying about things in life that are really not that big of a deal as well.  Let things happen and clean what you need to.

-  A little walk around the block can make all the difference in the world.  I have been amazed at how good it feels to take our fifteen minute walk to start and end the day.  I've always been a "don't talk to me before I've had my coffee kind of person, but now by the time I'm pouring my cup, I've already walked Sophie.  By the end of the day, I usually feel wiped.  The tasks of the day are still swirling around in my head.  However, I go for a little loop in the neighborhood and it all melts away.

Here's to a new year where Sophie and I can continue learning to trust each other and I continue to be challenged by having such a wonderful little creature in my life.

I Love These People

It has been a long week in my family.  My grandmother, Chloe Hardison Roberson, passed away early on Monday morning.  She had lived a long life and while we are sad, I think there is a general sigh that she is finally at peace.  The woman who once knew everything that was going on in town, as the pastor said at her funeral, almost before it happened, no longer knew who we were and most days, where she was.  She was a survivor and a fighter but the fight had gone out of her.  The things I remember about my grandmother are her love for Mello Yellow, candy orange slices, that she always kept icee pops for the kids in her freezer, and the fact that she was a little ornery.  Granny always had an opinion and she was always willing to share it with you.  I learned later in life just how proud she was of me.  Anytime my name would appear in the Biblical Recorder, a NC Baptist newspaper, she made sure everyone saw it.  When I was hired as Baptist Campus Minister for the Raleigh Area, she wanted to make sure everyone knew.  

Listening to the pastor speak, I realized that a lot of the things I like about myself I share in common with Granny.  A friend once put it, "We are going to get around to the truth eventually, why not just get there now."  I've learned I have strong opinions and I pride myself on sharing them.  I want to be transparent and let others know what I'm thinking.  I'm fiercely protective of those I call "my own."  I'd like to think that I've learned to be a little tough myself along the way.

We have a big family....there are seven children still living, sixteen grandchildren, twenty-one great grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.  They organized us for the funeral by allowing the children and their spouses to process in and sit towards the front, the grandkids were together, etc.  While it started out feeling a little weird not to be with our parents, it wound up making us feel like one unit.  One clan, the Roberson family.  While some have different last names now, we are the Robersons.  And as I sat there, I was overwhelmed thinking, "I love these people.  I really love these people."  

We are not often all in the same room so it was funny how overwhelmingly we all look alike as we gathered as a large group.  We all have a little of Granny's orneriness in us, but we are there for each other.  As a family, we have struggled through difficult times together but no matter what, we have stood by each other in our times of crisis. We've visited hospitals as cousins struggled in a fight for their lives, we've rebuilt homes after hurricanes have knocked them down, we've stood by each other and loved each other unconditionally no matter what we may have done.  We know how to celebrate with each other.  We could rent out my aunts and uncles to make wedding receptions more lively because they know how to cut loose and have fun!  We are funny and we love to laugh and tell stories.  It's even better if the stories are on each other.  

As I sat there in my pew, I remembered jumping on the trampoline at my cousins Wendy and Eric's house.  I remember how cool I thought my Aunt Fay was because she is so crafty!  I simply adore my Aunt Becky.  I remember going exploring in the woods with my cousins Nikki and Will and us scaring ourselves silly.  I remember looking forward to getting Nikki's hand-me-downs because she was way cooler than I ever thought I could be growing up.  I remember all of us cousins walking to the gas station from Granny's on Easter and getting bubble gum eggs.  I remember camping out in my Aunt Cindy's back yard out on Hatteras and the amazing fresh seafood my Uncle Joey always brought to our family get togethers.  I remember all of us playing bingo and our crazy Christmas gift exchange and all of us getting feisty with one another...because it's in our DNA.  

With family, it's easy to just take one another for granted.  But these are special people.  I'm so glad my life is intwined with theirs.  I'm glad to be part of our Roberson clan.

Living in Cages

This is my dog Sophie.  I have had her for two and a half months.  She is six years old but was a breeder dog and so has had no people interaction.  She's lived her entire life in a crate.  We've made a lot of progress but we still have a long way to go before she is behaving like a "normal" dog.  One of her quirks is that she loves her crate more than anything else.  She could have the entire run of the house, but she runs right to her crate in the kitchen when we come into the house.  She has this really soft fluffy bed that I keep nearby the crate.  We use it when we travel or when I make her hang out with me in the living room.  Sometimes she will run to the fluffy bed, but mostly she just runs to the crate.  It is what she knows and so it is where she feels the safest.  It doesn't matter how uncomfortable it is, it is what she knows.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately as it relates to people as well.  The truth is that many of us have cages that we always run to.  It may be the pain of a difficult decision, something awful that has happened to us or someone we love, a relationship we are in, or just a piece of our identity that we cannot give up for something healthier.  I do not mean to diminish any difficult experience of life.  Sometimes the blows of life really knock us down and force us into "cage like" experiences.

The problem is that after awhile, the cage begins to serve us.  It may be difficult there, but at least it is something we know.  If we really just committed to the decision, let go of the pain, moved on with our lives, etc. we would have to finally let go of the last piece of something we know.  In a way we often cannot explain, the cage becomes comfortable for us.  Without it, we will have to move on with our lives and so, as much courage as it takes to really face pain, it takes even more courage to move on from it.  It takes tremendous amounts of courage to leave the cage! We know ourselves dealing with the pain, and without the pain and anxiety we would have to move forward.  We have the opportunity to fail if we move forward.  What if we cannot do it?  What if the pain is too much?  What if we can't live with the decision we made?  What if we just aren't good enough at living life and fail miserably outside of our cage?  What if we are truly happy?  What if succeed?  Sometimes the positive is just as scary as the negative.

Where do you need an extra dose of courage?  What's your cage?  What is holding you back from living the rest of your life just as God intended?

Sacred Places

This Saturday morning I am starting my day sitting in a rocking chair at ridgecrest conference center. The morning is cool and I have a great cup of coffee. This is my sacred place.

For those who don't know Ridgecrest, it is a Baptist owned conference center in the mountains of North Carolina. We would come here every year for youth camp when I was a teenager and then came in college every year on this weekend for our annual Baptist Student Union Fall Convention. That is what brings me here this weekend...of course now I am a campus minister and not a student.

There is this long porch that has about thirty rocking chairs that overlook the mountains. As a youth this was one of the cool places to hang out and a lot of memories were made in these rocking chairs.

But this place, ridgecrest, is also where I have made all of my major decisions in life. This is where I hear God speak. I did not set out to make all of these decisions and life commitments here, it just happened that way. And now when I arrive through the gates, I immediately feel God's presence. I just feel at peace.

We all have those sacred places...yours might now seem so sacred to anyone else but you know it is the place where you can feel the most honest and at peace. It is a place where all becomes clear and God breaks in in ways you would not expect. It is a place where you remember what has been and you see the direction for the future.

As we start this new season of fall, why not find some time to spend in your sacred place, or maybe make a new one? You never know what can happen there.