Lyfting Me Up

“Then Simon Peter came, following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in the place by the head”.

Ok, it’s Easter weekend and I will be on a ship headed to Europe. I have no idea if there will be services on the ship… let alone the content and participants. So, if I were asked to preach this is where I would go. Humor me please, as I am still a pastor in search of a congregation, and you my beloved readers are it.

My retirement has not come easy. My first failed attempt at retirement in 2015 led me to nearly 6,000 Lyft rides. In 2017 I went up to Greeley First Christian Church to help them out for a few months that turned into over six years. My “real retirement” began July 1, 2024 a day before my 75th birthday. The subtle cloud of grief and change seeped into my life. Somewhere in those early months I began to recognize I was really struggling. I said to myself “Mark if someone came into your office and shared with you what is going on with you, what would you say?” The answer came quickly – You probably need to get into therapy…physician heal thyself – not!”

I went to my PCP and she gave me a Kaiser referral list. Shopping for a therapist is a crapshoot. I left messages at a few. I took the first one who called me back. Bingo, she has been great. It has been a journey of healing and reimagining my purpose and identify. Somewhere on the Pacific Ocean I had an epiphany. I was sharing with someone about my Lyft driving. “I had only ONE main job and that was to get a stranger safely from point A to point B. Whatever happened on the ride was grace…or not”. Later that day it hit me “Mark, you need to approach every day like you are driving for Lyft – one adventure at a time”.

I processed with my therapist about all of the various conversations and opportunities I have been having. There are a handful of people for whom I am pastor/coach/friend. Today’s Easter sermon is about one of them. I do this with their permission and anonymity.

For nearly three years we have shared about alcoholism… not theirs but many around them. The reality of growing up with a mother whose father’s alcoholism deeply affected them began to sink in. It was as if the alcoholic grandpa lived in the house. This awareness did not come quickly or easily. They themselves found alcoholics to connect with although they are not. The cost has been high.

In the past few months their going to Al-Anon has opened a pathway to healing and insight. The other day we were having a phone call about this journey, which has taken a long time to get to. I suggested that they look at the roles that families take on in alcoholic homes. HOME RUN!!! “It’s all beginning to make sense”. The preacher in me took over as this person is active in a church they love.

“It’s sort of like when Peter and crew showed up at the tomb and what they found were burial clothes left behind. Jesus did not need them anymore. Your recovery as you move from here is leaving behind the things that wrapped you up”. They began a small litany of “stuff” no longer useful. I shared I am having to do the same thing in my redeployment as a freelance pastor to the world. I try to be present wherever I am”.

“Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” – Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians 3:13-14.

Give your life’s energy to those things worthy of your life. You don’t have to stay in your funeral suit. Put on your Easter Duds!!!

Onward and Upward,

Mark