Here I am sitting at the High Street Diner in Pottstown, PA. I have just finished eating something that passes for breakfast in this restaurant, and I have also reviewed my sermon for the fourth or fifth time this morning. Unfortunately for me, it is now only 7:00 am. I severely overestimated the time I would need to eat and edit, and now I have over an hour until the first of today’s three worship services.
So what to do. I know, I’ll write a blog post. I’ll wax poetic about the beauty of the rising sun. I’ll talk about the graciousness of God and how God has always provided for me in my time of need. I’ll tell you how beautiful my daughter is, and how she is turning into a young woman before my eyes (she’ll be 14 next month!). Maybe I’lll even share with you a few of the many blessings I have had bestowed upon me, and not just by God, either.
What to say . . . in between stifiled yawns and swigs of “coffee,” if that is what one can call it. I know, I think I’ll just give a few thanks.
Today I am thankful:
. . . . . for my friends and housemates, the Jannottis. Living with Jim and Joy and their two daughters these past three plus years has been wonderful for me. Jim and family moved into the parsonage in July of 2003, and it did not come a moment too soon for me. I had just spent four of the loneliest years of my life following a separation (and subsequent divorce) from my wife. Now before I had been pretty much alone and on my own from the time I went away to college, but after six and a half years of marriage, as well as being integrated into a family, the years that followed the dissolution of my “wedded bliss” were far more lonesome than the the years that proceeded it. In addition to my renewing old friendships with Jim and Joy (we first met in Jersey in 1986), my daughter Desiree found two good friends in Amy and Kristin. Over the past few years, the three girls have become like sisters to each other. For all of this, I am thankful.
. . . . . for good people in my church family. I especially give thanks today for Dick and Sissy Spare. They have always made me feel welcome, and they have become like parents to me (and I mean that in a good way). Their humility of spirit and generosity always astounds me. I also thank God for Lisa Harner and her dedication to First Church and the Pottstown community. I know of no harder worker than Lisa, and I am so glad that she was able to go on a mission trip this past week and retrace with other volunteers and members of her family, the steps her father Harry took when he went to a workcamp this past February. Harry had only been at the work site for a few hours when he died suddenly. But as shocking as his death was to his family, friends and churches, it is still good to see that so many others have continued to do the work he loved to do so much.
. . . . . for small stirrings of life and hope in myself and in First Church. There are, of course, plenty of days when ministry and life get me down. But there seems to always come a moment or two in these down times where I feel the stirring of God’s Spirit in my life, and even in the church. For these moments I am deeply thankful, for they keep me going.
I could go on and on, but I won’t. I need to pay my bill and get to the church on time, having spent a good chunk of my free time thinking about what I might write here. I am sure it is disjointed and makes little sense to anyone but me, but here it is nonetheless.
I just thought you should know.
How anyone can sit in the High Street Diner and even eat, is so beyond me! The statement about eating something that actually passed for breakfast is yet another stretch of the imagination. I’ve been there when it was at it’s all-time best, but it is now July of 2008 and this poor diner has taken a major hit. The owner/leasee has managed to turn this place into the laughing stock of Pottstown & all diners. When he first took this place over, just a little more than a year ago, he claimed that it was his dream to one day own this very diner. Well, wake up Mr. Owner, beacause you have managed to turn a dream into a sheer nightmare almost over-night.I can remember when this place was Dempsey’s Diner. The people were lined up down the street to get in & get a seat. This was a time when they served great food and were known far & wide for their strawberry pie. Now the place is open 24 hrs. & you’re lucky if you can get a burger. They are constantly out of food & drinks. The food they do have is sometimes recycled, if you know what I mean! They have been shut down by the board of health & somehow fudged their way back to being open. There’s only one problem! The people of Pottstown are on to them & they never have any customer’s to speak of. Sure, they may get the occasional passer-by, but they only come once. They never seem to have any return visits. This diner has turned into a hangout for young kids who have nothing else to do, but hang out & it is a melting pot for illegals & homeless people. Not exactly where I would take my children or grandchildren. So won’t someone respectable please take this diner from him & live out it’s remaining years with dignity!!