Rocka bye baby….

Clifton Fadiman said that, “Insomnia is a gross feeder.  It will nourish itself on any kind of thinking, including thinking about not thinking.”

Last night was one of my famous evenings of not sleeping. I have them fairly often so it really comes as no surprise to me. I wonder sometimes about the whole sleep thing. It really might be over rated. I am great on very little sleep, or at least I have learned to be. For all of that I would have paid to get to sleep last night but there was none or sale. So I did the natural thing, I watched TV.

This of course led to a situation whereby I dreamt about the “The Magic Bullet.” Imagine… a chopped onion in 10 seconds! WOW! Then there was the old programs, the sports news for the third and fourth times, the sad news of a world terribly broken and all kinds of trash, none of which helps me with sleep. So I got out of bed and I did some reading on the web. I figured  all of “the thinking bout not thinking” was not working so about doing some real thinking.

I found myself on the national churches web page at www.anglican.ca and from these to the youth page of the national church. Young people are impressive to me and they give me hope for the future of our church. On Monday past at our extended debate at Huron’s synod, some of the most articulate speakers were our youth. It bodes well for our church that our young people are seeking to find their way on this journey even when we are in the midst of debate. Our young people have also been a great witness to who we should be as church and how we should honour God in those around us.

On the Generations Page I discovered this creedal statement from the Diocese of Toronto’s Youth Synod. It reads as follows;

We believe in the God of Life, who creates and loves people, who acts in history

and who promises never to leave us alone.

We believe in Jesus of Nazareth, who is our brother, who wants not to be idolized but to be followed.

We believe that we dwell in the presence of the Holy Spirit; without her we are nothing; filled with her we are able to become creative, lively, and free.

We believe in the Church of Jesus Christ, a community where we find companions and courage for the struggles of life, where we grow in our understanding of the faith, through worship, prayer, nurture, and service.

We believe that God has a use for us in this time and place, that though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we are called to be instruments of God’s presence.

We believe in living, hoping, laughing, and enjoying the good of the earth;

We believe that people can change, and God keeps pulling us to life and to a new world of joy and peace. Amen.

I am impressed by the openness of this statement. I like the honesty expressed in a statement which would name Jesus of Nazareth to be one who has called us to follow his example. These young Anglicans have also reminded us that we are not along. The Holy Spirit allows us to be creative, to be lively and to be free. This means that we can seek to be guided by the Spirit in all things. It is true to say that God has a use for us – we are indeed called to be instruments of God’s peace and God’s presence. Most impressive in this statement to me was the bold statement that “people can change.” Our church today often forgets this basic fact and we resign ourselves to the idea that things must stay the same. But we do change; I know how much I have changed and hopefully continue to change.  God is calling us or to be more accurate, “pulling us to a new world of joy and peace” We must respond to that pull by doing all that we can to make a difference.

Today our youth from St. Mark’s along with other youth from across the deanery are en route to Pelee Island for the evening. They will rise from their night of camping and come back to the Mainland where they will bike from Kingsville to Windsor on the Greenway Trail.  Their efforts are to make a difference in the lives of children in Haiti. The enthusiasm that our young people display consistently to make  a difference in the world is a clear display that they are being pulled to “a new world of joy and of peace.”

I was going to see those kids off this morning – but alas, after reading the creedal statement above and after a couple of well placed prayers I did eventually fall off to sleep. I’m told that our St. Mark’s group got away safely and that they are enthusiastic about the fact that to date they have raised over $800 which means with the government tripling funds they have made a difference to the tune of over$2400. The good news is they will take pledges and sponsors after the fact. So if you wanted to help our youth help Haiti’s youth don’t hesitate to let us know and we will take your sponsors for them.

Well … I may have to take a nap before the hockey game this evening – but I am feeling pretty good!