{"id":315,"date":"2010-01-31T17:41:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-31T17:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dhr.tiltedchair.co\/2010\/01\/31\/praise-and-joy-i-think\/"},"modified":"2010-01-31T17:41:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-31T17:41:00","slug":"praise-and-joy-i-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dhr.tiltedchair.co\/?p=315","title":{"rendered":"Praise and Joy (I think)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carnival<\/a> relies on volunteer clergy to hold Sunday services, and none were forthcoming for our cruise, so we decided to have a little service on our own.<\/p>\n

The group services lady was most accommodating and set us up for Sunday morning at 10:00 in the Neon Bar.  It has a piano to accompany our songs.<\/p>\n

So the venue was a bit out of the ordinary but Anita and I did the best we could, singing “This Little Light of Mine” and readings from Corinthians.  We talked about the meaning of the scriptures (I almost fell off my bar stool, a novel thing to happen while leading devotions).  Then a few of the Ranchers wanted to pray.  The prayers mostly spoke to their love for their parents and their history with the Ranch, sometimes from infancy.<\/p>\n

It’s hard work to understand the feelings underlying their words, true of everybody of course, but especially in the case of the Ranchers.  I believe our calling, however, is to serve as witnesses and interpreters of their deep longings.<\/p>\n

All in all things got pretty weepy.  Emotions seem to bring forth tears, even if they are expressing joyful feelings such as a deep love and appreciation for their parents, as Mark did, or Sterling’s love for Kelly and their hope to marry.  Anita and I talked later and decided their tendency to cry is in response to the strength of the emotion itself, and not whether it was what we think of as a sad or happy emotion to begin with.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, after the service everyone was happy and ready to party away our last day on the Ecstasy.<\/a><\/em>  Another few good meals, some time in the hot tub, another round of karaoke, and more dancing!<\/em><\/p>\n

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from our Ranchers, it’s this: while we have the legs and the breath to do it, it is a good thing to dance, at all times and in all places.  <\/p>\n

And I can think of no better way to show gratitude for the life I’ve been given, and all the blessings of this day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carnival relies on volunteer clergy to hold Sunday services, and none were forthcoming for our cruise, so we decided to have a little service on our own. The group services lady was most accommodating and set us up for Sunday morning at 10:00 in the Neon Bar.  It has a piano to accompany our songs.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhr.tiltedchair.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhr.tiltedchair.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhr.tiltedchair.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhr.tiltedchair.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhr.tiltedchair.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dhr.tiltedchair.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhr.tiltedchair.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhr.tiltedchair.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhr.tiltedchair.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}