Meg Haden, City Church's Director of Women's Ministry, shares her thoughts on Fall and the importance of rest --and gives us a preview of what to expect at this weekend's women's seminar where Paige brown will teach on the highs and lows of faith, as told through the story of Elijah.

By now you have probably heard about Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to limit (to a mere sixteen ounces) the size of soda sold by vendors within New York City. The proposal has all sorts of implications for politics and for public health. But I’ve been thinking about this soda ban from the standpoint of desire.

Maybe ordinary life isn't ordinary after all.

In my previous posts, I introduced the Church season of Lent as the preparatory time leading up to the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection at Easter. Easter Sunday is now only two weeks away. However, our minds are more likely turned to upcoming events of the secular calendar: Spring Break, April Fools’ Day, the Masters. Because media and merchandisers champion and manipulate our calendars for their priorities, I’ve been forcing myself to think about Easter Week (aka Holy Week). I want to encourage you to, as well.

Every year as Christmas draws near I hear bah-humbug arguments insisting that the Church’s Christmas celebration is non-historical. It’s just a selling out, they say, concocted to compete with pagan winter festivals. Well, it’s time to bah-humbug the bah-humbugs.

Thirteen summers ago, I packed up my college dorm room only to unpack in another rather Spartan apartment near my graduate school of choice. Meanwhile, the roommate with whom I exchanged goodbyes headed off to Westport, Connecticut to work at a financial company called Bridgewater Associates. We’ve stayed in touch as our lives have developed and as our families have grown. This weekend I picked up the New Yorker and saw an article about Bridgewater. It got me thinking about “the world’s biggest hedge fund” where my college roommate works and its corporate culture.

If I were more savvy to the Internets, I would have posted this last week to coincide with July 4th. But my reflections are slow and it takes awhile for thoughts to form. You see, over the last week, I’ve been thinking about finales.

Our kids love swimming pools. They splash contentedly for hours in heavily-chlorinated water. I, too, am fond of swimming, but my real love is sitting in the sun and reading. Therefore, I place great value on my kids ability to floating without my immediate physical presence—whether through their own prowess or through the use of artificial floatation. Our floatation device of choice is water wings.

Since Sunday, I’ve been second-guessing the sermon I gave on Mother's Day. As I said in that very sermon, ‘Mother's Day is an impossible day.” One of the reasons it’s an impossible day is because it unavoidably calls attention to our differences. I’ve been thinking about those differences.