Last week, one of our students stopped by my office while he was on campus. This academic year has been a LOT, and we have learned many things about faith and community, about online learning and worship. But, it has also been plain old sad. We miss each other. So, when Yancy stopped in toContinue reading “Saying Yes to the Warmest of Welcomes”
Author Archives: jshimota
Scattery-ness Needs More Time
Good Friday is a holiday where I work. I suppose that is true every year, but my first Good Friday working for Lenoir Rhyne University was about a month into the pandemic. Every last thing was weird, and I was distracted in ways I’ve never experienced, so I guess I didn’t really notice or rememberContinue reading “Scattery-ness Needs More Time”
Stress Reduction
If you don’t want to read about large breasts as a medical condition, keep scrolling. If you do want to read about large breasts as a medical condition because you think it is sexy, keep scrolling. If you’ve known Sage since she was a little girl, and it makes you uncomfortable to read about herContinue reading “Stress Reduction”
It’s okay to talk about poop, especially if it keeps you alive.
We are currently working on normalizing things in our public lives. There are intentions to normalize mental health care; people are talking about their diagnoses, therapy, medications. We are normalizing talking about trauma (when it is safe to do so), rather than whispering about it, like it is something of which to be ashamed. BreastContinue reading “It’s okay to talk about poop, especially if it keeps you alive.”
#NoPlasticsForLent
I’m a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and many of us have taken on the Lenten discipline of fasting from single-use plastics. I used to be a teacher, and there’s a teaching method called frontloading we could use here. Frontloading is that thing your teacher did when, before you read aContinue reading “#NoPlasticsForLent”
Where Two or More…
Today, as two first-year students and two staff members gathered for evening prayer (our pattern for Lent), I named something I recognized. Besides the student who had planned and was leading the service, our organist, and me, who was the cantor, one student came to prayer this evening. It has been raining for what IContinue reading “Where Two or More…”
Home
I think I need to let you in. There are parts of this that are a little too much, and I never really know how much to share…but then, I remember how healing it is to have company in pain and joy and wondering. So, maybe you’ll join me. Early this morning, my generous daughterContinue reading “Home”
On Healthy Leave-taking
As I prepare to leave my first call, I am desperate to do it faithfully. In the ELCA, there are rules in place for every pastor who leaves every congregational call, and those rules all really boil down to one thing: You are no longer the pastor of that congregation, and God is calling someone else toContinue reading “On Healthy Leave-taking”
Back Down the Mountain
Not quite 100 of us gathered at Lutheridge this weekend for the Create In Me retreat. Not quite 10 of us were men. This blog is about women. As I schlepped my stuff to my car this morning, I met a woman doing the same. She shook her head a bit and said, “This isContinue reading “Back Down the Mountain”
Evolving Responsibility
~ make yourself at my home, tell me where you been ~ Flo Rida Many months ago, I registered for a conference led by Rachel Held Evans and Sarah Bessey at a beautiful conference center in the Blue Ridge Mountains. My wonderful congregation affords me a week for continuing education each year, and I knewContinue reading “Evolving Responsibility”
Be Gentle With You 