So, this is the week approaching Mother’s Day.  I am highly aware that Mother’s Day is both extremely joyful for some and extremely distressing for others (can’t have kids, lost a child, lost a special mother…).  It is inspiring and painful, full of joy and grief.  But Mother’s Day is less a celebration for me of mother’s as much as women who have been significant in our lives, whose fruit may be children, may be the compassion given to poor children, may be their life of righteous and faithful living, may be their gentle interactions that grounded faithful fellowship, or may be mentoring other children.

This week I want to acknowledge these things.  My goal this week is to blog every day  through this week talking about important women in my life for whom I am fruit of lives being laid down.  One a day, which is pretty easy for me.  As I write, remember that these are in no particular order and will represent all kinds of laying down a life, from a mother to a friend or stranger.

So, up first?  How can I not bring attention to Cyndi Pardee?  When I began attending my first Church of Christ, I attended the youth group at Arlington Church of Christ and even joined Bible Bowl, where I met this wonderful young man named Cambry and his mother Cyndi.  Cyndi was special in that she had a wonderfully open presence, a presence that invited trust in young kids and embraced difference and beauty in its many ways.  She had two boys and seemed so down to earth because she laughed and had fun.  Sometimes she made a fool of herself and didn’t mind.  She wouldn’t be afraid to claim her mistakes.  And she had a cool Toyota Previa minivan in which the middle row of seats could turn and face the back row, so four or five kids could actually sit looking at one another on superfun Bible Bowl roadtrips from Riverside to San Francisco or Las Cruces or Phoenix.  That van was pretty solid.

But that is beside the point.  She had a way of teaching Scripture and making Scripture come alive in Bible Bowl.  Scripture seemed cool because she cherished it.  But I will tell you the biggest reason (aside from being the mother of Cambry, one of my bestest friends, and a true man-crush if I were allowed to have them) that I include her.  She welcomed me.  Whenever I first met her, and when we were in Bible Bowl and I wasn’t a clear member of the church yet, and when I still visit her house when Cambry is home, I feel welcomed.  I feel genuinely like I am a friend of hers, and that she wants me to know that I am special.  That is true fruit.  That welcome is what I try to extend to others in my job as a chaplain, my role at a church that needs/wants to grow, and my friendships.  Welcome is a part of my life because I recognized it in her and her son, and it was so significant that I wanted to reflect that to others in gratitude.  That is fruit from laying down one’s life.  Thank you Cyndi!  May God bless you and all those you touch!