Presby-Musings

Scripture: “Bear fruit worthy of repentance.” — Matthew 3:8 When I was a freshman in high school, I decided I didn't want to participate in a particular P.E. unit, so I didn't "dress out" for a few periods during the semester.   This meant that I didn't don the required shorts and tee shirt for the class, and sat on the field with other people who didn't dress out either.   The teacher didn't say much about it, so I decided it wasn't a big deal, until I received my progress report and discovered that I had an "F" in the class for that grading period.   I was also informed that I was ineligible to play basketball (I was a starter) until my grade met the passing standard.  I pleaded, I begged, I offered to do manual labor to earn extra credit, but to no avail.   My teacher told me that if I was genuinely sorry, I would need to show that I'd learned my lesson.  For the next three weeks, I dutifully dressed out for P.E., threw myself int...

Scripture: “He knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” — Psalm 103:14 After the end of the COVID pandemic, I was absolutely burned out and refused to admit it.  I'd created a story about myself that had no room for failure, burnout, or any weariness when it came to doing my job. Other pastors got burned out, but not me.   I was also going through some absolutely gut-wrenching personal issues on top of everything else.  My marriage was in trouble, and I didn't know what to do to save it.  I was drained of energy, suffering from depression, and finally things broke inside.   I knew that if I didn't take some significant time off, I probably wouldn't make it.  I decided the best thing for me to do was take a sabbatical, which I'd never done during my time as a pastor.   For the first two months of my three-month sabbatical, I went for days without even thinking about church or the future.  I wondered if I would ever go bac...

  Scripture: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” — Galatians 6:9 I wish there were quicker ways to become more spiritually mature.  Despite the many self-help Christian books available for our consumption, the hard truth is that there is no easy path to spiritual growth.   God knows I've tried to find an easier way, but all my searching has only brought me butkis.  Case in point, I've longed for greater patience, to rely more on God, to trust that there is a greater purpose at work in my life, to be free from attachments, and a host of other virtues.  I've prayed for these things, desired them, sought them, and instead what I got was a season of uncertainty, waiting, and silence.   But all the while I've been in the wilderness, I've been slowly finding that all of these virtues have taken hold in some fashion in my life.   The path has not been easy, but I'm gro...

Grace and peace to you all on this Thanksgiving Day. Every year, I’m reminded that Thanksgiving, as beloved and longstanding as it feels, wasn’t made a national holiday until 1863, right in the middle of the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln—surrounded by division, grief, and fear—called the nation to pause on the final Thursday of November to give thanks. Decades later, in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week during the Great Depression to try to stimulate the economy; after public outcry, he finally settled on the fourth Thursday in November in 1941. Even then, people worried about Thanksgiving becoming a prelude to shopping. Some things, it seems, don’t change. But as I revisited Lincoln’s original proclamation, one sentence leapt off the page. Lincoln urged Americans to ask God to “commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” One hundred sixty years later, his...

  Scripture: “Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” — Matthew 6:4 When I was a new pastor, I used to gather with a small cadre of fellow Presbyterian ministers in the area where I served in Florida.  We would get together once a month for lunch and general chit-chat, and being new to my role, I hoped to learn as much as I could from the others.  There was one guy that I struggled to connect with, though.  He loved to brag.  He boasted about the size of his congregation, how many people were in worship, and how much money they had. He also believed that no one else should be preaching at his church except him (I felt pity for his associate pastor), and he gave the clear impression that he was the only person in his church building with any good ideas.  As a brand-new, impressionable pastor, I quickly learned that sometimes a poor example could be a good example.   I would like to say that I have never let pride sneak i...

  Scripture: “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” — Luke 5:16 Some years ago, when I was a pastor in Florida, I attended a ministry conference in Chicago, in the middle of February.  I knew what I was getting into weather-wise, having lived in Chicago for 4 years, and I knew the conference was going to be amazing, so I was undeterred.    I was in the middle of a day-long workshop on preaching when my cell phone began to blow up with one of my elders trying to reach me.  He kept calling and texting incessantly, so I finally stepped outside to call him back.  He didn't even say hello.  Instead, he asked me angrily, "Are you really at a conference?! I can't believe you would go to a conference in February!"  I calmly told him that many conferences for pastors take place in February, after Christmas and before Easter.   "I think it's irresponsible to leave town when all of our winter members are returning from up North...