Presby-Musings

We are often called to walk in darkness, where God leads us to that next step which is usually not clear, predictable, or controllable by the rational mind. - Richard Rohr  I can't stand not knowing where I am going.  It's rare these days that I find myself lost because I almost always use my smartphone to guide me.  But there are moments when the way is not clear even for the smartest of phones.  Just about every year a story emerges of some unlucky person who followed driving directions on their smartphone smack dab into a lake or off a disabled bridge.   The moral of the story almost always is: if they had been watching the signs, instead of trusting the directions on their phones, they would have avoided calamity. We often do the same thing when it comes to finding our way forward in life.  We think we have it figured out, and that we don't need any signs from God or any of God's outside influence to map our course.   Mo...

Yesterday I wrote about silences, and the rhythms they create in the song that is being sung over us by God.  I felt like I had stumbled upon an important and life-giving truth.   And then today the majority of my devotional and Scripture readings, the music I'm listening to, the poems I've read... they all speak of God's presence, and the depth of meaning behind God's silence.  I suppose you could call it a coincidence, but I'm going to choose not to dishonor the beauty of this feeling by relegating it to the realms of chance.   Instead, I prefer to think of it as God's sly and loving way of telling me I am  known.   I also prefer to see this a grace-filled invitation for me to embrace my uncertainty with confidence--the kind of confidence that comes when I surrender all my outcomes to the One who is the center of all things.  Bob Goff writes,  "What a shame it would be if we were waiting for God to  say ...

Years ago, I had a conflict with a church member and youth group volunteer who was spreading lies about me both in the church and in our community.  When the truth came out, and she knew that she had been exposed, she never returned to the church.   For several months, I did my best to try to arrange meetings, sent her emails, called and left voice messages on her phone and even sent her a written letter pleading with her to speak with me so we could be reconciled.  She never responded.   I eventually grew angry at her and stayed angry for a long time.  She'd done a lot of damage to my ministry and had done her best to divide our church.  Further, because of her unwillingness to work it out, the bad feelings between us simply festered.   I don't remember when exactly, but I eventually found myself feeling sorry for her.  Because of her shame over being caught in a lie, she'd lost her church family, her community suppor...