Presby-Musings

Among the many keepsakes of mine that my mom held on to for years was my very first driver's license.  It now resides in a drawer near my desk at home, and occasionally I'll catch a glimpse of it.   I barely resemble the kid in that 33-year-old photo.  He had a defined chin and a nice thin neck.  He had a full head of hair, to boot.   Honestly, I can't even remember what I was thinking when that photo was taken.  I do remember the feeling of freedom I felt when I took my parent's car out for my first solo drive later that day, though.   Many years ago, I read this John Updike short story entitled "The Happiest I've Been."  At the end of the story, the young narrator finds himself driving away from his rural Pennsylvania home to the big city of Pittsburgh, where he's attending college.  The young man is filled with a sense of joy as he approaches the tunnels leading into the city.   As he drives, the young ma...

I read a wonderful poem by Sara Teasdale this morning entitled "The Answer."  It was one of those things that you read, and you know that something changed in you for reading it.   In fact, I felt a holy tremor through me, as I read and re-read the last few lines.   Here, read it for yourself and see what you think:  When I go back to earth and all my joyous body Puts off the red and white  That once had been so proud,  If men should pass above  With false and feeble pity,  My dust will find a voice  To answer them aloud:  "Be still, I am content,  Take back your poor compassion!-- Joy was a flame in me Too steady to destroy.  Lithe as a bending reed  Loving the storm that sways her-- I found more joy in sorrow  Than you could find in joy."  The speaker in the poem reflects on her death, and the fierce sense of joy that she has felt in life--all of her life, even the savag...

At the beginning of this Advent season, I strung lights all around the front of my house.   I'm fairly certain that all told there's several thousand lights in and around my house and Christmas tree.  It's a Herculean task that always makes me wonder in the moment why I am doing so much.   But when I turn on the lights each night, I know in an instant the reason why we went to so much trouble to make our house so festive:  It brings joy to my family, and to all who see it.   We learn so much about God from these kinds of feelings--what I like to think are memories of the Divine imprinted into our DNA.  And the story of the gift of the Christ child evokes those joyful memories in all of us.   Through Jesus, God shows us just how far he is willing to go to show His great love for us. Through Jesus, God reveals His true intentions, His true heart for all of Creation.  Through Jesus, God shows God's love for the world....

It snowed in Texas yesterday--a real snow that came down in big wet flakes that actually stuck.   I happened to be making a grocery run when it started to snow really hard.  As I made my way to the entrance to the store, everyone I encountered had a surprised and joyous look on their face.   At one point in the evening my boys were having a snowball fight with the neighbor kids down the street.  I stood on the steps watching the snow fall and could hear them shrieking for joy.   I've lived in places where it snowed more than once every few years.  But this particular little snowstorm in Texas ranks up there with the most memorable in my life--mostly because it was so surprising.   This Advent season I have been reading through the book of Revelation from the New Testament. It's a difficult book to decipher with all of its first century references, and strange images.   But what I love about Revelation is that ...

The World Happiness Report for 2017 recently reported it's findings with some sobering news for those of us living in the United States.   According to this extensive report, the U.S. continues to slip down the list of the "happiest" countries in the world.  In 2007 the U.S. was ranked 3rd.  It has since slipped to 19th for a variety of reasons.     The news in the U.S. isn't good lately.  We have seen the loss of civility in public discourse.  Greed rules the day in business, running roughshod over the greater good.  The poor get poorer, the wealthy have great gain, but are largely miserable.   We have so much, but none of it is bringing us the happiness we long for.   Interestingly, the ability or desire to be generous is one of the criteria that is crucial in determining a person's happiness index.  The people who report the highest levels of happiness, according to the Happiness Report, also report...

Yesterday was a hard day.  I had to write my mother's obituary.  I haven't sent it to anyone yet, but it's written.   I sorted through hundreds of photos to find just the right ones to use for a slideshow being created by a friend for my mom's memorial.   There were moments yesterday when it felt like I was sleepwalking.   And then we were reminded in the middle of everything that my son had a band concert in the evening.    So we all went to see him perform--all of us that are left.   My mom never missed one of Jackson's concerts if she could help it, and her absence was deeply felt.   Still, we piled tiredly into the car, arrived a bit late and had to search for a seat in the gymnasium bleachers.  When the music began, however, we got lost in it.  We felt joy again.  I heard the notes my son had been practicing for weeks joined together with all of the notes from all of his bandmates---...

In 1654, the famed mathematician, Blaise Pascal had a profoundly mystical, and spiritually uplifting experience one night from 10:30PM until 12:30AM.  How do we know this?  He wrote it down on a piece of paper that he later sewed into the lining of his coat.   We can only surmise that the reason he did this was to preserve it and keep it somewhere close to his heart.  It was only after his death that the paper with his words from that night were discovered.   His note began: " The Year of grace 1654...  From about ten-thirty in the evening to about half an hour after  Midnight...  Fire."   Pascal continued his note by writing: " I separated myself from [Jesus]; I fled him, renounced him,  Crucified him.  May I never be separated from him!"  And then finally this: " Total submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.  Eternally in joy for a day of trial on earth." I imagine Pascal sitting at a small seventeent...

I've heard it said that you don't know who you really are until you have to go through a crisis. Or, to put it another way, it's when your character is tested that you discover if you have any.   I've been reflecting a lot lately on how all of the things that are happening in my life (moving twice in less than four months, chief among those) have tested my character and what they've revealed about me.  I'm not sure I've done all that well.  I can't say that I've exactly been filled with the joy of the Lord through everything. It's probably showed more than a time or two, I'm afraid.     Those of us who call ourselves Christians constantly need to be reevaluating what the people around us experience when they encounter us.  Do they experience the joy of the Lord when they are around us, or something else?   In his novel Godric , Frederick Buchener wrote about a monk named Elric who prayed and sang about God's love and the joy of...

Shepherd of the Hills family…  Can I just tell you that it is nothing short of incredible to be standing here today with you all?  It’s been a challenging, crazy-wonderful journey to get here.  God has been in the midst of all of it—in amazing and mind-blowing ways.   The love that you have already shown to us, the way you’ve welcomed our family… it’s humbling and awesome, and fills us with such incredible hope for our future together.  I’ve heard it said that you can tell a lot about a congregation by the way it welcomes a new pastor.  Well, I have to tell you that if the way you’ve welcomed us in any indication of your character, goodness, energy, light and life—we are in for an incredible ride together.   I can't thank everyone enough for all of the kind words of welcome, the dinners that so many of you have been bringing, the cookies, goodies and so much more.  We needed the love after our road trip here, to be honest.  Don't ever ...

Pulitzer prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson coined a phrase to describe our current culture that absolutely floored me.   In The Givenness of Things , a collection of her essays, Robinson touched on the way in which our culture has become less and less about "equipping and refining thought," and more about "creating and mastering technologies." Then she said this:  [T]he spirit of the times is one of joyless urgency..."   That phrase-- joyless urgency-- struck me pretty hard.  I have spent a great deal of time in airports of late, and have had an opportunity to do one of my favorite things at the airport:  people watch.  And I have to tell you, I have seen more than my fair share of joyless urgency.  What I've noticed is that every single airport I've been to over the past year (some twenty-plus different ones, by my count) has a few things in common with almost every other airport.  First, most of the people I saw were either anxiou...

This week we are going to be launching a short two-part sermon series entitled, "God Never Said That."  We are going to be exploring two of the most misquoted, misunderstood statements about God that are actually not biblical, but  sound  biblical.  Have you ever had one of those moments when you're going through a tough time, or struggling with a decision to make and someone says something church-y to you... and it sounds like it came from the Bible, perhaps.  Something like, "When God closes a door, he opens a window."  Or "God works all things together for good."  Or "God just wants you to be happy."  Or "God doesn't give you more than you can handle."   There's more like these, honestly. And none of them are in the Bible exactly the way that they are typically used.  Depending on what is happening in your life, these misquotes can either make you feel a lot worse if you are already feeling bad, or they can justify...

We are at the end of a sermon series for the month of May, entitled Jesus and We.  The basic idea behind this series is pretty simple.  We're wrestling with what it means to be a community of faith that lives into the hope of the Resurrection.  Christianity in America has become decidedly self-centered.  Christian book stores are filled with all kinds of self-help books on all of the things you can do to become a better Christian.  Far too many churches in America espouse a Jesus and Me kind of theology.   But what we know from Scripture, from the teachings of Jesus and from experience itself is that it's not all about Jesus and Me.  The Church is about Jesus and We.  Church is more than just a place you go, it's who we are.   Today we're going to be concluding our sermon series with a sermon entitled, "Anything Short of Sin," and we're going to be talking about what it means to do whatever it takes to reach people with the Good New...

Throughout my career as a pastor, I've had occasion to counsel and provide pastoral care to people in some of the worst circumstances of their lives.   I've sat at the bedside of scores of people who were taking their last breaths.  I've knelt beside grieving spouses who have lost their partners.  On at least two occasions I've had to try to help a family make sense of a loved one's suicide.   There's one thing that I know for sure after all of those experiences:  In the midst of struggle, strife, tragedy and trial, the difference between people who are filled with hope and joy and those who aren't is dramatic and distinct.   Recently, I met with a woman who tells me every time I meet her, "I wish I was dead."  She is well into her 90's and in relatively good health and sound mind for her age.  Yet, she lives each day filled with dread and anxiety, never experiencing light and peace.   Contrast this woman's existence with one o...

"What was said to the rose that made it open was said to me here in my chest...Whatever put eloquence in language, that's happening here." - Rumi, 13th century poet Almost every evening, my wife and I will take our little dog for a long walk on the golf course near our house.  As a treat, we usually let him off his leash so he can run free for a bit.  Typically, we'll just keep walking and he kind of runs around us--sometimes ahead, sometimes behind.   Our puppy never strays too far from us, but occasionally we'll have to call him to catch up.  When we do call him, he comes running as fast as his little legs will carry him, which is pretty fast.  He runs with joy--in love with how fast he can move, and the freedom he feels to be able to just cut loose and move.   When I see our little dog run like this it makes me smile.  No matter how hard my day has been, no matter how long the hours leading up to that moment... it amazes me to see how much ...