Presby-Musings

The hiddenness of God is often a challenge to our faith.   Philip Yancey once wrote, "If we insist on visible proofs from God, we may well prepare the way for a permanent state of disappointment."   I find that statement a bit pessimistic.  I feel like that miracles are all around us all of the time--we just aren't paying attention.   George Bernard Shaw once wrote: "Creation is a miracle of daily recurrence. 'A miracle a minute' would not be a bad slogan for God." In the weeks leading up to my mom's passing, I had been praying fervently for God to miraculously "show up," and in a way, perhaps God did.   When my parents moved into the house we all share in Texas, my mom fell in love with the idea of having multiple bird feeders in our back yard so she could bird-watch.   We positioned a variety of bird houses and bird feeders across from her living room windows where she could easily see them.  Her favorite visito...

Some years ago, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross put forward the notion that there are five stages to grief that virtually all people who have suffered loss go through as they grieve.  The five stages are:  Denial, Bargaining, Anger, Depression and Acceptance.   What I have learned over the years is that those five stages might very well exist, but it's a crock that we all feel them the same way, and in the same sequence.   My mom passed away two days ago at the age of 73.  Her beautiful, sweet, grace-filled life ended far too son.    I have to be honest.  I am feeling more than my fair share of anger right about now.   I think I skipped on by the first two stage of grief and went straight to being ticked off.  I'm not exactly mad because I think God caused my mom to die.  I have never believed that God worked that way, and I am not about to start now.   I also don't believe that God wanted Mom to be in ...

This week the inspiration for our Daily Devotions will be drawn from the sermon that I preached this past Sunday for All Saints' Day--a sermon on grief, loss, hope, life, heaven, Heaven and resurrection. If you would like to read the transcript of that sermon, you can click  HERE .  The Scripture that we used as our guide was John chapter 11--the story of Jesus raising of Lazarus from the dead.   Today is my cousin Freddy's birthday.  He would have been 46 years old today, had he not passed away this past summer.  At his funeral some months ago, the weight of his passing landed on me not long before I was supposed to eulogize him.  Shortly before the service began, I was standing before his casket, gazing down at him.   Time had not been kind to him, and he looked very little like the young man he'd once been. But then again, neither did I.  The passing of time, the memories, the brevity of life---all of it hit me in the chest and I ...