Presby-Musings

Today would have been my parent's 50th wedding anniversary.   Some months ago, I wrote in my journal that I hoped we could keep my mom healthy enough to make it through the holidays--to spend one last Christmas with us, to celebrate my birthday with me one more time... and ultimately, I wanted her to live long enough to celebrate her 50th anniversary with my dad.   None of those things happened.   I miss her every day.  This week has been particularly hard for some reason.  I've been battling sadness and melancholy as I've drawn closer to this day---a milestone she was never destined to reach, despite my prayers and desires.   My mom would often joke, "Who gets married on Groundhog Day?"   She was right.  I suppose there are worse holidays to share your wedding anniversary with, but not many.  I can still picture her laughing about it with a wicked twinkle in her eye.   My mom lived easil...

Last week I had a rare opportunity.  I got the chance to take a photo of my 21 year-old son in the exact same spot, in the cloisters of the exact cathedral in the town of Cirencester, England where he stood eight years ago when he was barely 13 years old. Back then he was transfixed by the location because it was used in a scene from one of the first Harry Potter movies.   When he remembered where he was, I caught a glimpse of that 13 year-old boy in his eyes once again.  The fact is, nine years ago, he was a boy, but all of that has changed.  When I looked that the photo I took the other day I was reminded once again that he was a man.   He's been through a lot since that first photo was taken--grown up right in front me.  And I've changed some, too.  I guess you could say that I've grown up some as well.   All of those years ago, when we were in England I wrote about what it felt like to watch him grow up and to realize that he would on...

Being a parent is hard.  I'm discovering over time that no matter how old your kids are, you never stop wanting to help them, guide them, parent them as best you can.   Your relationship with them might change as they grow into adulthood, but your love for them, your desire for them to succeed never wavers.   And sometimes you wish that you could just live their lives for them, even though you know you can't.   I've learned so much about my relationship with God as I struggle though parenthood.  I try to teach my kids things that matter.  I try to keep them from making big mistakes, but when they do make mistakes, I try to be there for them to soften their landing when they fall.   Recently, I read a quote that struck me, and it has been sitting in the back of my mind ever since:   "Our problem is that we want to test God rather than trust him."   I probably test God a whole more than I would like to admit.  I also can make a re...

This is the third installment of the sermon series "Red: Understanding the Hard Sayings of Jesus"  As we've mentioned over the past couple of weeks, the title of this sermon series is drawn from the idea of "red letter editions" of the Bible, which contain all of the words of Jesus printed in red.  Most of those words of Jesus are amazing, inspiring, thrilling and challenging.   But some of these words are absolutely confounding.  We read them and they seem so completely out of character for Jesus, that we don't really know what to do with them.  So, most of us actually gloss over these "hard" saying, choosing to ignore them or relegate them to the back of our personal canon--the things in the Bible that we read.   For example, the passage that we are going to be taking a look at today is one of the most confusing, maddening sayings of Jesus that I could find.  It occurs in Luke chapter 14 when Jesus is talking about what it takes to truly f...