Presby-Musings

When I was a kid I used to think that if I could somehow be good enough in the eyes of God, that God would spare me from discomfort.   When I felt like I was about to suffer some calamity or punishment because of a mistake I'd made, I would start praying profusely that God would intervene.      I would seek to purify myself and my thoughts. confess my sins, apologizing for all the things I imagined God was displeased with, and then some.  My hope was that if I could just "get right" with God, that God would take pity on me and keep me from suffering.   This kind of belief system was destined to collapse under the weight of reality, as you can imagine. Even though there were occasions when it seemed as though my prayers got answered, there were as many or more occasions when I simply suffered.   Thankfully, I've come to a deeper understanding of the role that suffering and difficulties play in my life of faith.   ...

" If I knew of any way of escape [from pain] I would crawl through sewers to find it." - C.S. Lewis I've been considering the purpose of suffering lately.   It's the season for these kinds of reflections.  In these few days before Holy Week our thoughts can often turn toward the journey of Jesus into Jerusalem, and ultimately to the suffering, that journey brought him.   But I've also been considering the purpose of suffering in general as I read the news of the day--news of war, of violence, hopeless division, sin, and death.   My oldest boy called me on his way to school today to ask me if I'd heard the news on the latest bomb attacks here in Austin, TX.  The last attack happened just a few miles from our house, injuring two men severely.  He also shared another story he'd heard about a terrible murder-suicide in Florida.   I realize now that he wanted me to tell him something profound.  I didn't have anything pr...

The last few weeks have been pretty lousy.   The world around us seems to be going to hell in a hand basket.   My mom died.   A pipe broke under our house, which will cost a zillion dollars to fix.  Our car is in need of repair.   My oldest son's college tuition is due.   Our dog had a freak accident and dislocated his knee cap and needs surgery.   And on top of everything else that has been happening in my life--I caught a nasty cold.   I should not have been surprised at this considering the fact that my two youngest kids were deathly ill last week, but I thought I'd escaped unscathed.   Someone told me yesterday, "That sounds like a bad country song." I couldn't agree more.  Last week, during the class I am teaching on the book of Romans, I read out loud the following verse:   "...we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces persever...

Fredrick Buechener once wrote, "For people who don't believe in God, suffering can be understood simply as part of the way the world work.  For people who do believe in God, it must remain always a dark and awful mystery."   Since my mom's passing, I have been thinking deeply about suffering, and it's role in faith formation.   The Apostle Paul (who knew a little about suffering) wrote that:  "...suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope."  Today I re-read a passage of Scripture from 1 Peter chapter 2 that says this about suffering as a Christian:  This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step. So all that is well and good, right?  It makes sense.  And totally sounds like the kinds of things that are written by people...

A friend messaged me the other day with a question about all of the prayers that are being requested for people affected by the recent and impending disasters in the U.S. They wrote:  "All this 'prayer business' seems to be messed up and confusing - the disaster IS going to happen, so what exactly are we praying for?" Things are bad right now.  There are devastating fires in Montana, California, Oregon and Washington, flooding from Hurricane Harvey in Texas, and what appears to be a disaster-in-the-making as Hurricane Irma approaches Florida.   I don't know about you, but there have been more than a few times in my life when I have wondered what God was up to, and why God appeared to do absolutely nothing in the presence of evil and destruction in the world.  And I have often wondered what difference my prayers made at all.   But what I have come to understand is that while God does not cause all things, God is present in all things.  And bec...

I read once that the great architects are always intentional about the placement of windows in the buildings they design, but not always for the reasons you might think.  Designers ultimately want to create experiences, and sometimes a wall of windows looking out over a beautiful view might seem like a way to do just that.  But when a view is discreetly framed, it can enhance the experience by narrowing the focus.  You see, a broader view through lots of windows might give you more of what you think you want, but it also might distract you from what really matters, and your experience would be diminished.   Urban designer Matthew Fredrick writes,  "As a designer, work to carefully shape, size and place windows such that they are specific to the views and experiences they address."  Fredrick's quote got me thinking about recent conversations I have been having with friends and church members about the problem of pain.   When things are not...

I've had more than one opportunity lately to offer advice and guidance to friends and family, who are going through difficult seasons.  Some have lost loved ones, others are going through health crisis, and still others are dealing with doubts and fears.   What advice I have to give, I’ve shared.  When guidance was needed, I’ve done my best to give it.  But in the end, nothing I can say will completely heal the wounds that come from loss, pain and suffering.   There's no way around suffering and struggle, sadly.  When it comes, you can't avoid it, you just have to journey through it.   The great playwright Tennessee Williams once wrote, "Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you'll know you're dead."   At this point, you're probably saying to yourself, "Leon is cranking out some uplifting stuff today!  Keep that positivity coming, brother."  I hear you, but stick with me.     Throu...

One of the most often-asked questions I get asked as a pastor has to do with pain and suffering. In my experience,  people who are going through difficult seasons almost always want to ascribe some kind of meaning to what is happening to them.   But sometimes, there doesn't seem to be any meaning to ascribe.   "It seems so pointless sometimes," a church member, who was going through a very rough patch of life told me once.  "I am fine with accepting God's will, and I get that sometimes stuff just happens, but this just feels meaningless to me.  It's like God's cruel joke."   In the past I have been guilty of answering these kinds of questions with platitudes.  "If God brought you to it, then God will get you through it," comes to mind.   There's truth in platitudes, don't get me wrong.  But it seems to me that what we need most in our valley-of-the-shadow seasons is to be able reframe our suffering and hardships in a way ...

20  Then Job arose and  tore his  robe and  shaved his head  and fell on the ground and worshiped.   21  And he said,  “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I  return. The  Lord   gave, and the  Lord  has taken away;  blessed be the name of the  Lord .” Job 1:20-21 I was relating to my friend all of the crazy things that had happened to me that week.  It had been a pretty bad one, at least in my way of thinking.  Everything that could have gone wrong, seemed to have gone wrong.  It felt like there had been a line of people at my office door lodging complaints.   Plus, my car was in the shop and taking longer to fix than the mechanic had previously told me.  I had upset my wife with something dumb that I said, and I had handled a situation with my kid pretty poorly and was feeling bad about what I said to him.  On top of everything I was battling a cold, and felt...