For the boat to sail, it cannot be tied to the dock. . .

Psalm 118 reminds us that God's steadfast love endures forever.  What more do we need in the midst of our daily trials and our faith journey?
Check out this incredible psalm and then come back. . . Psalm 118

For the past five years or so, my friend Pamela has been teaching me to sail.  I still could never do it alone but with her as the skipper I feel fine about it!  I trust her. . . she urges me to "do" what comes naturally (though when learning such a complex thing as sailing, nothing comes naturally at first, but then again there's a certain feel to it that just might be called "intuition").  When I get stuck in a cross wind she helps me get out of it, when I'm doing it right she simply smiles at me and the look on her face tells me all I need to know-- that all is going well.

I could never learn to do what I need to do in that boat if we left it at the dock, moored in its own personal slot, tied to the metal fasteners that keep it from drifting backward into the marina wall.  When it's time to head out, we climb on board, one of us and then the other and we unfasten those lines that keep the boat in its safe place. We toss the ropes onto the stern itself and onto the sides of the boat where they stay until it's time to return.

        (Once Pamela got stuck between the boat and the dock and said ever-so-gently "I need help."  It was   the softest sound ever coming from her lips but in a swell of adrenaline I almost picked her up out of the precarious position she found herself in.  We still laugh about that today; 

point is, she needs me sometimes too!)   

Thing is. . . in order to get out there onto the wide water, you have to release the lines that keep the boat moored.  There is safety ashore to be sure.  . . but little adventure, unless you consider watching those guys with the big yachts and little dogs wash their boats.  I want to feel the wind in my hair. . . I want to be tilted so far into the wind that I'm almost sitting on the water. . . I want to race across the clear glass with my eyes on the destination. . . it's time for me to let go of the safety and security of that dock and get sailing.  

God is with me. . . he has answered the deepest prayers of my heart. . . the fear, the darkness, the uncertainty, the turning away of those who disapprove of the course. . . who disapprove of me. . .

"With the Lord on my side I do not fear. . . The Lord is on my side to help me. . . It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in princes."  

I'll be alright.  . . don't worry, the Lord has gotten me safe thus far by faith. . . wild waters will not overtake me, but it's time to stop clinging to the shore of old ways, the old structures that I once knew and was comfortable with. . . it's time to not look back any more, to embrace the adventure to which God has called me to this day.  

Image Credit:  igkt.net

First Day of School/New Beginnings

Today is another new beginning. . . life is full of them isn't it?

Our oldest child is heading to High School (I can't hardly believe it, he was just born!!) and our youngest is going to fifth grade (I loved fifth grade it was my favorite year in Elementary School).

I always get a little bit "homesick" feeling when school starts up again. . . I think it's because I always loved school and I don't get to go! (Though I do have a 160 page paper to edit for my Dmin project that I should be working on!!)  I remember the days of packing up mom and dad's car with all my stuff and heading back to Athens for the fall.  Moving into a new room, first the Convo, then Wilson Hall, then two years at the College Inn. New folders and pens, a new backpack to carry my stuff in, new track shoes for fall practice.  I miss those days!  I miss those people!  I miss the freedom. . . what I don't miss is having an 18 year old's brain!  I like the brain I have now!

So, I send my kids off today with their new bags and folders, pencils and erasers. . . I wonder what adventures they will be taken on this year.  High school swimming for him, honors classes, more homework than ever before, and the chance to watch him shine.  For her, well- she's into everything so it should be interesting!  The world is right there for them to grab. . . will they be brave enough to go for it?
Will they be intimidated by new surroundings?  Will they forget their locker combinations?  How long will it take for them to get comfortable?  Will it be overwhelming or exciting or both?  

I have to confess something about this first day of school.  At the same time that I long for the house to be a little bit quiet so I can write and read (and think!) I will miss them and wonder what they are doing.  Whenever something changes, even if it's a good thing, a positive thing, a step in the right direction. . . part of me still misses what once was. The old Adam hanging around my neck I suppose.  Melancholy is the best way to describe the feeling.  Bittersweet even.  Then I think. . . God knows what is coming next, I don't know. . . it just might be the most wonderful thing ever and who could imagine it?  I trust that God is always looking out for us, moving us toward something deeper, more meaningful, more to where He wants us to be. . .

So while I lament what is past, what will be gone forever, I am hopeful for what is to come.  And I try, oh how I try, not to dwell in the details of the transition, not to look too far ahead, or too far behind.  God is working on me to live more in the moment, to embrace the gifts that come TODAY.  That takes an ability to "feel" my way through life and if you know me then you know that I prefer to reduce everything to words and logic and reason.  Hazard of years of scientific study I guess.  So a new beginning is upon us. . . nothing to fear, only life to embrace for Christ is with us every step of the way.  What will happen next?  I can only be present enough to see and feel and experience whatever God has in mind for me and for the two most precious people in my life:  Noah Jacob and Anna Sophia.  Love you guys!

Rock Quarries

When my kids were in the third grade they made the annual third grade field trip to the rock quarry in Sandusky, Ohio.  Full of excitement and chattering away about the rocks they found and brought home, they had to show me each and every fossil in each and every rock.  "Look mom, here's a leaf!"  "Mom, see this insect right here?  I wonder how old it is!"  

"Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord.  Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.  Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.  For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song."  Isaiah 51: 1-3

Whenever life changes it has a way of putting us off balance. . . even if it's a change we anticipated or even longed for. . . it can be a bit overwhelming at times even when we're happy about it.  How much more difficult is it for us when a change occurs that we did not desire?  When it seems like the proverbial rug is ripped out from underneath us?  We may end up on our backside wondering what happened to bring us so violently to the ground!  

God has a word for us that draws us back to what we know, to our most basic grounding and foundation.  "Look to the rock from which you were hewn. . ."  Where did you come from?  Who are your ancestors?  Who are your faith mothers and fathers?  What have they taught you that you can draw upon in this moment? 

Looking back to where we came from grounds us in a deeper reality than the change that is all around us!  Who are those old fossils who have formed and shaped you into the person you are today?  They might be ancestors that you never even met, but still they have something to give you (for instance a couple of years ago we found out that we have in our ancestry "the oldest Presbyterian minister in the eastern US," the Rev. Dr. Lyman Whiting.  I have since read much of his history and many of his sermons.  Who knew?).  What can their witness offer you in the midst of struggle?  How did they make it through the trials they had to deal with?  We draw strength from their story. . . we can be encouraged by their faith, tenacity and journey.  They knew that God was with them. . . they lived in hope and trust of the One God who promised, "My salvation will be forever, and my deliverance will never be ended." (v.6)

See, fossils are good for something more than paperweights!  

Image credit: superteachertools.com

So glad I don't have to take a number. . .

We are studying the Formula of Concord in our parish.  This is a document produced by the second generation of Lutheran theologians as they sought to hammer out orthodox teaching amongst themselves and other evangelicals of the 16th Century.

In the Epitome of the FC, Article VII The Lord's Supper, one of the negative theses (where they cite those tenets with which they disagree) states, "That God, according to all His omnipotence, is not able to cause His body to be essentially present in more than one place at one time."  Remember, they are disagreeing with this statement as apparently the Sacramentarians said that God cannot be fully present in more than one place, or more than one altar, in more than one church at any single moment.  To which dear Ramona said, "I give thanks everyday that I don't have to take a number or stand in line to receive God's mercy and grace."  Amen to that!

What if God really was that busy and that single minded that we had to wait our turn to receive his mercy and the benefits of Christ?  Some might already say that as they wait for a diagnosis, for comfort, for an answer about something they have been praying for for so long.  Take a number, please and God will get right to you!  Get in line here, sign in, and when God is ready for you He will call you into his office.  It might be a little while because right now God is out to lunch with his Kiwanis buddies.  But don't worry, it will happen all in God's good time!

Thanks be to God that He is NOT like that!  Christ is fully present to us in faith ALL the time!  We don't have to wait in line, or fill out an application, or call ahead for a reservation. . . God wants to hear our deepest felt needs and we can talk to Him anytime we feel like opening our hearts or our mouths!  Not only that but He is present with every believer, in every church, at every worksite, in every classroom, at every gathering of the faithful all the time!  Count on it, don't doubt it!

You never know from which direction Grace will appear. . .

Grace. . . Forgiveness. . . Mercy. . . Acceptance. . . Love

Whatever you want to call it, you never know when it will come to you, how it will look, or from what direction it came from-- oftentimes it comes from out of the BLUE.  But it does come. . . God's love comes to us from all directions, the Spirit of the Lord comes to us from directions that we cannot pin down.  Jesus said that in John 3:8, that the Spirit blows where it chooses and we do not know from which way it will come.

So why do we trudge through life sometimes thinking that it will never come?  That's God's mercies are finite, limited, in short supply?  What a bunch of faithless pessimists we can be at times!  It's as if we've never felt it before, as if we somehow think we cannot rely on the God of all hope. . . we have short memories I suppose, and a frail faith.

But then a hymn, a song sung by the faithful, a word of hope, a glimmer of truth that points to the ultimate truth in Jesus Christ sparks a heart-awakening movement within us.  And where did it come from?  From what direction?  Who could have seen that coming?  But it does come.  And it comes to us. . . from God. . . looking nothing like we thought it would or should. . . in a place that we never imagined God might be. . . but there it is in all its fullness-- grace, mercy, peace, light, hope, LOVE.  

Don't be surprised by it, but rejoice in it!  Hold onto it, cherish it, for God gave his only Son to die for us so that we might live and live a new life of joy and love.  Changed forever.  Love comes from God-- because God is love!

For today or for tomorrow. . . for your Sabbath day. . . May your hearts be filled anew as you worship the Creator of the Universe; may the songs of the faithful congregation lift your spirits toward heaven; may the bread and wine/body and blood of our Lord Jesus fill you, nourish you, strengthen you and keep you in his grace.  And may the God of love use your life to bring others to the love that transforms us into true disciples, followers of the light of the world.  Amen.