Long time...

Well, it's been a while since I've posted here. My world has been pretty hectic of late. I don't say that pridefully, for I know firsthand the results and impact of the sin of busyness and "overcommittedness."

Though I am missing my girls TERRIBLY!, this has been a good weekend, on the whole. I've gotten a lot of work done, though it seems there's always more to do. I've been on a television fast since Friday morning, which has been incredibly trying (strange for a guy who didn't even watch television several years ago). I've been able to go and "be"with people from LOCC, feeling fully present in a way that I often don't. I spent yesterday morning at a funeral of the father of a dear woman in our church. I was able to grab her seven-year-old son, give him a hug (at least as close to a hug as you can give a 7yo!), and validate all of the strange things that are going on inside of him. I spent about seven hours with friends from LO at a cookout. We ate, laughed, shared stories and life, played volleyball and horseshoes, and fellowshipped in the Spirit of God. It was a gift to be able to receive others fully yesterday, and by doing so to receive the presence of God in them. I got a lot of work done toward my sermon for today. (I don't think I've ever "finished" a sermon; I continue to edit and modify until the moment I am in the pulpit. Then the editing is done on the fly!) It was prep work for sermon that was not to be, at least not or today. The wonderful afternoon of fun gave me a nice flare up of seasonal allergies that attacked me all night long. In order to spare my class and the congregation having to watch my nose leak and listen to me cough all the way through the sermon, I called in the replacements. (Thank goodness for people who will bail you out at the last minute!)

I've also been able to do a good bit of reading this weekend. I read some from O'Day's brilliant commentary on the Gospel of John in the New Interpreter's Bible. Wonderful stuff! I also read Darryl Tippens' new book, Pilgrim Heart: The Way of Jesus in Everyday Life. I highly recommend this read to you. It's a wonderful and very accessible look at the Christian journey as the cultivation of a "worldly spirituality." It is a helpful book that I am hoping to start reading with my elders soon. I think that it does a good job making the spiritual life accessible, especially to our tribe, when other volumes on the spiritual life might seem a little too difficult to use in our everyday lives. Tippens is deeply grounded in the Scriptures and the Christian spiritual tradition.

He wants us to hear Jesus invitation to "Follow me." He writes, Jesus' invitation reflects how the Christian life is rather simply, at one level. It is a matter of rejecting the allure of the sedentary life in order to get out on the road and seek God. The saints through the ages can be recognized by their searching spirits. They live as strangers and foreigners on the earth. "[T]hey desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them" (Hebrews 11:14-16). A faithful heart is always a passionate pilgrim heart, ever on the road, ever moving forward--searching for understanding, seeking the face of God (198).

I also loved this quote, especially in light of my work with college students and young adults and couples who are struggling with the hard questions of life and faith which are too often not welcome questions in "the church": Through the years I have been blessed by faithful friends who have not merely tolerated, but welcomed, my questions. In their hospitable company something quite unexpected happened. The doubts grew less fierce in the warm glow of their welcome. When I saw that my toughest questions did not rattle or unsettle them, I became more settled and less doubtful. Airing the doubts, I have found does not enlarge them--just the reverse....Wondering and wandering may be necessary to spiritual discovery whereas making doubts taboo only ensures that they grow stronger (196). (I like the "wondering and wandering! I should have gotten that trademarked! ;-) )

He goes on to say something that I may pass out to several godly and wonderful parents at LOCC: When we desperately want others, especially those most dear to us, to believe, it is often hard to grant them the space to question and to work things through. We want to see them arrive at the shining destination by the shortest route. Yet one of the finest gifts we can give strugglers is the freedom to take the long way 'round. Jesus promises us that if we ask, we will receive; if we search, we will find; if we knock, the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7-11) A good question to ask ourselves is this: Do we trust Jesus on this point? (191)

Here are three quotes that Tippens mines out of the writers of the spiritual tradition that captured my attention today:

From Soren Kierkegaard (in Tippens' chapter on discernment): What I really need it to be clear about what I must do, not what I must know....What matters is to find a purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I should do; the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die....[O]f what use would it be to me to be able to formulate the meaning of Christianity...if it had no deeper meaning for me and for my life?

From Flannery O'Conner (in Tippens' chapter on suffering): I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. I know what torment this is, but I can only see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened....What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not to believe. If you can't believe, you must at least do this: keep an open mind. Keep it open toward faith, keep wanting it, keep asking for it, and leave the rest to God.

From Thomas Merton (in Tippens' chapter on seeking): My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following you will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Well, after writing this I still miss my girls. I get to seem them around noon tomorrow. Tomorrow come quickly!