Presby-Musings

We are often our own worst critics when it comes to the way we see ourselves.  I know that I am.   A cinema reel plays in my imagination of everything I have messed up or done wrong on any given day.  And this is often accompanied by a chorus of voices telling me I'm not enough.  The chorus seems like a combination of my voice but at different stages of my life.  You might wonder about my sanity, but I've talked to enough people to know that I'm not alone in how I critique myself.  We all have our own methods, both real and imagined.  I've read enough of the letters of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament to know that he struggled with the same kind of inner criticism that many of us do.   Even though he seemed confident in most of his writing about himself, his purpose, and his faith, Paul also admitted to having doubts, fears, struggles, and a need to "die" to himself daily.  This resonates with me because there are days when I n...

  I'm getting weary of bad news.   I'm also weary of how much bad news there is lately.   When you peruse the headlines and significant stories that are making the rounds every day, it's easy to recall the wisdom of Don Henley from his 1980s hit "Dirty Laundry:"  We got the bubble-headed bleached-blonde,   comes on at five She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye It's interesting when people die Give us dirty laundry And then there is the fake outrage that permeates the cable news channels as people square off in their little boxes on the TV screen, shouting over one another, ratcheting up the rhetoric, and doing their dead-level best to retain viewers by ensuring them they have a right to be anxious and outraged over one damn thing or another.  The problem is if all you are getting is a steady diet of phony outrage, manipulated facts, and deeply partisan politics, you can rightly assume that the world is going to hell and a ...

The other day, I saw a thought-provoking post on social media from an avowed atheist I follow.   I started following him a few years ago out of curiosity. Then, to my surprise, I discovered that some of his posts resonated with me and helped me ask excellent questions about my faith.  I'm going to show the content of the post:  Hindus have been waiting for Kalki for 3,700 years. Buddhists have been waiting for Maitreya for 2,600 years. The Jews have been waiting for the Messiah for 2500 years. Christians have been waiting for Jesus for 2000 years. Sunnah waits for Prophet Issa for 1400 years. Muslims have been waiting for a messiah from the line of Muhammad for 1300 years. Shiites have been waiting for Imam Mahdi for 1080 years. Druze have been waiting for Hamza ibn Ali for 1000 years.   Most religions adopt the idea of a “savior” and state that the world will remain filled with evil until this savior comes and fills it with goodness and righteousness.   Ma...

For those of us who grew up in faith traditions that espoused the idea that God is a ticked-off old white dude, high above somewhere "up there" on a white throne, handing out heaping helpings of judgment and damnation for those who cross him, it's hard to imagine something different, even when we come to know better.  Trust me on this; I know from experience how hard this is to do, and I've been teaching and preaching about a different image of God for decades.   I often find myself reverting to that old image of God when things in my life aren't going as I think they should.  I know I'm not alone.   When hardships come, or calamity falls, many of us wonder if we just might have done something to offend that old God to cause them.   I've written here before that when we hold on to that old image of God, we are tacitly embracing a transactional form of faith where God's grace is only available if we toe the line and the line keeps moving.  Thi...

The Season of Lent  The Scriptures help us paint a picture of Lent filled with signs and wonders for those willing to see them.  They help tell the story of how far God is willing to go to rescue those whom God loves.   This is the Second Sunday of Lent  Today, we will read a story about how Abraham and Sarah got both a promise and a name change and what spiritual meaning that might have for us.   When People Change Their Names For The Wrong Reason...  Darren QX Bean!  (Darren Lloyd Bean) Bacon Double Cheeseburger (Sam Smith) Tim Pppppppppprice (Tim Price) Henry Lizardlover (Henry Schiff) Sexy Crabtree (Sheila Rae Crabtree) Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash Combined (George Garratt) King Arthur Uther Pendragon (John Rothwell) Ynot Bubba (Justin Brady) Lianne Madonna Vogue On The Cover Of A Magazine McHale Dawson Emma Madonna Confessions Of A Dance Floor Dawson  Luther Devine None of the ...

I journeyed to the mall with my middle and youngest sons this past Christmas to buy presents, and for the entire journey there and through the parking lot, my middle son and I had an intense discussion about a social issue that has been politicized.  I will leave it to your imagination as to which social issue... there are many to choose from.   At any rate, we reached a point in our conversation where we had a divergence of opinion, and things started to get heated as we tried to explain why we felt the way we did.  Finally, I said, "You know what, I agree with the central part of your argument 100%, but I also have questions and don't know how to feel about [this particular thing].  I think it's okay to just hold all that in tension." I was trying to describe a "both/and" way of thinking to him instead of a "Yes, but" way of responding.  Ultimately, we both agreed that was a good resolution for our discussion.  Then my youngest son, who had been ...

Several years ago, the drought-prone city of Los Angeles began efforts to add more green spaces near roadways, replacing concrete with dirt and plants.  They also created "spreading grounds" that allow water to be soaked up by the earth.  The idea was that with more dirt and plants, more water could be absorbed during the rainy season, which reduces flooding and conserves water for use when it's dry.   There were critics aplenty of these efforts, to be sure.  More than a few of them leveled accusations of "wokeness" being the reason why so much of taxpayer's money was being used to make the changes.  Then, the rain came in early February.  A lot of it. Record amounts.  But because of the efforts to replace concrete with dirt and plants, along with all of its traditional dams, from February 4-7, Los Angeles captured 8.6 billion gallons of water, enough to provide 106,000 households water for a year.  Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler W...

Over the past few years, I've seen a lot of, shall we say, interesting things posted by people professing to be Christians on social media.  Aside from all of the conspiracy theories, thinly veiled racism, misogyny, homophobia, Christian nationalist rhetoric, and the like, I have seen a particular phrase more than a few times. The phrase is  Faith over Fear. I first saw this phrase crop up during the pandemic as a great many Christians publicly opposed safety measures, vaccines, etc.  But it pops up occasionally on my social media feed whenever there is a calamity, tragedy, or worrisome event.  The intimation of how this phrase is used by some people is that true Christians should never be afraid.   This phrase is usually posted on social media; typically as a response to a political or social issue where the person posting has stated a position and is defending it in religious terms.  Interestingly, the Bible has 365 instances where God-fearers and Je...

I'm a comic book nerd.   When I was in my early twenties, I collected comics, but my weekly comic bill got up to about $75, and with a new baby on the way, I decided my collecting days were over.  But I did amass a pretty good collection full of rare comics and a host of first editions.   During this time, I was introduced to author and creator Neil Gaiman through his Sandman  series, which became one of my favorites.  His use of mythology, religion, and pure imagination appealed to me.   Sandman was recently released as a series on Netflix, and I loved every episode.  Other books of Gaiman's that have been made into movies are American Gods, Good Omens, and  Coraline.   He's written scores of books and comics that have won almost every award you can win as a comic creator.  He has worked on musical projects, plays, and episodes of Doctor Who,  along with other TV projects.   It's not fair, is it? ...

I have had more than a few brushes with celebrities in my life.   I've met all kinds of people I have admired from afar, from authors to musicians in famous bands, celebrities, and politicians, who have turned my former opinions about them upside down.  Some of the sweetest celebrities I have met include Michael Jackson, Robin Williams, John Stamos, Jim Henson, John Lithgow, and Paul Sorvino, to name a few.   I expected them to be aloof, but they were not.   I will never forget guiding Robin Williams through the Backstage Studio Tour at Walt Disney World and how beautifully gracious and kind he was.   Those are pleasant surprises because we always hope the celebrities we admire will be good people worthy of our admiration.   But there are moments in our lives when the rubber meets the road with that kind of thing a bit more personally.   The other day, I was reading one of the Daily Meditations I received via email from Fr...

The Season of Lent - Signs and Wonders The Scriptures help us paint a picture of Lent filled with signs and wonders for those willing to see them.  They help tell the story of how far God is willing to go to rescue those whom God loves.   This is the First Sunday of the Season of Lent.  Lent is a word that is connected to the Latin word for "40" which reflects the roughly forty days that we spend symbolically following Jesus to the Cross.   Forty is a significant number in the Bible that speaks of preparation.  Here are a few examples:  Rained 40 days and nights in the Great Flood Moses was 40 when he went into the Wilderness out of Egypt, where he remained for 40 years and then spent another 40 years with the Israelites (symbolic meaning) Psalm 40 is about being in the midst of trial and tribulation and being lifted up by God.  Jesus spent 40 days in the Wilderness before he started his ministry.  Today, we’re going to go all the way ba...

  Ordinarily, I try not to put a more extended quote or poem in a Devo, but this just might be my favorite Mary Oliver poem:  The Journey One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice– though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. “Mend my life!” each voice cried. But you didn’t stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do– determined to save the only life you could save. I love this poem, and it sp...

I recently discovered Kate Bowler, a fantastic podcaster and author, through a friend who shared her work with me.   Bowler's battle with cancer left her with chronic and debilitating pain, and it was during this season of her life that she began to write daily about her experiences and what they were teaching her.  Her reflections on her own experience also have universal and existential lessons to teach about trauma and anxiety, but also hope and joy amid struggle.  I couldn't recommend her work more, and I am blessed by it immeasurably.  One of the issues that Bowler addresses in the preface to her latest book of daily reflections is how our current culture is so fraught with uncertainty, amplified by our shared experiences of a global pandemic, intense divisions, and feelings of dread over all of it.  But what I love about Bowler's work is that even as she refuses to shy away from naming the fears and dreads we may feel, she also acknowledges the unive...

Of all of the things that Jesus told his disciples they needed to do as his followers, forgiveness is perhaps the most difficult to master.   God knows I have struggled with this in my own life.  Most of us have if we are being honest.  The old 18th-century chestnut "to err is human, to forgive is divine" speaks to how challenging it is to forgive those who have wronged us. Our own frailty as humans seems to keep us from practicing forgiveness regularly, and it often requires what could be described as "divine intervention" to get there.   In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shared teachings with his followers about the power of forgiveness, and he had this say:  23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. There's beauty to this teaching that is f...

  One of the many interesting commercials during Sunday's Super Bowl was another provocative ad that is part of the He Gets Us  campaign, which declares at the end of each ad that "Jesus Gets Us."   I must be honest; the ad aired during the Super Bowl nearly brought me to tears. It was so well done.  I'll post the link below:  The latest ad from the Super Bowl joins many similar advertisements created by a Michigan-based ad agency funded by "anonymous" donors.   The ads address the significant issues that divide our society: politics, refugees, immigration, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and many more, focusing on how Jesus can heal divisions and press us to act with love in the world instead of hate.  I haven't seen one of those ads that I disagree with.  They are poignant, professional, and filled with incredible messages about how the Light of Christ can change hearts and transform our culture.  But there's a catch to all this that I have wri...