Presby-Musings

I'm feeling sad today for a lot of different reasons.  It's not a debilitating kind of sad, but it's there, far enough below the surface to not keep me under the covers all day but not far enough that it can't be felt.  I have discovered in life that sadness is not something I need to run from or try to make better by being distracted, which is easy enough to do.   Instead, I tend to embrace the sadness, letting it in, so to speak, so that I can feel it and be instructed by it.  I'll let myself listen to sad songs, stay under the covers a little longer on a grey morning, and several other things that allow me to feel the sadness as intensely as I can stand.   The problem is that sometimes, if I'm not careful, I can become consumed by the sadness and let it take control of my other emotions.  It can bury me if I let it, which is why I need to better understand why I am feeling what I'm feeling.  Sometimes, it's vital to have some images to dra...

I was researching something I planned to write when I discovered the fantastic story of Peace Pilgrim, a remarkable woman who dedicated her life to helping others find peace.   Peace Pilgrim was born Mildred Lisette Norman, a spiritual teacher, mystic, pacifist, and peace activist.  In 1952, she became the first woman to walk the entire length of the Appalachian Trail in one season. Starting on January 1, 1953, in Pasadena, California, she adopted the name "Peace Pilgrim" and walked across the United States for 28 years, speaking with others about peace.  She carried no money on her pilgrimages and was supported entirely by the kindness and generosity of others who believed in her cause.   When she began her pilgrimage, Pilgrim vowed to "remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food." Pilgrim was tragically killed in a car accident in 1981 when she was being driven to a speaking engage...

Communication expert Anna Chui, who edits the website Lifehack, loves to write about love, life, and passion.   Chui believes it takes about seven years to master a task, career, hobby, etc. She also calculates that since the average healthy person lives to around 88 years of age, most of us have about 11 different chances to become masterful at something new.   For Chui, it all comes down to attitude, self-talk, and hope regarding how people will spend their 11 "lifetimes."   She says some people self-talk their way into fear by saying, "I'm only trained to do one thing, and if I'm not doing that, then what good am I?"    Others talk about themselves as though they are already dead gone by saying things like, "I used to be good at [insert thing they used to be good at here], but then [insert something that happened to keep them from doing that thing they used to be good at doing].   But some people keep moving with hope and energy into ...

As a pastor, I've had numerous opportunities to help people bear the painful burdens of loss, betrayal, doubt, and fear.   As a result, I've seen how pain can shape us, mark us, and often scar us for life.   I have counseled people who learned to deal with their pain, transforming it into hope and, eventually, new life.   I've also seen others who hold on to their grief like an old, terrible friend--refusing to embrace hope and never really living.   There have been those who were wounded deeply in childhood and whose anger still burned so fiercely that they set fire to every relationship they ever had.   I've encountered the betrayed, who could never trust again and held the world at arm's length, refusing to embrace even those who would love and cherish them.   It's always a mystery to me how some of us can transform our pain, and others are not. I've often wondered what role our faith has to play in this and how it serves as...

Jeff Buckley was a singer/songwriter who became famous in the late 1990s with the release of his only studio album, Grace.  After touring extensively, developing a tremendous following, and receiving critical acclaim, Buckley was ready to begin recording material for his sophomore album. The next day, while waiting for his band to arrive in Memphis, he decided to swim fully clothed in Wolf Harbor, a tributary of the Mississippi.   Tragically, he got caught in the wake of a passing tugboat and dragged underwater, and he drowned.  His autopsy showed no signs of drugs or alcohol, and his friend, who remained on shore, verified that he had not intended to end his own life.   The title song of the only album he would ever record had these haunting lyrics:  There's the moon asking to stay Long enough for the clouds to fly me away Well it's my time coming, I'm not afraid, afraid to die My fading voice sings of love But she cries to the clicking of time, oh, t...

I've been working on gratitude lately.  If you must know, it's more complicated than it sounds, especially when going through hard things in life. When you are feeling low, it's hard to get out of bed and give thanks for the day with a lusty shout or even to stumble out of bed and mumble "thank you" to the Almighty.  Most of us lie there after the alarm has gone off, staring at the ceiling, wishing we could immediately go back to bed. That's not an ideal way to begin the day, but there it is.  Still, there's stuff to do, so we swing our legs over the edge, hit the floor, listen to our joints pop like Rice Krispies, and we say something profound and meaningful like, "Shit."   Come on, you know you do this.  I'm just speaking the truth right now, and sometimes, the truth deserves a cuss word or two to describe it adequately.  That said, we all know there are many days when gratitude doesn't come easily, and when we find that even though we ...

While preparing for Sunday's sermon, I sought quotes about God to illustrate a point. Because of the time constraints of Sunday morning, I didn't use all the ones I wanted to, so I saved a few of them because they were so good.  The following quote really resonated with me, and I thought I would share and reflect on it for today's Devo:  The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in [them] - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.      - Swami Vivekananda This reminded me of the famous mystical revelation that Thomas Merton had in Louisville, KY, while he was running errands for his monastery.  He wrote:  “In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that ...

This past week, I drove a U-haul truck to Florida with my son's cat sitting beside me in the cab.  It took two days of bouncing up and down on the truck seat, navigating constant lane closures (mainly in Louisiana, bless), and many stops at Buc-ees to make it there.  Unlike my other cat, who screams constantly when placed in a vehicle, this cat rode placidly along for the nearly twenty-hour journey to be with her boy.   My youngest boy moved to Florida to be with his mom, so I was driving the truck with the cat to move everything, including the cat, who has been my son's constant companion for many years.     The day after I arrived, I had a full-circle moment when I took my boy to basketball tryouts at his new school, which happened to be the same school my oldest attended from 8th grade to his Junior year.  I was sitting in the gymnasium watching him play when I realized that sixteen years earlier, I had sat in that same gym watching my oldest d...

Today, we are continuing our sermon series, the Oldest Story In The Book, a study in the book of Job from the Old Testament The book of Job seeks to answer the question: “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? Today: Sometimes, the only answer to our questions about suffering is that we are never meant to know everything.    Sometimes, we go through hard times that might seem unfair, unjust, arbitrary, or wrong. What do we do when we want to find meaning in our suffering, and there doesn't seem to be any? How [Not] To Speak of God - Peter Rollins What happens when we try to describe the infinite?  How far do our imaginations go? Quotes about God  Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen. - Stephen Hawking God is a verb, not a noun. - R. Buckminster Fuller  People see God every day; they just don't recognize him. - Pearl Bailey  “I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn’t work that way. So I stole a bike an...

Throughout my career as a pastor, I've had more than one occasion when I've had people who sought my counsel when it came to struggles they were having with grief, difficult decisions, relationship issues, addiction, bitterness, anger, abuse, and more. There is one thing that people seem to want to know more than anything else, and it comes in the form of an often unspoken question that hovers like a shroud over them:  "Why does it take so long?" Why does it take so long to work out my grief? Why does it take so long to get over that betrayal? Why does it take so long to feel alive again after abuse? Why does it take so long to be well after being addicted? I never have really good answers regarding that kind of thing.  "Everyone is different," I'll tell them.  "You have to do this at your pace," I'll say.  Or I might share that even though it might feel like a long time to them... they are actually making progress.  It's easy to say th...

  I have been reading about resilience lately, both for my own sake and because it's become quite the topic in our culture.   As part of its "Stress Less" mental health and wellness program, NPR recorded a podcast about the Resilience Challenge conducted by Northwestern University.  The challenge was to take 20 minutes out of your day to follow a guided reflection that is designed to help you develop resilience.   The program's website crashed after the podcast aired, and Northwestern quickly filled the 20,000 registration spots to participate. I've also noticed conversations about resilience popping up on my social media and news feeds, so something is clearly happening.  And I have a theory as to what that might be.   There is a higher percentage of people in the US walking around right now with elevated levels of stress, anxiety, and dread than at any other time in our nation's history.   We're oversaturated with news coverage de...

Once in a while, I read something that perfectly encapsulates my feelings in a way that I wish I could have expressed them.   The other day, I read a quote from former Olympic cycling gold medalist Kristin Armstrong that did just that, and I'd like to share it.  Here's what she said:  I write about the power of trying, because I want to be okay with failing. I write about generosity because I battle selfishness. I write about joy because I know sorrow. I write about faith because I almost lost mine, and I know what it is to be broken and in need of redemption. I write about gratitude because I am thankful - for all of it. I've never read anything that summed up why I do what I do any better than this.  Honestly, I could interchange the words "preach" and "teach" with "write," and it would still be true for me.   It took me a long time to truly understand the depth of my calling to be a pastor. When you're young, you sometimes follow your gu...

The American Bible Society recently published the results of a survey conducted to measure stress levels in our culture and to determine what role reading the Bible regularly might have in alleviating it or creating it.  The results on levels of stress revealed:  “One-quarter of Americans are experiencing moderate levels of stress, and 10 percent are experiencing extremely high levels. Nearly half of respondents said they had trouble sleeping, 44 percent reported feeling tense, 44 percent said they were lonely and cut off from others, and 37 percent said they felt numb or detached.” Interestingly, those levels were higher among the respondents who indicated they read the Bible regularly than those who don't. There are many ways to interpret these findings. Some people may read the Bible more when stressed, while others may discover that reading it makes them more stressed because of how they interpret it.   There is another thing to consider, though.  Evangelica...

In 2004, a therapist named Sarah Young wrote a book that would sell close to 50 million copies.  That book was Jesus Calling , a daily devotional that read like Jesus was inspiring you daily with words of encouragement and comfort.   While the words that Jesus spoke in Young's devotional were not quotes from Scripture, they were drawn from it. Young used her imagination to assume what Jesus might be saying to his followers today.  I recall being asked by a parishioner about this devotional many years ago, and my response then is the same today. I told them that for me personally, the devotional didn't really work, but I was not so obtuse that I couldn't see the book's value.   I also told them that the devotions were super positive and encouraging and that the author was undoubtedly fully aware that they weren't speaking for Jesus per se.  However, she was also doing her best to keep each of the daily readings within the lane of grace, peace, love, an...

In 1711, the English philosopher penned these words:  To err is human---to forgive is divine. I have often pondered these words, their meaning and implications, but never more so when I feel raw and angry at someone who has grieved me.  That simple and powerful line subtly suggests that when we choose to forgive, we experience something of God within us.  It also acknowledges the frailty of our humanity, the part of ourselves that often stumbles and falls.  There is a beautiful brokenness about us that reminds us that we can't do everything alone, no matter how hard we try.  The impulse to forgive comes from within that brokenness but transcends it, drawing out what we could call the "image of God" from deep inside us.  But even though we may feel the impulse to forgive, so many of us tamp it down when it seeks to come to the surface.   We choose to be unforgiving.  We choose to hold on to our bitterness because we may deem the object of our ...

Here's a newly edited Devo from the archives that I really needed to read today.  I hope it resonates with you, too.  When I was a kid, I remember being taught in Sunday school and in the Christian schools I attended that if I "had enough faith," I could do anything because God rewarded people who had "enough faith."   The verse that was most often cited for this remarkable assumption was Matthew 21:21, which reads:  Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. The context for this verse is a miracle that occurs when Jesus curses a fig tree to teach his disciples about the radical nature of the kingdom of God. The fig tree withers and dies, which causes the disciples to freak out a bit.   I understand that completely.  I would have freaked out, too.   I comple...

One of the many notions developed in current culture (especially post-pandemic) is that online community can be as vital and dynamic as in-person community.   It requires less of us, to be sure.  All we need to do is log on to social media and attend a virtual gathering, and we can have conversations, share stories, life events, and much more without ever leaving the comfort of our couch.   We were forced to do it for nearly two years when the world was locked down, but the after-effects have been tremendous.   Even though we could finally attend in-person gatherings, concerts, and events and return to "normal" existence, something dramatically changed in our society.  What had been a slow journey toward a more virtual existence was accelerated rapidly, and now we are beginning to see that something has been lost along the way.   Let me explain.  I started reading a book of essays on the concept of community the other day, and I hav...