A Different Kind of Mercy

It may be true that none of us can really imagine what our future is going to look like when it becomes our present.  Certainly, there are some things which come into focus as we make the significant choices of our life that shape it in terms of family, career, and faith, but even then, there are many unexpected things along the way.  Some of those surprises bring smiles to our face and some of them keep us up at night.  A writer often read commented in one of his books that there is mercy in not being able to know the future.  The longer I walk into the future, the more I agree.

 

As I think back over these ten years of retirement and the life which has unfolded here at the farm, there are things which come as the expected, but so many more have unfolded before me in ways I could not have anticipated.  One of the most fundamental things about my life is my faith journey and as I have moved through these years, it has changed in ways that make the journey significantly different.  There was a time when it seemed that matters of faith were nailed down, but during these days a lot of nailed down things have been pried loose. 

 

My life is no longer church centered, but creation centered.  Moments of holy revealing come not in the sacred space of sanctuaries, but everywhere and in everything.  While I have recited the poem about "every common bush afire with God" since high school, only now has it become such a reality that it seems that any moment might be the one for doing the Moses thing of taking off the shoes.  Life is no longer about moving in and out of the holy, but constantly living midst the holy.  Living immersed and surrounded by holy mystery is never taken for granted, but always experienced with the greatest of sense of gratitude.