A Strange Turn

Today as I crawled along the ground pulling up weeds between the waist high corn on my left and the tomatoes sprawling out of the cages on my right, it occurred to me that not everyone would experience the same pleasure I was enjoying in the moment.  For folks with better things to do, the row would be too long, the sweat unbearable, and the gnats seeking a home in the ears intolerable.  Better things would start calling and away they would go.    

Sometimes I am not sure why I stay.  Sometimes I am not sure why there is such pleasure and contentment in doing such menial work which creates a need for a bath every night instead of just on Saturday.  I remember my growing up days.  I hated those days when Mom took me to a generous neighbor's garden to pick butter beans or peas. It is truly amazing how life often takes us where we never really thought we would go.    

It was much like that for me when I way about to graduate high school and trying to figure out what to do with my life.  A meteorology career seemed like a good choice.  I had a real fascination with the weather.  And then one night I heard the Holy One calling me to preach.  I did not want to go that way.  About five years after my father's death, my mother re-married and I became a preacher's kid.  It gave me an insider view of the church and I quickly decided being a preacher was the last thing I would ever do.  Strange isn't it?  As it turned out, there was nothing else I would have rather done.  Not every one would choose it.  I am grateful God chose it for me.   

Small Towns

Earlier today I quietly listened as the person speaking twice disparaged small towns.  I wanted to respond, but it would have been disruptive so I remained quiet.  It is kinda like making jokes about your own family.  It is all right to make them about your own family, but when someone else does, it can become offensive in a hurry.  I know our town is small and its smallness is measured by a number of things and one of those measuring sticks is noted when I say it is a one caution light town.  Except for the moment school is dismissed, there is no danger of traffic jams.     

Outsiders can say what they wish about small towns, but it does not diminish their value.  I am convinced the small town is where common sense is sprinkled in good measure, where people look after one another, and where its young are daily dosed with values that are important.  The greatest asset and the greatest product of small towns is the people who are raised in them.  I am thankful for so many people whose lives of influence intersected my life during those days of bring brought up in the small town.    

And, of course, the small town is also the place of the small church.  The small church in the small town may be small in membership, but so many of them have a circle of spiritual influence which has rippled across some very big ponds.  Jesus was born in Bethlehem which was not really much of a place and grew up in Nazareth, a town not known for much.  One of Jesus' disciples asked when he first heard about Jesus, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"  (John 1:46)  When Nathaniel, a would be disciple at that point, asked the question, he knew the answer.  Nothing.  A lot of folks have jumped to the same assumption and all of them have been wrong.  

A Theological Error

One of the great theological errors of the more conservative evangelical church has been to regard the Holy Spirit as the Divine One who is to be sought after as the bestower of some spiritual experience which will transform the daily walk in an extraordinary way.  Certainly, there are Words in the Scripture which take us that direction and while it is a Biblical truth that we are to "...receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you..."  (Acts 1:8), a grave error occurs if we come to the place of the experience and see ourselves as having arrived.    

The moment of opening our lives to the influence of the Holy Spirit is not the end, but the door that opens our heart and soul up to the unlimited possibilities inherent within an ongoing awareness of the Spirit.  Our contact with the Spirit must not be relegated to one single experience as powerful as that moment might be.  To be filled with the Spirit, or to be baptized with the Spirit may speak of a moment which opens the door as a door is opened to begin a new journey, but the journey itself is full of Spirit possibilities.  The initial experience at which many arrive and get stuck is really a moment which gives the Spirit the freedom to access all our inner life and to constantly reveal Himself to us both in presence and in power.    

The truth is that every moment is a moment that is full of the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Our eyes and our spiritual antenna is simply not tuned to be receptive to all that He wants to be doing in us.  This moment of beginning spoken about so much and sought after with such fervor in some spiritual circles is rightly seen as the moment of getting our life in focus for all that is ahead.  What is ahead is a life lived under the influence of the Spirit as well as one lived in submission to His will instead of our own and it will take us a life time to come to a place of understanding all that this means and even then it will not be enough.  

Stand Alongside

In the early days of ministry one of the most dreaded and frightening things was to be called into a situation where some unspeakable event had happened and there were no words to offer.  As the years turned into decades I discovered that the dread of going into those situations with folks did not change.  The coming again of such a moment did not make me more comfortable in going.  There were times I must confess to not wanting to go because the tragedy was so great and the darkness so overwhelming.   

Back in the days of being called to ministry, I thought mostly about being called to preach without giving much consideration to the other things I would be called to do as I wore the title of the local Reverend.  Had I been able to know what was ahead, I might well have been even more reluctant to say "yes."  I can never forget that day in Columbus when the telephone rang telling me that a young couple in the church had lost their first child at the moment of birth.  I have no memories of what I said, or how I might have prayed, only that I went praying as I drove those miles to the hospital.  It has been such a long time, but to this day I remember their names and often wonder where their lives took them.   

All of have memories of such times.  We remember going to be with friends and family as they wept bitter tears of uncertainty and grief.  And, as we remember we may also remember those times when the tears were ours and the others were the ones who came to be near to us, to hold us, to cry with us, and to stand alongside of us.  Some times there is nothing more we can do than to stand alongside.  I have often been comforted by the definition of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, as the One who stands alongside of us to comfort and bring us through to tomorrow.  As He stands with us, so are we often called to stand with one another    

Life's Book

My first Bible is in the drawer in the other room.  Within those pages unleashed by a zipper around the black cover are pictures of memorable moments in Scriptural history and all the words of Jesus highlighted in red.  I had no idea that it would be kept for a life time and that it would be read in many different forms through all these years.  It became the book which was always with me.  There were times when I read it more than other times, but it was a book which always got a measure of reading every year. 

In a way it became a companion, a guide, a source of hope and wisdom, and a window opened toward heaven.  As a young boy whose father died too early, I looked in it for answers to questions which could not be answered.  And as old man who only remembers the boy, I know I have gone to it a thousand times when life brought to my door things too difficult to understand, or when the dark clouds swirled with such intensity that I was sure to be overwhelmed.  I learned to go to it when I did not know what to do and to make it a part of my life in those moments when everything seemed to be staying where it was supposed to be.  It truly has been and continues to be the book for all seasons.    

What remains surprising through all the years of becoming familiar with its words is the way the Word of the Lord is sometimes whispered and sometimes thundered through its pages.  A verse or two read so often that it has become memorized can suddenly say something never considered in the past. It is a living Word.  It is a Word which has been like food and drink, or maybe bread and wine all these years.  I am grateful someone placed the first one in my hands as a boy and that the grace of God has kept me searching its pages deep into this season of the gray hair.

Wesley's Preachers

Whenever I moved from one appointment to another, there was always an office space.  The first one was not much bigger than a closet.  There was room for a small desk, a file cabinet, a mimeograph machine, and a gas space heater.  As I went to other places, the office space got a little bigger and even allowed a chair or two for visitors to sit.  One of the thing common to all those places was enough room to hang educational degrees, ordination credentials, and few chosen inspirational pictures.  

Among those things which hung on the walls was a small square piece of paper which was given to me by the Alamo Methodist Church that licensed me to preach.    Receiving that License to Preach was a big deal back then.  It marked a visible response to the call to preach which God had placed in my heart.  It declared me to be a Methodist preacher.  The denomination which later ordained me was the United Methodist Church and I have been a part of it for a life time.  

Unfortunately, these are days of division within that denomination which was created in 1968 and soon the church will divide creating a different United Methodist Church and a new Global Methodist Church.  It makes for troubling days for many of our churches and the clergy who are trying to figure out the way forward.  As one of those sad and troubled clergy, I have decided I would like to be known simply as a Methodist preacher.  Being one of Wesley's preachers has always been enough for me and the truth is it suits me fine to be known as such until the days here are done.     

The Wrong Jesus

Most people really want to follow "Jesus as I would like for Him to be"  instead of "Jesus revealed in the Gospels."  Or, to put it another way a lot of folks want to follow Jesus as they want Him to be instead of the One who walked the roads of Galilee and preached about a Kingdom not yet come, but already here.  What the "Jesus as I would like for Him to be" crowd really want is a Jesus who can be controlled, One who is tolerant and loving so much so as not to ever offend anyone, and One who is content with being second in our order of priorities.  

Of course, Jesus is not into making us comfortable.  Making us comfortable has nothing to do with why He came and what took Him to the horrible cross.  He is not Someone who sees our sins and winks an approving eye in our direction so as not to make us feel badly about who we are and how we are living.  Some might remember the story known as the story of woman caught in adultery in the eighth chapter of John and say that Jesus did nothing to make the woman feel bad.  He did not speak harsh convicting words of judgment to her.  It is still doubtful that she left His presence that day as the person who was suddenly thrust into it by the judgmental spirits of others.    

What is often overlooked in this story of a woman freed from an awful sense of guilt and wrongdoing is the way her tormentors left.  As they tried to rain down judgment on the broken and shamed woman, Jesus spoke those famous words about the one without sin casting the first stone.  And, then He knelt down and wrote some unknown something in the ground.  When they heard His words and the silence which followed, the Word says, "...they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him."  (John 8:9)  Surely, they left with the uncomfortable weight of the sin they carried.  Anyone who comes to Jesus with sin and leaves feeling comfortable is someone who follows "Jesus as I would like for Him to be" instead of the Jesus sent from God to be the Savior of all of us.  

Eyes Wide Open Prayer

As the first three gospel writers unfold their story about Jesus, they take us from the baptismal waters of the Jordan River to the dry arid sand of the wilderness.  One place is about affirmation; the other is about temptation.  What makes the moment of transition so compelling is the way each of the three gospel writers speaks about the holy push that sent Jesus on His way.  Matthew says, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted...."  (Matthew 4:1).  Mark says, "And the Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness."  (Mark 1:12)  And finally, Luke says, "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit,returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil."  (Luke 4:1)    

Unlike us Jesus probably did not go kicking and screaming, hollering about deserving something better.  But, it does seem apparent that going into the wilderness fora  season of temptation might not have been on His mind as He stood up dripping wet with the waters of baptism.  Going was not so much about Him and His desires as it seems to be about the plans and purposes of the Holy Spirit.  He was not led down some garden path filled with the fragrance of roses, but down a hard road where everything could be lost in the time it took to make one bad decision.    

It goes without saying that we expect better of the Holy Spirit.  When we pray and ask for the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, we are usually thinking about a way that will take us away from the hard path we might be walking,   Few of us would consider that submission to the will of the Spirit might take us into some life situation which will test our faith beyond measure.  When we pray, let us pray with our eyes wide open!

The Invisible Light

In the deepest darkness

    a place untouched by 

      the brightest sunshine, 

        the brightest stars,

the seeds of life wait quietly.

Within the woman's womb,

    mystery comes creating

      what has always been 

        and will forever be, 

a life on a journey Home.

In that overwhelming darkness

    shines what has always shined

       the brightest and brilliant

          unseen light of creation, 

known as the light of all people.

In the darkness what is seen,

    is not really seen by our eyes,

       but is what it always is, 

         a holy creating light, 

known as the Invisible Light.

  

In darkness this light shines, 

    never being overwhelmed

      even in the second darkness

        the darkness of departure

the Invisible Light always shines.  

The Invisible Jesus

The gospel writer John introduces Jesus as "the Word,"  the One through Whom all things were created and the One who is the light that forever shines in darkness.  Mark who was the first gospel writer brings Jesus to the stage of history as a man about to set out on His purpose by way of the baptismal waters of the Jordan River.  Matthew and Luke take us in a different direction.  The obvious thing is that both include birth narratives of Jesus and speak of Him as the Savior come from God.  But, there is more to what they tell us in those two narratives than we often catch at first glance.    

As we get through the details of the stories told about the birth of Jesus and settle back for a second look, we begin to see that both these gospel writers first speak of Jesus in His invisible form.  Matthew writes about Jesus as the child not yet seen, the One conceived in the womb of Mary, the One who is present and alive on earth, but still invisible.  And, of course, it is not different with Luke's rendering of the story.  Jesus does not show up on the pages of Scripture as a baby, but as the Invisible One who went with Mary to the home of Elizabeth where John who will be known as the Baptist is about to be born.     

What has been invisible remains invisible.  But, what is invisible is also about to revealed when the days of womb living are done.  In that moment what has been hidden in the invisible realm will become visible in the visible realm.  No one said it more simply and with as much power as John the gospel writer when he wrote about God becoming flesh through the Son.  The One who had been invisible since before the beginning chose to make Himself known and as visible as human flesh so that we might see and know the reality of God with us.  

More than Extraordinary

Those who would say that Jesus was an extraordinary man speak truth, but their truth simply does not go far enough.  What is also true is that those who speak of Him as being an extraordinary man are content with such a description.  If we take the Word seriously, we cannot simply stop at the point of putting Him in a singular human category that has been un-reached by any other.  To say so is to open up the possibility of someone coming along who would surpass Him with their extraordinary qualities.    

Instead the Word makes it clear that Jesus goes beyond extraordinary.  The gospel writer John uses the title "the Word" to speak of Him and so we read in verse 14 of the first chapter of John, "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory as of a father's only Son..."   The Apostle Paul added to our understanding of Jesus as he wrote to the Philippian Christians, "...who (Jesus) though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness..."  (Philippians 2:6-7)  Any words which speak of the identity of Jesus apart from Him being the One who makes God present with us stops far too short.    

Jesus can never be understood as a friend, or a brother, or an equal, but One who enables us to know the essence of God present on the earth among human flesh.  And, furthermore, His purpose goes beyond anything within the boundaries of extraordinary for this holy presence made known to us in the form of man and Son of God came not just to hobnob and teach, but to die a death which would make it possible for us to know an undeserved forgiveness and to have a hope of an unthinkable eternal home. 

Jayber's Journey

For folks who read a book once and are done, it is hard to comprehend someone like me who often reads a good book not once, but several times.  For some reason I picked up "Jayber Crow" by Wendell Berry again the other day for a read that is past being able to count.   What struck me strongly this time was the chapter about his journey home.  When he left where he was, he did not know where he was going.  As he walked he found himself being drawn to the place where he knew he belonged.  It was not a long journey, but one taken through a winter storm of rain and sleet along the edge of raging flooded river.    

The more I read, the more it seemed like a walking baptism.  He was not the man who started the journey, he was unsure where he was going at the beginning, and by the time the drenching rain had stopped he knew he was home.  Maybe what I read was being read through the lens of where I am, from whence I have come, and to where I am going that caused me to see what I saw, but it sure seemed like a baptism to me.  Baptisms rightly experience are not social events, but deep spiritual events with life changing power.  

They are also moments of setting out on a journey to know-not-where.   It may not be so obvious before the water dries that we are on our journey home, but baptism is a step in that direction.  It also brings us to a place of knowing that we are not alone, of knowing that we belong in an invisible Kingdom, and that we will be loved and will know the care of a community unknown to us before the waters touched us.  In some mysterious way it is God who calls us to this journey of grace and faith and most of us have to walk the road for a spell before we realize how He has been leading toward Home all along the way.     

Devotional Time

One of the mainstays in the spiritual life of most believers is what has come to be known as a devotional time.  It can be a very simple moment, or one that is filled with personally embraced rituals.  Some devotional moments are just that--moments, while others can fill long periods of time.  One of the things common to the discipline of devotions is a devotional book which is usually a book with a spiritual writing for each day of the year.  Some of us are constantly changing from one book to another and others will end up using the same one for a life time.     

I must confess to belonging to the life time user group.  Since college I have always had a copy of "My Utmost for His Highest"  by Oswald Chambers in the place where I settled for daily devotional time.  Interestingly enough, the devotional book was not written by Oswald Chambers, but was compiled by his wife after his death.  She was skilled in shorthand and would write notes from his talks to different groups and from those notes she created this writing which has enriched the Kingdom for over a hundred years.  I am grateful this devotional book has been in my life now for over 50 years.     

This is not to say that my experience would be best for everyone.  Our Creator God has made us each different and as He moves us from conception to the Home He has prepared for us in eternity, He brings different resources, people, and influences into our life in a way that enables His plan for us to go forward through our life.  While it seems to me that a good devotional guide is a plus for us as we walk the road of faith, it is not necessary.  Some walk only with the Word and find that it is more than enough.  The One who made us knows us and if given permission will lead us in a way that speaks both to our needs and to the personality He has given us.  A devotional time shaped by the Spirit is far better than one shaped by the suggestions of another pilgrim on the road.  

Wisdom of a Walker

Jesus walked.  There was no rapid transit, no speedy automobiles.  Of course, the one thing Jesus never seemed to do was live in a hurry.  He went from here to there, but always in His own time.  When His brothers pressed Him to go to the Festival of Booths in Jerusalem, He delayed as He said to them, "Go to the festival yourselves, I am not going to the festival, for my time has not yet fully come."  (John 7:8)  And when Jesus got the message that His friend Lazarus was ill, the Scripture says, "...after hearing that Lazarus was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was."  (John 11:6)  If Jesus reveals to us in human flesh something about the nature of God, then it goes without saying that God is not One to get in a hurry.   

It would seem that there is no clock in the eternal hallways.  There is no schedule to keep.  At least there is no schedule that is visible to the human eye.  We often try to hurry God in our praying as we tell Him that it is expedient that He act quickly, but it often seems He turns a deaf ear to such petitions.  His way is not the hurried way.  With eternity in your hands, there is always enough time.  The clock and the calendar are human creations to which God apparently pays little attention.  And when the Word does point to Him speaking in terms of days and years, it is obviously more for the benefit of those on earth and not so much for Him.   

And, of course, another side of all this is the fact that we are the only part of the creation which seems to live in a hurry.  While it surely puts us out of step with how we are meant to live, we race ahead anyway as if getting there quicker, faster, and first is a major human achievement.  Most of us realize somewhere in the depths of our being that life is not meant to be lived at the pace we live it, but there is this uncontrollable urge to push ourselves to the limits of our strength.  Perhaps, all our hurrying is symptomatic of the sin of not trusting God to keep us in the best way.  Instead of waiting, we rush on to whatever. 

Encountering Jesus

There are some people who in the beginning go looking for Jesus.  They see evidence of His presence in the lives of others, or they are captivated by His story in the gospels and start looking for Him as one might look for seashells on a morning walk at the beach.  There is a sense of hope and expectation which precedes that first life changing encounter, but it is more likely that most of us were surprised that Jesus showed up in our life in such a way that everything suddenly is changed.  It is as if Jesus slips up on our blind side and suddenly we find ourselves overwhelmed by His holy presence.     

Perhaps, this is the way it was for many of those who lingered on the edge of the road only to find themselves suddenly surrounded by a moving crowd of folks walking the road with Jesus.  Or, when we think about some of those fishermen disciples who were following John the Baptist, we see some men who had no idea at sunrise that sunset would come and they would be in a different world.  They were not looking for Jesus, they were not feeling a need to be His disciples, but Jesus showed up where they were and in a moment they decided to leave John for Jesus.  It made all the difference.     

Whether we belong to the group who went looking for Jesus, or the group who were surprised by His unexpected presence, there is one thing which is shared.  Regardless of the way we met Jesus, it is always a surprise to us at some point that He wants us to share the journey toward Home with Him.  I often say that when Jesus called me to be His disciple, He was scraping the bottom of the barrel.  Maybe others have felt that way, too.  The further we walk with Him the more we become convinced that it is really mostly about grace.  No, not mostly.  It is all about grace that He would choose us to go with Him and be partners in the Kingdom work.  

Embracing the Journey

Most of us are on it before we realize we are on our way.  We begin with this moment of saying "Yes"  to Jesus, but it seems like an experience of the present moment and not the first step of a journey which will last a life time.  Even our cursory readings of the gospel in those beginning days should have alerted us to the reality of the journey which was ahead, but somehow we started oblivious to what our decision really meant.  Jesus was always walking and always inviting those around Him to come along with Him and we should have figured out that the life of faith was not a static thing, but a life that was always in motion.    

Of course, to speak of the motion of life is not to describe some physical exercise, but to say that the spiritual life to which Christ calls us is one which is always bent toward what is ahead.  It was the Apostle Paul who left us with that great image set forth with the words, "forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.  I press on...."  (Philippians 3:13)  In the beginning we might think more than we should about those beginning moments instead of the unknown journey ahead of us to wherever.    What is also true is that wherever is not where we see ourselves going if we are able to contemplate a spiritual journey in those beginning days.  

We tend to borrow from the experience of others, our expectations of what going with Jesus is all about, and  visions that belong more to us than the One who has called us.  Thus, any journey with Christ that we might consider is not necessarily the one to the unknown future where wherever exists, but into a future which we plan and set out to make happen.  If we are fortunate we will early on come to understand that abandonment to self for the sake of Christ is the place where we begin to embrace the journey to wherever which, of course, is what Christ had in his eye when He looked at us and said, "Come."

Here and There

Here is on the way to there.  Here is, of course, here.  It is the present moment, the present place, and the people present in the moment called here.  It is also where God has gifted us to be in the present part of our life which makes it not only a precious gift, but a holy gift.  As that gift is unwrapped, it should be done so slowly, gratefully, and mindful that it is gifted to us by the Creator who designs and gives gifts for specific reason.  Nothing He gives to us in the present moment of our life is accidental,  coincidental, or without purpose.    

And though we are always here, we are also on our way to there.  By the time we arrive at there it has become the new here for us.  It, too, is a holy gift.  There is where we go, not with knowledge of where or what it is, but in faith that the One who is providing it has prepared it for us.  God our Father is always taking us from here to there.  Sometimes it seems the journey is too slow and deliberate and sometimes it seems like something as quick as the twinkling of an eye.  There is never where we know, but always holds forth the unfolding new in our life.   

From here to there is where God is always taking us.  Who we are is not who we are becoming.  God never seems content with us arriving in some spiritual state and settling into the status quo, but One who is always taking us into the deeper waters where dependence on self is finally seen as something which is not enough.  Going from here to there is about going to a place in our life where we must live with a greater dependence on God, or we will not make it.  It may seem hard, but it is the holy way.  We go from here to there because grace is unfolding the way forward and through a faith that enables us to turn loose of what is so that we might move toward what is yet to be.  

From Here to There

Not a long way,

   but long enough,

      too far for some,

        is the journey

from here to there.

Abraham went. 

    as did Moses, 

      Peter and John

        always walking

the wherever road.

From here to there,

    no mile markers, 

      no time clocks, 

        it is the road

not measured.

The road of going,

     not the one 

       about arriving,

         instead the one

of abandonment.        

Garden Wonderings

Gardens are not for everyone.  As times get hard and cost rise, more and more folks are talking about planting a vegetable garden.  Gardening is like fishing.  If you like to fish, it is the fishing that is important and not the fish.  So, it is with gardening.  Of course, one of the reasons gardens are not for everyone is that gardening involves hard work.  I spent most of my time in the garden today with a hoe working out the weeds from the young corn and okra plants.  Hoeing is not a complicated task, but it does require concentration.  Without concentration more than just weeds are going to be chopped out of the ground.     

An unusual thing happened today in the midst of the hoeing.  I came to the conclusion that using a hoe must be in my DNA.  When I look back over the generations of family who have come and gone, I see a long line of people who lived more connected to the dirt than I could ever be.  They had gardens.  They knew how to grow food from the ground, how to use the tools that had no power except hand power, and how to live mindful of the partnership between the seed planter and the Blesser of the seed.    

For a moment it seemed I was not alone out there midst the furrows with an old hoe in hand.  I was reminded of family members who had mastered the skill of planting, tending, and harvesting.   In such moments I sometimes wonder about that great cloud of witnesses spoken of in the Holy Word.  I wonder what they might think of my efforts, wonder what encouraging words they might offer, and wonder, too, if they know of my gratitude to them for their faithfulness to the creation as well as their faithfulness to the Creator.  

Untold Stories

Seldom do I take a road trip without wondering about the stories some old about to fall down house might tell if about to fall down houses could talk.  The same kind of thoughts go through my head when an old forsaken looking church appears in the countryside, or at some crossroad.  Even as old houses could be seen as places where the stories of families could be told so are old abandoned churches places where memories of holy moments linger.   

The Pierce Chapel Church out in the middle of nowhere is one of those small churches which looms large in my memory.  My first memory was birthed the day my father was put to rest in its cemetery.  Later I learned that my great grandfather on my mother's side of the family gave the land for the cemetery which now holds the graves of many who are family.  The church back then was Methodist and served those backwoods rural families that worked the nearby fields.  Sometime ago the church became an abandoned Methodist Church, was bought by some Baptist folks, and continues its ministry under that banner.   

In my mind it will always be a Methodist Church.  While my mother never spoke of the place where she came to faith in Christ, this small church was surely a place that nurtured her as a young girl on her journey to faith.  When it was time to bury her husband and my father, it was to that church that she returned.  I long to know more of the story, but those who might have had memories of those years and those lives are gone and so are the stories that could have been told, but now only linger in the air around that holy place which speaks of people coming to faith and others being laid to rest as they finished the journey Home.  

The Small Church

On this year's Mother's Day a church up the road a piece which I served for a little over four years after retiring offered an outdoor worship service in an area known as the Prayer Garden.  It is a lovely cared for area which was envisioned by some of the folks who have left us for eternity.  It has been seven years now since I preached each Sunday from the pulpit of the Rocky Ford Church.  It was then and continues to be a small congregation empty of political maneuvering and full of the joy of fellowship.  After long years of serving larger congregations, it was such pleasure to be somewhere where it was just about church.     

Unfortunately, the small church is dying.  There are many reasons.  Chief among them is the fact that those who grow up in small towns no longer stay as they used to do, but now move to urban areas where there are more jobs.  And another not so obvious factor is the dominant influence the larger regional church has in an area and the way it pulls people away from the small church where the programs are more limited by smaller resources.  The small congregation is in a tough place.    

Yet, it is still true that the smaller church provides things larger congregations cannot offer.  While it may sound trite, fellowship is one of those things.  Small churches are where everyone knows your name, where your children are our children, and where people have learned to stay instead of leave when there is disagreement.  What was so good about ending up in a small congregation after retirement was the feeling that I had come full circle and returned home for it was the small church which nurtured me in my faith and where I heard God calling me to ministry.  

The Daily Walk

There is nothing wrong with having a set time for devotions which is, of course, a time dedicated to being in the presence of God.   Most of us include in that practice such disciplines as reading the Scripture, a daily devotional guide, prayer which involves speaking those things which are in our hearts and for some listening in silence for the voice of God.  It is something which has been practiced by most of us to some degree or another throughout the years of walking the road of faith in Christ.  We frequently speak of our devotional time as our time with the Lord.    

And while the set aside time should never be thrown by the wayside as unimportant, it is also true that our time with the Lord is not limited to a set aside period of time which is counted on the clock.  One of the things which has been slowly learned in these last years is that God is not limited to a specific disciplinary hour, but that He is likely to reveal Himself and speak to us at any moment of the day of night.  Every moment is actually our time with the Lord.  He is always present, always eager to speak to us, and is in everything and everyone around us.  

There is no place we can go where His presence cannot be experienced.    So much of this awareness of holy presence has to do with our sense of expectation and the degree to which we are paying attention to where we are, who is with us, and what is going on around us in the present moment.  If we are worrying over the past, or constantly looking ahead then we are likely to miss what God is seeking to do and say to us in the present moment of our life which is the only one guaranteed to us.  The time we set aside for God in our devotional moment is a treasured time, but it must never take the place of keeping our eyes and ears open for the Holy One who is walking alongside of us.  

A Holy Encounter

While standing in line the other day at a local eatery, I struck up a conversation with a young guy who was waiting alongside of me.  As it turned out, he is from Nigeria and has been in the country for eleven years now.  He is working on his degree at the local university.  When he found out what I did before retirement, he told me a bit about his religious beliefs as one whose mother was Pentecostal and whose father was Catholic.  It was good conversation and as we were at the end of our moment together he said, "What advice would you as an older man give to a young man?"    

It made me think about an old movie favorite called, "Secondhand Lions" in which the main character, an older man, gave a speech to young me that was known as "What every young man needs to know about being a man."  I am not sure my response to his question will ever be the subject of a movie and I am sure it was not nearly as profound as I would have liked for it to be, but it was what it was in the moment that God provided the two of us there as we shared a moment of waiting.  Still, I am not one to regard such times as coincidence.  Life is not about chance, or coincidence as every moment and every person God brings into our life speaks about His purpose and plan.  

While I am not sure the young Nigerian student will remember what I said to him, I do believe that God gave us a moment of being together for some particular reason.  As we stop and reflect on our life, we begin to see all sorts of such moments in the ordinary times of our living and it is never a part of the plan of God for anyone of us to waste a moment that God gives.  The word we might speak today might be totally different tomorrow simply because such is the nature of the plan of God for us.  

A Garden View

There are many things which transpire on the farm.  There are cows to tend and chickens to feed.  There are pecan trees which also require a certain amount of attention.  Anyone shy about working should never have pecan trees for there are always limbs to pick up after a hint of wind.  And, of course, having cows means growing and baling hay which is a major endeavor in the hot days of summer.  There are always things to do like equipment repairs, mending fences, and bush hog work all around the farm.     

What I have discovered though is that the center of the farm around here is the garden.  We have heard folks sometimes say the kitchen is the center of their home and in a like manner the garden is the center of life around here.  Especially is this true this time of the year when there is dirt to plow, seeds to plant, weeds to pull, and plants to tend.   The garden is the place of hard ongoing work, the place of great hope, and the place where life is most connected to the creation.      

Being here has provided a different perspective for reading those early pages of Genesis which tell us that in the beginning there was a garden.  The focus of that first garden does not seem to be so much about work as it was a place for the keepers of the garden to encounter and know the Creator of the garden.  It seems that it was a common thing for the couple who tended to garden to be present in the evening when the Lord God walked among them.  Not everyone is blessed to live in a place where there is room for a garden and neither does everyone have an interest in tending a garden,  but it does not change our need to put our hands in the dirt, to get our knees soiled, and to smell and know the goodness of the creation which is all around us.  What is often forgotten is that the creation is not just around us, but it is in us.  We are connected to it even as we are connected to the Creator who still walks midst what He has make looking for us.  

Preaching Thoughts

One of the amazing about preaching is what people get out of it.  Most preachers have a plan when they get in the pulpit on Sunday.  The sermon is not just a random thing.  Oh, for sure there are some who stand without any preparation figuring the Spirit will bail them out.  Maybe it happens that way for some, but I was always grateful for the Spirit working on the sermon while I was preaching it and also when I was preparing it through the days of the week.  Unlike some preachers who seemed to preach with three points, I came to a place of preaching one point sermons as if my hammer only had one nail to drive in place.    

Sometimes a sermon worked and sometimes it obviously did not.  I never blamed the Spirit for the failures figuring they were mine and was always amazed when He took something we worked on during the week for holy purposes.  What was always interesting was what people took home with them.  Often times when someone told me how much the sermon meant to them and why it did, I was surprised because I had not ever figured on anyone going in the direction the sermon carried them.  And while I might have preached for a half hour, the takeaway for them was one sentence, or maybe just one phrase.  Perhaps, that is a reason to preach shorter sermons, or maybe it means that a preacher like me needed more time to preach so one of the many sentences would come home to roost.   

Of course, the one thing the good preachers never forget is that preaching is mostly about what God wants to do at the moment of the sermon.  It is not a time for showing off Biblical knowledge, or for impressing folks with linguistic eloquence. It is instead a time for God to speak through the preacher what can be heard as the Word of the Lord.  And it is also a time of trusting Him to say what He wants to say and to speak to whom He wants to speak either through the preacher, or despite the preacher.  

Confession

 Like the last leaf

    I have resisted

       turning loose

         and falling

to wherever.

Waiting now,

     come gentle Wind

       push and pull,

         and carry me

to wherever.

Two Paths

When Jeremiah spoke of the ancient paths, he did not speak of an easier way.  Neither did he speak of of an expedient or convenient way.  Instead he spoke in the name of the Lord to the people saying, "...the ancient paths, where the good way lies, and walk in it, and find rest for your souls."  (Jeremiah 6:16).  Now it is true that the good way might be defined in a thousand different ways according to individual perspectives, but it is an Old Testament Word which brings to mind something John, the Apostle, recorded in his Jesus narrative.  In what is one of the most quoted chapters in Scripture, we hear Jesus saying, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life..."  (John 14:6)      

What makes the ancient way difficult for some to see is the fact that it is first and foremost the way made by God and one that has been embraced by those who have sought to live in faithfulness to the divine order.  We live in a day when the way of God has become an anachronism, something which can be shaped to fit inside personal opinion, and something which when shaped enables us to be comfortable with the common consensus of the status quo.  Too many are quick to run to this broad and all inclusive way even though Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction..."  (Matthew 7:13)   

These are sad and troubling times.  The options to the ancient path are so enticing.  So many times we come to a place of believing that we can walk on two paths at the same time.  The ancient Hebrews who came to the Promised Land learned a compromise which enabled them to worship Yahweh while they kept idols to Baal on a mantle within their home.  We can only worship one or the other.  We can only put our feet on one path or the other.  The choices are the ancient path which leads to rest for the soul, or the wider way full of compromise which leads to destruction.

The Life Giving Way

Some things in plain view are sometimes hard to see. And then again, sometimes the thing for which we look are obscured by a lot of clutter.  When Jeremiah spoke for the Lord and told the people to "Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths..."  it might have been that the stories told from the past had fallen on deaf ears for too many generations.  While the Hebrew story is one rich in oral tradition, it would seem from the conditions Jeremiah described that the people were no longer actively remembering their history of deliverance from Egypt and their life in the Promised Land with God.    

These ancient ways so rich in tradition and so full of life giving power often become as invisible as a road that disappears in a heavy thick morning fog.  But, what is more likely to happen is that newer ideas and values have appeared around us with such enticing power that it seems wiser to us to ignore what is past for what is both contemporary and trendy.  As children we learn to excuse wrong choices with the words, "everybody's doing it" which, of course, our parents were never too keen about us accepting.    

Today what everyone is doing and believing often holds such sway that no one looks for the values of the ancient paths.  It may take some effort to throw off the shackles of new ways that lead us down paths no one would have chosen a couple of generations ago.  Many things are changing around us.  Such is the nature of life, however, a change that takes us away from the intentions of God as they are revealed to us through the Word is something from which we need to run.  But, before we set out to run away from a way that is taking us away from life giving values, we need to pause and look and maybe even ask about the life giving way that God has laid out for us to see.  It is not something we want to miss. 

The Path Matters

There was a time in the past when it was often said by many folks, "It doesn't matter what you believe, what is important is believing."  While that may sound like a good all inclusive statement which creates an umbrella under which everyone can stand, it is really nothing more than what is often referred to in these parts as hogwash.  The object of our belief is something which shapes us, it is something which sets in place our values, and it is something upon which we are betting our life.  Indeed, what we believe does  matter.   

And along these same lines, it does matter where we choose to go with our life.  Any choice is not necessarily a good choice even if we pursue it with all our energy and determination.  When Jeremiah was trying to re-direct the path of the wayward Hebrews he told them what he knew to be a Word from the Lord, "Thus says the Lord:  Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies..."  (Jeremiah 6:16).  In essence he was calling them to remember their story, to remember who they were, and most importantly, calling them to remember to whom they belonged.  The ancient paths would put their feet on that good way.  Neither the paths their disobedience had chosen, or any other new path could do this for them.  There might be promises of good things on the wrong paths they had chosen, but those paths could only end in disaster.     

We live in a culture which looks with suspicion on anything older than yesterday.  The way things are done in this day is the only right way.  And, the values of today's culture have been tested and measured as true by the collectors of common consensus.  The older I become, the more I am convinced that my mother and father had more right than wrong and the more I am convinced that the way God has ordained and outlined for us in His Word is the only thing which is worthy of my life.  And, I am also convinced that in the end when this life is done, the ancient path will stretch out before me to show me the way Home.