A Word of Widsom

With the marking of another birthday just a day ago, I recognize two things.  I am older than I used to be and not as old as I hope to be.  My youngest daughter asked me for a word of wisdom of my 74th birthday, but the moment was too much like a party to really speak a serious word.  Maybe the offering of the previous sentence is profound enough.  The truth is that the deeper I get into the years the more I find myself pondering the reality of the unfolding mystery all around me.    

Back in the days of my pastorate at  the St. John Church, there was a young guy named Burleigh who came to church as an agnostic.  His wife was a person of faith and he came because it was important to her.  He did not anticipate encountering Jesus in a way that changed his life.  I often remember one of the things he said after the moment of transformation, "I still have my questions, but I will just put them on the back burner."  In recent years I have come to figure that what he was putting on the back burner was the mystery he could not comprehend.    

Neither he nor I could define it as such back then.   We all live with our unanswered faith questions, Some of them we get answered as we walk the road of faith, but some never seem to get resolved.  And, another truth is that the longer we walk, the more questions we have.  Or, maybe, the appropriate thing to affirm is that holy mystery becomes more evident to us as we walk deeply into its enveloping dimension.  So, as for my word of wisdom on my 74th birthday:  "There is more mystery out there than ever I figured."