For spiritual reflection during Lent this year, I am using a “Living Compass” guide, part of an initiative of the Rev. Dr, Scott Stone. Several contributors have joined him in writing the daily reflections. The theme around which these reflections are organized is courage. In the introduction, Scott writes, “When facing change and uncertainty, few practices are more central to that life than courage—the courage to be vulnerable, the courage to grow, the courage to change direction, the courage to let go, the courage to act with grace, and the courage to walk the way of love.” I anticipate the six weeks of Lent—either because of my thick headedness or my shallow soul-ness—will leave me feeling that a week on each of these themes is not long enough to allow God’s Spirit to take me deep into my interior and find what I need to celebrate and what I need to work on.
A Journey Into Confession
Posted: March 4, 2020 in Christian Life, SpiritualityTags: Christianity, Faith, Spirituality
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I’ve begun my 2020 journey toward Holy Week with a renewed spirit. For a few months before Lent began, I’ve explored worship in a new way for me. Worship has always been important for my spiritual wellbeing. It’s the reason I habitually appear in the company of Christians on Sunday mornings. I do not worship to hear a sermon with tired cliches and trite phrases. Or vapid lyrics set to ear-worm tunes disconnected to the real life issues of people sitting around me. The ordered service centered around a sermon based on a verse or few of scripture without anchoring it in the context of the grand story of God’s relationship with his creation, leaves worship disconnected, an isolated hour in the middle of living. I can leave such worship without knowing where I am as a Christian in the annual cycle of celebrating the Christ Event.
My desire when I gather with Christians for worship is for a deep spiritual experience with my Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, I am not seeking a sermon, which is a small part (almost an aside) of entering into fellowship with Jesus. I want to enter worship bringing something to offer Jesus—a thankful heart to bless his name or a contrite heart and confession of sin—and leave with the distinct feeling—even perhaps an emotionally physical feeling—of having been with him. Walking out of the nave I have a spring in my step, and a song in my heart. I leave with the words of the gospel song “There’s Just Something About that Name” ringing in my soul. I walk toward lunch with confidence. I have been with God’s people; and we have been with Jesus. It is the joy of Easter on those Sundays.
However, worship does not always leave me buoyant and joyful. This is the season of Lent. Sometimes, during Lent, I leave while still confessing. When meeting Jesus, his scars scream out the sins if my ways and worship has only begun the process of dealing with them and bringing them to him. I need more time to sincerely unpack them with a deeply contrite spirit, more time to consciously form words with which I can begin to describe them. They are subtle, they hide behind observable goodness. They wear masques in order to cover their hideous disgust and thereby appear acceptable. They deceptively leave my “witness” unmarred. It’s when I meet Jesus in worship that he gently guides me to see that with which I need to deal. I’m grateful that Lent is not a one-day or one-week celebration. I need time to deal with sinning “through our own fault, in thought, and word, and deed, and in what we have left undone,” as we confess in the liturgy.
I know Easter is coming. I’m not quite ready yet, but I know it’s coming. And with Easter comes the promise that he’ll come again, the hope of Glory.
I arrived at the park in time to see the geyser across the river. It is the tallest geyser in the United States and third tallest in the world. Many people look at it and don’t know what they are seeing and thus ignore the awesomeness of it. A few people I met today while walking near the Arch were impressed when I told them about it.
I walked around to the west side of the north reflecting pond and found a grassy spot to make this brief journal entry. It is quite pleasant sitting here looking out at the pond.
The small grove of eight cypress trees provides wonderful shade. Here and there are small groups of three to five people taking a noon respite from their current pursuits. There are office-workers enjoying lunch away from the thrum of the city and visitors to the Arch taking A pause from their walk around the park.
A dad and his two young girls, an Asian family by the sound of their conversation, are having fun taking pictures with a phone. Just now, the mother walks up and sits with them, leans in, and a fun selfie is snapped. Such scenes are replicated throughout the park. The Gateway Arch National Park is one of Saint Louis’ best family attractions that brings thousands to the city and provides space for residents to cultivate serenity in their life’s design.
A Robot or an Alive Human
Posted: May 18, 2018 in Christian LifeTags: Choice, Christianity, Control, Faith, Freedom, Love, Obedience, Will
Is your life designed by God and unchangeable by any decision or choice you might make? If it is, you must be like a robot? Robots don’t write their own codes; rather, they follow the pre-determined design of the programmer. Read the rest of this entry »
Church: A Band of Jesus Followers
Posted: April 28, 2018 in Christian Life, ChurchTags: Christ, Christianity, church, Jesus, Religion, spiritual
What do you understand the local church to be? Is it a group of people who all think in unison with a set of beliefs to which each has subscribed? Or, is it a group of people who are worshiping God together even though they may not all agree to what that means? I recently read a post on Travis Flanagan’s website Help Me Believe titled “What Is the Local Church” in which he provided this definition of the local church.A Holy Fist Pump
Posted: April 27, 2018 in Christian Life, Life's DesignTags: Christian Life, Faith, Jesus, Life, Prayer, Worship
Living Into Easter
Posted: March 26, 2018 in Christian LifeTags: Christianity, Courage, Death, Easter, Good Friday, Gottes Freitag, Grace, Hope, Jesus, Loneliness, Messiah, Pain, Rain, spiritual
Easter is coming. As I sit here looking out onto a rain-slicked Tucker Avenue and parks, which are trying to become spring-green, under a thin, grey, leaky sky, I do not feel energy for tackling the tasks of the day. The freshness spring—officially five days old—should usher in is absent from the scene. How inappropriate, incongruent with the season today seems—temperature in the forties, drizzly rain, and grey skies does not paint an image of joyful spring with kids (goats or children) frolicking in green meadows. But it’s going to get worse.
Living Fully to the End
Posted: March 7, 2018 in Life's DesignTags: Diversity, Retirement, Retirement Community, society
Considering living options as life winds down is an activity in which everyone will ultimately engage. Retirement planning is imperative. Many people immediately think about structuring their finances in a way that a sufficient amount of funds will be available for living out their final days. Without question, that is a huge piece of retirement planning. But that’s not all there is to ensuring quality, and even quantity, of life as it winds down. Another design component that goes into this last phase of living on this earth is whether or when to settle into a retirement community. Read the rest of this entry »
Reimagining Life with Jesus
Posted: January 11, 2018 in Christian Life, Life's DesignTags: Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, church, conversation, Jesus, Love, Spirit, Spirituality, Transparency, Vulnerability
I have been in a process of reimagining my life. The word “reimagine” means to reinterpret or rethink an earlier version. It is approaching again something already experienced but in a new way.
The memories are warm and comforting as I recall times in my life when I was completely encased in the ethos of those days, enveloped in a particular kind of Christianity and particular brand of Baptist. Inside that cocoon I felt comfortable and safe, developed ministry skills, and exercised spiritual gifts. Yet there were times I felt empty, that there was surely more to Christian living than a confining sterile obedience to biblical principles. Read the rest of this entry »
Paco, the Man
Posted: November 30, 2017 in Life's DesignTags: Education, False reality, Medicare, politics, Reality, Religion, Self-importance, Taxes
I can be ferocious if I want to.
I ran across a note in my file from August 2013. Although it was written over four years ago, there is an uncanny aspect to its application for today and may affect the design of our lives tomorrow. In light of today’s climate in almost any segment of American society—politics, entertainment, and religion to name three—there is a pervasive attitude pregnant with outsized self-importance. This shaded truth is explained as an alternate reality as though one phenomena can have more than one factually based truth. Claiming something to be true and factual when it is only my interpretation is claiming authority I don’t possess. Read the rest of this entry »
