Friday Photo
Yesterday David showed me around Delaware. We hit the beach and boardwalk. Dolles is a salt water taffy place on the beach. Loved the sign.
Month: October 2008
Where do you stand?
Tuesday I read a poem by the late Samuel Moor Shoemaker. It was part of my morning devotional reading. The words stirred me. The song writer wrote about being a door keeper in the house of the Lord. Shoemaker wrote about a place by the door for those coming and thinking about leaving. It is a fitting poem for “The Edge of the Inside.”
Here is an exerpt,
I stand by the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,
The door is the most important door in the world –
It is the door through which men walk when they find God
Thereâ??s no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside, and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where a door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it – – –
So I stay near the door.
Difference is an Artist’s Game
The call came some years ago. Something suspicious left a young mother and her husband on edge. Doctors confirmed Sami would be different. In the life of our church, Sami “takes us apart.” That is, Sami reminds us of what the producer of this video conveys. We love Sami. Sami loves us. We are better with Sami.
Quick Post
Last week I missed my podcast for the second week in a row. Blogging and podcasting sometimes run afoul of the ebb and flow of life. Too many look at these activities as something to schedule. I have to look at them in more of a rhythm. I spent a couple of days at the recent Renovare conference in Houston with some of our guys.
Today we will celebrate the life of my Uncle Bill. I may get to a couple of writing things tomorrow. I will be traveling for a few days the rest of the week.
So, life continues to intersect faith and may call for attention to the edges. But, for now any writing about the edges will have to wait.
Enjoy your week.
Going Beyond the Normal
Once you consider how to get beyond conventional thinking no subject seems to be off limits. Much of the reading from my foray into “Readings in Postmodern Philosophy and Theology” has left me thinking. I know I am on the precipice and the slope looks slippery.
What I mean is that often we only think in categories we are given. A reading from William Law combined with my Scripture readings this morning gave me pause to consider some connections. Law wrote,
The person who dares not say an ill-natured word or do an unreasonable thing because he or she considers God as everywhere present performs a better devotion than the person who dares not miss thechurch. To live in the world as stranger and a pilgrim, using all its enjoyments as if we used them not, making all our actions as so many steps toward a better life, is offering better sacrifice to God than any forms of holy and heavenly prayers.
from A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life by William Law, quoted from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servant
Worship is often connected with what it means to/for me. Law challenges us to think that worship is really expressed in how we live with others – and to borrow from Levinas, the Other. In both presence and sequence the other/Other is already before us. Surely this may lead us to follow Jesus who suggests we serve all and the Apostle Paul that we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought.
