Enjoy

Offseason Beach still remarkable

I spent my whole life in New England and I did not think it was possible to enjoy fall any better than with the beauty of the foliage of our northern climates. I have people here who are going to the hills of North Carolina to see foliage and I don't think they understand how inferior it is to the real thing. I know that one of the sights that always brought God to mind was the breathtaking color of the forrest at fall in New England. This fall has been unbelievable in Myrtle Beach. Sun virtually every day and only cloudy on the occasional. I can sit at the beach and work on my tan every day with afternoon temperatures every day between 75 and 83. The mornings for golf are averaging between 55 and 65, how perfect can you get. The sky is just a crystal blue without a cloud in the sky on most days. I get to swim almost any day I want with the warm New England summer warm even today. Once again it is a constant reminder that God is the creator and constant presence in this world of ours. I think we get this romantic idea that where we live has got to be the best.  I suspect that we forget that God is present everywhere at all times and creates reminders of who is in every place, not just our place. What catches our heart may differ from place to place, but God shows Himself in all of His creation. So enjoy! Enjoy today!  Enjoy where you are!! Just enjoy!

Spiritual Golf

Once again this afternoon I joined a couple who were playing golf. They were a pleasant couple on vacation from Pittsburgh and we had the usual gradual getting to know some things about one another. I am always willing to share that I'm a retired Episcopal priest. It amazes me how often one or more of the golfers want to have questions answered about religion or religious beliefs. Today was no exception. I'm also surprised by how many misconceptions people carry about Christianity, or even at times their own denominations. I always enjoy the opportunity to answer questions without pushing the conversation myself. If I'm patient they will come back with another thought or question looking for my input. I know I will most likely never see these folks again, but I pray that some seed from the conversation will open them to some new relationship with God. For many years I've said that our lives are pregnant with possibilities for ministry. It is not always our job to deliver the baby, but we might be meant to help it grow. I do know I walk away with a handshake at the end of the golf round leaving the possible results in Gods hands. I just got a nice round of golf out of it.

How Much Love

The day we married, so young foolish and idealistic

Gifts from God to love

Love comes in many forms and it never runs out. I have been blessed with so much love, but most certainly with the gift of the family Marsha helped me to make. She was first and greatest for sure. I can't be sure what the future would have held without Marsha but I can say that my life was going in the wrong direction fast until God gave me Marsha. She taught me one special kind of love and brought me another. Nothing can replace the experience of loving your first born child. I'm not sure I knew how to love her right, but I loved her and continue to love her abundantly. She was so smart and precious and cute and none of that went away as she grew into a woman and mother herself. My son, the baby of my family, was smart and cute and always physical. He could swim across a swimming pool at eleven months, and he never stopped that active nature. He too grew into a man of whom I can be proud. It was another love of another kind for both of my children. In the midst of raising them Marsha and I both discovered the greatest love of all, the love God has for us and the love we have for Him. All the previous expressions of love were then a mere shadow of this new and greatest love. We both knew that our love for each other and our children and family and friends were a place to express our understanding of this greater love. We were then blessed with even more love treasures. One by one our grandchildren came into our lives. These four unique persons filled our hearts with still another depth of love. I can't even describe the awesome love we both held for these grandchildren of ours. We didn't see any of them that often, but they filled our hearts every day. I think Marsha was created for many reasons, but perhaps the greatest was to be a grandmother. I think we loved our children ferociously but we got too often caught in the trap that what they did reflected on us. I think that always makes your children question your love for them, but that was never an issue with our precious four grandchildren. They are very different people the four of them, and I hope they all know that we love them for who they are. As life has changed since Marsha's death it creates the question, what else will love teach me? I only know that loving and being loved are at the center of the universe. All else revolves around it like the planets around the sun. My life revolves around the SON who taught me the most about unconditional love, and calls me to become an expert in it every day. I guess the saying love makes the world go round has much wisdom.

Active Again

Today was the fourth day in a row that I had a full day of church activity. It was as if I'm not retired. I have to admit that I enjoyed everything that was part of that four days. I feel God's presence most when I'm serving Him. I think it is also because I'm spending so much time reading and praying in preparation. God becomes the center of my mind and centers my life even more in God's Holy Spirit.  At the same time I have to admit that I'm not as used to the energy level involved in being that active in ministry as before, but I was really happy that although I'm a little tired I'm not exhausted.
I know I'm a pretty active person anyway. People comment quite often about how busy I am between church and my hobbies and activities. Marsha and I always thought we were high energy people. We had our times in the day when we were quiet but we filled the rest of our time with a variety of things. I used to tease my grandchildren when they said they were bored by saying "Only boring people get bored." but in a certain sense I guess I really do believe that. The world is filled with so many things to think and do that boredom shocks me.
I think if my body ever starts to wear out, I'll need to write ten blogs a day in order to fill my time. Active is good isn't it? I love being active, especially if the activity is serving my God.

Convention Day

One of the things I love about the Episcopal Church is that it functions with a distributed power through the forum of a convention. Ordained and lay people meet together and have authority to influence and direct the life of a diocese. It seems only fitting in a country where democracy is the form of governance, that the church functions with a similar democratic structure. Today we will pray together, speak together and decide together some important proposals for the future of The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. I have not always been voting with the majority in my life as a lay person or as a priest in my years of ministry. I never stopped participating in the process even when at times I knew I was a part of a fading minority.
One thing I dislike about the Episcopal Church is that it functions with distributed power through the forum of a convention. I love our democracy, but right now all I see is a political game that ignores reality for the good of politics but not the good of the country or it's people. We are lost in a battle of words that causes paralysis by analysis. I've watched our country be manipulated in one direction or another by those in power without much concern for the common good. The same political process has been escalating in the decision making of the church, sometimes for good, but often for particular agendas that may not consistent with God's will. Unlike our country where our government is formed to uphold the right of all the people and to fulfill the will of the people, the church should only be concerned with God's will.
So I go today willing to play the part allowed for me in the ongoing life of this diocese in the work of God in the world. I will seek to represent God's will in this moment as best I can not my own personal agendas. My prayer is that we can find the will of God in great unity as we pray and decide together today at convention. Politics aside, this could be a great day.

The Changing Changlessness

I go to the beach frequently at Myrtle Beach State Park. I love the water and I love the beach. The sand at the state park is wonderful, with part of the beach soft and loose for a blanket and closer to the water hard packed for easy walking. I once was part of study that examined the shape of a beach through a year of seasonal changes. It is amazing how much material mother nature can move around from one season to another or one storm to another. I can see changes at the beach on an almost daily basis, while at the same time the tides still change in a very predictable manner and the waves still stroke the shore. It is one of those places in nature where change meets order, fluctuation meets stability.

I also watch the changes in life sometimes slow and easy and at other times swift and challenging. God is always present and appears to be different in the changing terrain of life. At the same time God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The march of history moves within the order and purpose of God toward the fulfillment of God's plan. Giving us free will makes the path look more like a maze than an ordered journey fitting neatly into the order and nature of God, but that is why we see so much change in the midst of God's changelessness.

Don't Worry Baby

I was watching a movie today on TV and a song was being sung while a couple was kissing. Now I have always Loved "The Beach Boys", they are from my era and it is just happy music. I like happy music. The song was "Don't Worry Baby" and it became as if Marsha was kissing me and singing to me, "Don't worry baby everything will turn out all right." From time to time I still need a good weep just for the fun of it. I know she wants me to be all right, and for the most part I am, but it is a process and it seems to have an ebb and flow that is unpredictable. I try to fathom what all right will look like if I get there, but it escapes me. I enjoy life and I have so much in my life that is meaningful and exciting and yet I'm not sure life is all right yet. What does all right look like? What does all right feel like? How would I recognize it if it appeared right in front of me?
One thing is certain and that is that God has been good to me. I know that I can trust Him with my future because He has been so trustworthy in my past. I have depended on Him in little things and big things for so long and he has never let me down. Especially as Marsha and I walked through our end time together, God was there for Marsha and for me. So maybe "Don't Worry Baby" makes me weep, but I know everything will be all right, and God will help me recognize it.