Hmmm

The Gospel is like the flight of a hummingbird. Many directions, hard to track, stands still only for a moment, long enough for you to wish time would stand still, and then zip! You begin to seek after what you were just witnessing, to want it again. The Gospel of Christ has this kind of characteristic.

One Water Story

Our Gospel passage for this Sunday Aug 10 has Peter trying out a Jesus-thing; he takes a few steps on turbulent water, toward his Lord. He quite literally gets in over his head. (What's the history of that phrase?) I've been thinking this week about my interactions with water.

When I was probably heading into my sophomore year of high school, it was summer, and a friend of mine named Bob invited me to join him and his church youth on camp-out at Strawberry Lake MN. His family was and still is, Roman Catholic with a French heritage. Just thought I'd throw that in for the sake of detail, nothing else.

This story has to do with my eyeglasses. I had convinced my parents (took more doing that perhaps it should have) that I needed to see the eye doctor, and so when I was in 7th grade I had new glasses. It sure helped. I remember looking up at the lights in a Walgreens and marveling at the detail. I could see down the entire aisle! Man, what had I been missing?

So by the time I was in high school I was wearing specs. I of course had them along on this camping trip too. Bob and I decided one afternoon that we wanted to take a canoe out, and while we were paddling away, things of course got a little out of hand. We wanted to see how wobbly we could make the canoe and still not swamp it.

Before long we had gone past that threshold and we were fling through the air (it seemed) into the lake. Our life vests gave us a boost and minus the embarrassment we were no worse for the wear. It was going to be complicated to get back into the canoe, or back to shore, but we were up to it.

Except now my glasses weren't on my face anymore. They were nowhere. Imagine the thoughts that run through a teenager's head at this point, mostly having to do with one's parents. OMG what are my parents going to say? I was very worried and was beginning to think that I was going to have to tell my parents the awful news: I have lost my glasses at the bottom of a lake.

And then, something tickled or rested for a moment on the top of my right foot. I was dangling there, suspended in the water, and I thought could this be my glasses? With my other foot I trapped them and slowly brought them up, leaning down to reach them with my hand. Sure enough, my glasses, on their descent, had by chance landed on my foot. What are the odds? I guess in some things and at some times, I am lucky.

I can't remember if I even told mom and dad about that near loss.

Back into the Swing of things

I give thanks to God for this time that I was able to have, of renewal, of reconnecting with family, of learning. Yesterday was my first Sunday back. The congregation had a cake for me which read, "Welcome back Paster James." Only a few people noticed the typo. This was a fun time of reconnecting with the people who have called me to be their pastor. Now comes the interesting and exciting challenge of seeing how things could be approached from a different perspective.

Good times reconnecting with people in the congregation. Now it's time to be back into the swing of things. I'm in the back and forth rhythms now (sorta like a pendulum), and am seeking to function better out of my sense of call to the ministry of Word and Sacrament.

This is a quick little note to say I've enjoyed my sabbatical and will think of experiences of that time, far into the future.