Some folks think that theology is a matter of defining God.  I’m not sure that God wants to be defined; God is a little too much of a slippery and ornery character for that.  I like the definition of theology that my seminary professor, Clark Williamson had for it:  Faith seeking Understanding.  Part of understanding God is to accept, and indeed dive into, that slippery character of Him/Her — the mystery, the beauty, the dynamic, ever-changing quality that eludes definition.  I guess that’s why I’m always a little suspicious of those that say that God thinks this, or God thinks that; how do they know?  Scripture can be used to support any number of human prejudices.

Yet, there are some things that can be said definitively about God.  God is love, God is joy, God is peace/wholeness, God is creative power.  God is a pretty dynamic Divine Being, with (in my imagination, which is my creative link with the Creator) one heck of a lot of personality.  My own “definition” of God is of an ornery, mysterious, passionately loving Practical Joker, with life being the journey to the next punch line.

Life sure is interesting looking at God that way.

Moments of tension in life are always part of our reality.  As human beings we may want to sit under our vine and fig tree, live in peace and be unafraid.  However, too much time under the fig tree would get to be very boring, wouldn’t it?

I don’t know whether heaven and/or hell are realities or metaphors for life, but if I would characterize the principle property of hell, it would be boredom — a grinding, soul-depleting power of purposeless.  Heaven, on the other hand, would be a realm of continued challenge and joy — maybe with a little less pain than we experience here?

At any rate, daughter time was, as it always is, a joy, even if there was a little angst in the middle of it.  I definitely was not bored!

Such goodbyes don’t take away the memories; they help to preserve them.  Who we are as people is, in part, who we’ve been in the past.  Of course, the more important part of ourselves is who we are in the present, which is the combination of our pasts, our gifts, skills, talents, and what we do with the gift that is today.

God, help me to build on the past by using my gifts today to make for a better tomorrow.  Oh, and I hope my trombone is put to good use in Haiti!

Between today and her early days, there’s been a lot of time passed with a lot of memories, and yet it seems like very little time at all.  I wonder, does God remember me as an infant?  Does God hold in the divine Mind all of my growing up (still a work in progress), as well as my mistakes, my sins, my gifts, and my goofinesses?   I think so; I believe so, but I also believe that God cherishes, in grace, the wholeness of the person that I have been, am now, and still may become — maybe even more than I do!

God, help me to cherish me the way I cherish my daughters, and help me to grow in cherishing You.

God created us to be diverse and different.  Sometimes that means that people are different in ways that conflict with our own ways.  One of the things I’ve tried to do in the past is to try to please everybody; now I realize that that’s just not possible.  So I examine myself with repentance (self-honesty), grieve some, and try to go on with the awareness that differences are there and need to be respected, while at the same time go on with the awareness that I’ve got to be who I am.  It’s painful, but it’s necessary pain.  Hopefully in the pain, disagreements don’t turn into conflicts.

God, help us to appreciate each other even though we all don’t act in ways that others would like us to.

Habits are one way of getting along in life; changing habits can be a way of getting along better.  Several months ago I was taking a route to my bank that had me crossing across traffic at a busy intersection.  I found myself approaching that intersection in a spirit of “preparing to be irritated” everytime I went to the bank.  Finally it occurred to me to see if I could find another route, and I did.  Of course, in getting used to that route, I almost ran red light and could’ve had a disasterous accident were it not for the luck of traffic at the intersection at that time.  Sometimes learning a new habit can be risky!

The Scriptures report God saying (at one point in the book of Revelation): “Behold, I make all things new.”  Habits can be ways of getting along in life, but they can also stifle opportunities for new life as it comes along.  In the worship and following of God, habits are often something we need to challenge within our lives and souls.

God, help me to move from where I am to where I need to be.

What does it mean to wait upon the Lord?  A couple of thoughts surface; sometimes to “wait” means to let time pass for the other to act.  You wait with patience, or you wait with anxiety, but you let the time pass until the time is ripe for a particular action or pursuit.  Another meaning of wait is one of serving; to “wait upon” a person is something that people in the restaurant business make their livelihoods off of, and they get good tips or bad tips depending on both the quality of the service and (sometimes) the mentality of the customer.  Yet to wait upon the Lord in this definition of waiting means almost the opposite of the former definition.

Can both be right?  I think so.   Those who work at discerning God’s will in their lives can renew their strength through prayer and reflection; those who serve the Lord with gladness can renew their strength by action.  Maybe it’s two sides of the same coin; perhaps God is saying through Isaiah that if God is in your action and God is in your contemplation, you’re strength can be renewed at all times.  Of course, the trick is to let God do that with us.

These days when I get caught in helplessness it affects my biochemistry.  The hormones and adrenaline rush in, and the resultant feeling is anxiety.  Bummer.  What I’m learning (slowly) from such times is to not rush into frantic activity, but rather to grow still and see where the journey goes and grows.

God, help us to turn our helpless times over to You, that You might return to us hope.

We have a tough time giving things over to God, or when we try to give them, we take them back.  Bad habits, desires that go against holiness, thinking in the spirit of American positivism that we can accomplish things that are noteworthy or lasting with, perhaps a slight nod to the divine, but not really letting God in.  The toughest, but most worthwhile, job we have during our short time on this planet is learning to trust in the Holy.  It’s really the only eternal game in town.

God, help me to turn it over to you.

I may never encounter these folks again, nor does that matter.  The point of the encounters, as near as I can figure out, is to be genuinely me, and to try to be genuinely Christian in the midst of the circumstances.

Sometimes we worry too much about what we do ahead of time, rather than just being who we are in the midst of the times we’re in.  If we truly trust in God, God will provide the opportunities to share Christ with others.