Realizing

I have been realizing over the past few weeks what I heard at a clergy conference many years ago. It wasn’t anything that ‘new’ or ‘old,’ not even prophetic. I know for sure it was what I needed to hear, possibly others needed as well, however it was not until recently I have experienced it more so in my life. And it will make sense why, as what I heard from the keynote speaker, the retired Right Reverend Frank Griswold, was this: ‘Our way of life centered in the Book of Common Prayer affords us all the means to navigate our changing circumstances in our ministries with a loving, non-changing God always present to feed us.’

Frank was of course naming the totality of a long-standing tradition of the Christian faith in sacramental living, being fed by Word and Wine, Liturgy of Word and Table. Yet, he followed this by sharing a moment of being fed by the Word alone at a particular moment in his life. He told a story of how he broke his ankle while hiking because his focus was not on the path, but on his laundry list of things to do. As he waited in the hospital to get his ankle attended to, he picked up his Book of Common Prayer to pray the Daily Office and the appointed Psalm was Psalm 18. He grumbled as he mentioned not one of his favorite Psalms due to the Warrior God metaphor reigning destruction upon enemies, however on this day it was just what he needed. In Psalm 18 there is a verse that goes, ‘You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn’ and he laughed commenting, it took breaking my ankle to realize that my path that day was the all too common distractions of life that deflect us from our mindfulness of God and attention on the path we are on at that moment. 

As we navigate our common life together in Christ there will always be distractions. At this time where we are working with new models of being Church it creates even more distractions. Life in Christ is not an easy path to follow, however as Frank mentioned it often takes being broken to realize something that is always been present, ‘God broadens our paths’ at all times. As we forge ahead on our path toward the next steps let us keep our attention on the broad paths God creates for us.   

Peace

Doug