Wandering For God

A pastor journals his struggles with faith. Please also visit my daily devotion at Dailypotpourri.tumblr.com

[wanderingforgod]

Mirage

     People who write the history for our generation will need to include some chapters on the lies we listened to, the deceptions we followed, the mirages we believed in.  They will record us not as the realists we believe ourselves to be, but as a generation of people who hid from reality; a whole society of people who would not believe unpleasant facts.  They will say that we lived in a world of make-believe -- and we lived there cheerfully.  

     Those historians who are people of spiritual insight will write of our political and societal failings being caused by our spiritual vision becoming lost in favor of the wisdom and sovereignty of humanity.  They will say that our world today became a manifestation of our moral confusions and our belief that we had become wiser than God.  

     There is no area of life that not been touched.  Henry Ford called the technology of his day “a power which has done more to emancipate man than the power of religion.”  Medical science has become the new cathedral of human hope -- that to which we turn for deliverance.  Karl Marx said, “not prayers, but plows.”  

     It has become not so much a question of defying God, or even denying Him, we simply choose to ignore God.  We exclude God and leave nothing for Him to do as if we do not need Him anymore.  Why bother with God when humanity, on its own, can learn all that needs to be done?  C.K. Chesterton said of all this that humans keep coming up with “cures that don’t cure, blessings that don’t bless, and solutions that don’t solve.”  

     The old Soviet Union tried to build a social order on a nonreligious foundation.  They conducted their business and ordered their lives as though God did not exist.  “Religion has outlived its usefulness,” Vladimir Lenin wrote -- then they collapsed.  

[wanderingforgod]

Righteousness V. Justice

Recently I wrote a letter to the editor of a local newspaper.  My letter was in response to a column which ran saying that church’s are missing the mark by not holding discussions and preaching more about social issues which are current in our society.  The overall theme of the article was that the church is abdicating its leadership position by being silent  and not addressing social justice issues.  As a result, people are walking away from the church.  

My response raised the question about the church’s primary responsibility.  Obviously, the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the primary responsibility of the  church.  As I said in my letter, that is self-explanatory and needs no further unpacking. But another “Great End” of the church is “the promotion of social righteousness.”  

Righteousness and justice are different.  Simply put, righteousness speaks to nobility, integrity, honor, and sinlessness.  Justice is focused on fairness, equality, impartiality, etc.  When the people are righteous, when societies are righteous, justice follows.  When righteousness is known, there is no need for discussion about societal issues of the day because they no longer exist.  

To focus on justice is to focus on the human perspective, whereas the promotion of righteousness is to focus on God and our attaining a measure of stature of the fullness of Christ.  We are called to be a righteous people -- justice will follow.    

[wanderingforgod]

The Social Gospel

     My ministry has covered the last quarter of the 20th century and the first 20 years of the 21st century.  During this time, the ideology of social gospel has been very much in vogue. Simply put, if we identify problems in society and apply Christian ethics to them, those problems will be mended and result in the Kingdom of God being brought closer to reality.  

     This whole theology of a social gospel has always caused me a great deal of discomfort, and I have struggled to understand why.  After all, is this not what the church is to do in the world? Are we not to address poverty, inequality, racial tensions, war, etc.?  Are we not to lift the down-trodden, help the afflicted, supply those in need?  Is not justice for all achieved through equality for all?  “Yes” to each of these.  So the fact that this has caused me discomfort at all has haunted me as well.  

     I believe now that I have finally come to discern the roots of my misgivings. The modern idea that the Kingdom of God is to come by the gradual accomplishments of various humanitarian efforts, social reforms and the sprinkling of Christian ethics across the whole of society is to put human well-being over the need for the Gospel.  This belief stands in sharp contrast to the Church’s long held doctrine and teaching that the Kingdom of God among us requires a transformation among people which only God can do.  Humanity cannot rid itself of social evils.  A society can only be transformed when the individuals who make up that society are changed – and that can only happen through preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

     Neither can the Kingdom of God be attained by a society which rejects the beliefs of Christianity while attempting to put into place the ethical principles of Christianity.   The Kingdom will not come through efforts to benefit human society at the expense of Glorifying God.  The Church has always done most for the world when she has had the least to do with the world.  It truly is as Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “Come out from among them and be separated.”

[wanderingforgod]

A Majority of One

“One with God is a majority” – The Scottish Covenanters

      I was once asked if I would ever consider leaving the denomination.  “Is there anything which would push you over the edge and cause you to leave?”  My answer was “no,” but I fumbled with an explanation as to why.  After many years I now believe I know why.  

     I have never been a schematic person, nor have I ever been drawn toward sects in the Church.  It has been sad to see so many of my friends, those whom I have respected and admired over the years, leave the denomination. I have never found merit in denominationalism, the leaving of one denomination to form or unite with another, because I believe that act to be a wrongful dividing of Christ’s Body.  I, on the other hand, choose not to secede yet remain independent of the body.  Even though I choose to remain in the visible church of my youth, I do so not at the price of compromise or indifference to the doctrines and the errors which have arisen.  In this regard I find myself drawn to and more closely aligned with the old Scottish Covenanters, those souls of the Church of Scotland who from within the church continually fought to keep Her pure to their Biblical understanding of who the church is and Her proper place in the world.    

     In more recent years I have experienced much pressure to go along with the “majority” and their thinking regarding contemporary interpretations if not outright denial of the old church’s faith – the emphasis of action over belief; the work to fit the church into society rather than mold society to please God; the struggle to bring about unity outside of and apart from unity in Christ; this litany is another long one.  What I have come to learn is that it is neither safe nor right to act against my conscience.  I am accountable to a Higher Authority, so I now do not hesitate to proclaim what I know to be correct.  Yet it is baffling how schematic this position and those interpretations have become.      

[wanderingforgod]

Ash Wednesday Thought

     It seems a universal truth across congregations that the louder the organist plays the prelude, the louder people talk.  A friend of mine once told me about his organist abruptly stopping in the middle of the prelude just to listen to the people shouting at one another.  It just seems to be the nature of who we are. 

     It does raise some interesting questions and thoughts.  If the organist is playing Bach or Handel, and the listeners are not listening, then Bach or Handel is not being heard.  It seems kind of like the old question about a tree falling in the forest -- if no one hears it fall, does it make a sound?  

     I wonder if this same principle applies to the forgiveness of God?  There is a Japanese proverb which says: “Forgiving the unrepentant is like drawing pictures on water.”  How does human pride accept being forgiven?  Yet when looking at the Cross, how can we be unrepentant?  Does God draw pictures in water?  

    Accepting forgiveness from God may well be harder today than at any time previous in history.  We are told that we are not wrong.  We are taught that we are not at fault for our actions.  People say that our deeds are justified.  We are encouraged to take pride and be self-affirming.  “You will not be able to move forward in life until you forgive yourself,” counselors tell us.  As a result, we go through life believing that we can chart our own course and cleanse our own life.  In short: We are our own undoing; we are not listening; we are talking over the voice of God.  

     Yet Truth does not give up on us.  So we begin asking more questions: How can a person’s actions be right when the reasons for those actions are not right?  How can a person make himself or herself clean?  How can guilt be pushed down when the result of keeping it is far worse?  It is also written: “Self-pardon leads nowhere but to self-hate held intact by pride.”   

     If you ever want clarity and simplicity in life, never go to God.  It would appear that there is still one more step necessary to prove that your are listening -- you must forgive, as you have been forgiven.  God’s pardon of us demands that we forgive our enemies -- as we hope to be forgiven by them.  But remember this: Forgiveness of another person is not something which can be done when or if you decide to do it.  Forgiveness, true forgiveness, is given to another person our of love’s pain.  It can come from nowhere else.  

     Are you listening?  Are you hearing forgiveness speaking?  Or are you too busy talking?  

[wanderingforgod]

Everything Nailed Down

     This past week an old friend wrote to me: “Faith is intact without certainty of what to do next.”  How true that often seems.  A tangled, disarranged time as ours shakes the confidence in many of not just our life truths but our religious truths also.  Many people see our present day as a confused, purposeless mess, where everything that is being done stems from a position of shortsightedness.    

      It’s all kind of like the 400 year old tale of Sinbad the Sailor.  He anchored his boat on what he believed to be an island, but then it proved to be a great sea beast that took off swimming across the tumultuous ocean pulling Sinbad and his boat right along.  Just so, a lot of people believe our trusted stabilities failing and a disturbed society dragging us right along with it.  

     “Everything nailed down is comin’ lose” says the Angel Gabriel to the Lord in the old play Green Pastures.  Societal customs, economic conditions, institutions, ethical standards, ideas long held -- all that was once thought solid and durable now seems as fragile and fleeting as winter’s frost on a window pane.  Even the Psalmist doesn’t make us feel better when he cries out to God regarding the foundations of the earth: “They will perish...they will all wear out like a garment.  Like clothing you will change them, and they will be passed on.”  Robert Browning may have written: “God’s in his heaven, All’s right with the world,” but it took an American soldier to write: “God’s in his heaven, All’s riot with the world.” 

     “We live on a transient planet, in an exploding universe” as someone once described this world of ours.  And that proves true, we know it every day.  Yet the truth is that even as chaotic and unsettling as these times appear, they can illuminate our faith and give to us an even greater meaning.  This runaway world in which we live is still inhabited by the Eternal.  Life’s seeming erratic, volatile, and fickle behavior is still penetrated by an unchanging purpose.  Behind, before, and within it all, “from everlasting to everlasting” there stands God, as the Psalmist reminds us.  

     We have another vocabulary to hang on to, and this lexicon is filled with such words as: unchangeable; permanent; and eternal.  There is something else which resides among us, and that is everlasting.  Not all is in flux -- there does exist that which is not perishing.  

      The highest and best in us is not found in bemoaning the world around us, but in taking this shaken time and discovering that which is unshakable.  When everything that can totter and fall is staggering, that is the time for our eyes to focus on what is firm, and see the eternal permeating this present world.  Here and now is when, more than any other, we look to a sure foundation upon which to stand secure.  When we have done this, we will find a spiritual victory which our present generation so desperately needs.  No longer shall we be victims of chaos and happenstance.  No longer are change and variation enemies to be feared.  

     Deformation and alteration are inevitable in a world such as ours where the eternal purpose and biding laws of a personality like Christ are constantly being worked out.  But when viewed with the eyes of faith, the very chaos and instability which once confused us, now challenges us to take the Christians victory out into an upset world.  We have the faith to do this because “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 

[wanderingforgod]

Growth Through Humility

“There can be only two basic loves, the love of God unto the forgetfulness of self, or the love of self unto the forgetfulness and denial of God.”-- St. Augustine

     I have interviewed for many positions over the years, and I have come to learn very well what Pastor Search Committees are going to ask.  They want to know about structuring staff; they want to know about working with committees; they want to know about increasing membership, growing the youth program, and if I like to teach.  PNC’s want to know about the ministers perspective on Mission and Outreach.  Seldom is anything much asked or said about preaching because the Committee can look online and/or attend a worship service.  I have also found that Search Committees, as a whole, tend not to focus on the content of sermons so much as they do on the style.  So, having majored in Theater with an emphasis on Speech, style was never an issue.  Congregations loved my preaching and I loved to preach.   

     With all of that in mind, I was interviewing, some years back, with a good sized congregation outside of a major Metroplex.  The interview was via a good old fashioned “conference call” with me on one end and the Search Committee gathered around a speaker phone some 200 miles away.  

     Things were rocking right along on script and I was nailing every question.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, one older gentleman broke in and asked: “What is the central theme of your preaching?”  Really?  What is the central theme of my preaching?  I have been doing this for 30 years and no one have ever asked me that before.  Isn’t it obvious?  I proclaim the Word of God.  I function very well in many styles.  Congregations appreciate the whole worship experience which I build.  

     Well anyway, after sailing through 45 minutes of perfectly polished answers, I get this “What is the central theme of your preaching?” and my mind went blank.  Not figuratively blank but literally blank.  It was like my whole thought pattern locked-up.  I could not even come up with some basic word of our faith from which I could make up an answer.  I could not think of Cross; I could not think of Salvation; I could not think of Jesus; I could not think of God!  I stammered; I “uuummmed’” I even asked the questioner something which is too embarrassing to put into print.  The interview ended about 2 minutes later.  

     Hanging up the phone I was experiencing the most humiliating time of my life. I withdrew from my work.  I avoided people whom I would normally spend time with.  I spent time praying, pondering, reading and wondering whether I had adhered to or profess a central theme at all over the years.  Had I loved myself and forgotten God?

     So it was that one afternoon, weeks later, my eyes fell upon the words of Paul: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” ( I Corinthians 2:2 )  There it was.  There was the theme of my preaching for however much longer God allowed me.  It no longer mattered what had been -- this now became what would be.  In Christ and His blood, there is found the fullness of God; the Love and the forgiveness of the world.  In Christ is the Incarnation; the story of Salvation; and the agony of God’s calling.  When I preach Christ, I preach to the eternities.  What Christ is brought to a lost world, the door to eternity is opened.  When Christ is preached we grab hold of the Vine which runs through the eternities, we grasp hold of the Divine, and we are bound to the ages, because we are grafted into the One to whom the ages belong.  

     From that day forward, Jesus Christ and him crucified, became the theme of my preaching and is always present in my mind as I prepare and write and deliver.  Yet, both surprisingly and sadly, I have paid a painful price for this -- and it has been a deep disappointment where the harshest of that criticism has come from.  But that is a topic for another day.   

[wanderingforgod]

1887 - 2021

I attended a death yesterday.  Born January 1, 1887 -- died January 31, 2021.  She was 134 years old.  

As we listened to her last breaths, we remembered her life.  We remembered her gifts and the reason for her living.  We remembered the love, the dedication, the joys, pains, and struggles of a lifetime.  We remembered her growth and we remembered her decline.  We laughed at her stumbles and we embraced her successes.  More than anything, we were reminded of her influence -- how she touched and impacted lives in such a way that she will live on for several generations to come.  It hurt, but within our time together, we were able to find a measure of solace and joy, because we also remembered God, the Author and Finisher of all.    

One little dash.  It doesn’t seem enough to express what she has meant to so many souls.  Perhaps some of the pain of it stems from the reminder that all comes to an end in time.  We all are born and we all must die.  But between those two givens we are free to make decisions -- decisions that effect the quality of who we are and what goes on around us in life.  

Born January 1, 1887 -- Died January 31, 2021.  For First Presbyterian Church, that dash means a great deal.  What will it say about me one day?  

[wanderingforgod]

Roads Go Ever On

“The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some large way,

Where many paths and errands meet.”   --J.R.R.Tolkien

The last 40 years has taught me that ministry is – among other things – leaving.  It seems that the minister is always leaving – one church for another church; one focus for another focus; one ministry for another ministry. Relationships die – which is to leave, then new ones emerge to fill a void – somewhat.  Groups disband, but an individual remains.  

Committees such as Worship and Mission and Evangelism are always saying that we have to change what we do and how we do it, which is a form of death – leaving the old behind.  Of course we all know how that plays out when the minister puts such a course of action into practice – his or her leaving.

I’m currently serving in my 9th church.  My plan following number 3 was to serve a church 20 years, then retire.  God laughed.  My plan was to minister with a congregation for a long committed ministry, all the while preaching the Word and just being the Church.  God said “No.”  My plan was to love and be loved by a precious group of Saints who would pursue where Christ led us over an extended period of time.  God said “Ain’t gonna happen.”  My plan was to be a symbol of stability in a time of change.  God said “Really?”  

Taking me out of “Called” ministry and placing me into Transitional Ministry, I have been forced to learn how to leave.  I have had to leave one town or one city for another; old ways that I love have been left behind; dreams I looked forward to have been left as dreams; stability left begging in favor of constant shifts and modifications; new friends left on the doorstep of my heart.  

More than anything though, I have had to leave my natural desire to be an established, deep-rooted anchor for a family of faith and become God’s agent of remaking, reworking, and redoing.  The old saying is: Change does not occur unless a sufficient amount of pain is caused to force it.  Leaving behind the old conflict avoidance me, and learning to be the conflict causing me was, and continues to be a very difficult ask.  

I was asked the other day by my “supervisors” what I plan to do after I leave this church.  I said that I was open to talking about it and considering various places where my ministry is needed.  Obviously, I am not ready to leave active ministry, but then God will have His way and I will leave when He says so.  

“The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.  

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with weary feet,

Until it joins some larger way,

Where many paths and errands meet.  

And whither then? I cannot say.”  

 “The Road goes ever on and on

Out from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone.

Let others follow, if they can!

Let them a journey new begin.

But I at last with weary feet

Will turn towards the lighted inn,

My evening-rest and sleep to meet.”  

[wanderingforgod]

The Hole

“Self-Rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life.” -- Henri J. M. Nouwen

     Across 40 years of ministry I have known, ministered to and worked with thousands of gentle, gracious and joyous saints.  They are the ones who love who they are, who God calls them to be, and who strive to take in and embrace all who share this life with them.  

     A very distressing contradiction in the church though has been the fierce despise that others have shown.  Those who have said that I have nothing to say which they want to hear.  Those who have voiced that they do not trust what I might say so they are not going to invite anyone to come to church.  Those who, without ever meeting me, listening to me, or reading any or my writings assert that I am responsible for other peoples negative actions, reactions and perspectives.  

     Eventually those few led to a questioning of self and a rejecting of who I believed myself to be.  My prayers and times of meditation ceased to be finding that connection with the Sacred.  I would no longer allow myself to bathed in the Mystery.  In short I questioned who I was and quit listening to the One who made me, loves me, and guides me all of my days.  My prayers became: “Lord, cause/help me to be the person they want me to be -- the person they will listen to.”  

     It took a lot of years to crawl out of that hole and remember to pray: “Lord, place upon my lips the words you would have me to say.”  “Lord, give me your wisdom to interact with those lives you would have me touch.”  “Lord, keep me on the path which you place before me.”  

     I guess it all comes down to remembering the real question: Who does the minister represent?  

[wanderingforgod]

Projection

“God made man in his own image and man returned the compliment” -- Blaise Pascal

Many years ago I came across the exercise of standing in a public place for 1 hour and asking myself what God saw.  All excited over this new found way of approaching ministry, I did just that.  I went to a local Wal Mart and stood around for 1 hour watching the people and repeatedly thought to myself: “O Lord, let me see what you see.”  What happened was neither what I wanted nor expected.

I listened to the self-centered arrogance of people around me and became frustrated that the person did not speak in public the way I would.  I watched the impudent child and wondered why the adult did not respond as I would.  I evaluated clothes, hair, accessories and wondered what that told me about the individual.  I even tried to justify it all by asking myself: “Ok, if this is what God wants me to see then what am I to do about it?”  After all, God must see these same things.  

Not sharing my results I asked Session (Council) to do this same exercise.  I was still struggling with approaching ministry outside the congregation in a whole new way and continued to believe that I had something here to work with -- I just didn’t yet know exactly what.  Out of the 12 Session members, 1 did the exercise in a grocery store parking lot.  Hmmm, what did this now tell me?  (May be a topic for another day)

It took a couple of months wrestling over everything, but I believe I finally saw what God wanted me to see.  I forgot to look for “the image of God.”  I forgot to search for God Himself in each individual who passed.  I forgot to remind myself: “God loves you, and so do I.”  I forgot to ask where they hurt, what they were afraid of and why the aloneness haunted them so?  

It has been close to 25 years since that time -- and I still wrestle with it.  It is very hard to lay down my projections and assumptions that God evaluates the world the way I do.  But then, I’m still a work in progress, and pray that God does not return the compliment of seeing me as I sometime see Him.    

[wanderingforgod]

And So It Began

          I remember it as yesterday.  I was walking across the campus of the University of Oklahoma on a chilly November evening in 1972.  It was already dark outside and the lights from the Library windows lit the path before me.  I can still see the tree I was approaching and preparing to walk under.  I do not remember where I had been or to where I was going, but this moment, this instant of my life lives as a frozen photograph imprinted upon my mind.  

          Suddenly, all around me and deep within me, there was God.  As sure as the sound of my steps or the sight of the other souls who traveled that sidewalk with me, God grabbed me, filled me, and set within me a sure knowledge that He is here.  

         That is the moment I point to within myself which marks the beginning of my journey into ministry.  But, in truth, I know it to go much further back from there.  I remember the minister of our church, Dr. John Marvin, at our home for dinner one evening and saying to my parents, “he belongs to the church.”  How did he know?  From what source did those words arise?  I remember another minister, Dr. Bill Llewelyn, who cared about me, worried about me, and disciplined me when I was unwilling to care for myself.  I remember names, whose faces I cannot recall, who taught me – not from a book but from the crucible of their life.  

         I embrace this all deep within myself, yet I ran from it. I ran far and I ran hard to get away. These are stories for another day, perhaps when I am more ready to speak of them.  Suffice to say that I am still coming to terms with many of them.  Can we work them out together?

         Maybe that is what I am now finally ready to accomplish – the coming to terms with 41 years of ministry.  Where my thoughts and the stories may take me, I do not yet know. But if anyone finds within a blessing, I will be blessed and perhaps come to know a deeper peace within myself.

#faith; #faith journey; #struggle; #religion; #God; #searching; #religion; #Christianity; #Christian

[wanderingforgod]

Prayer

Like one who is weary of the plow, and leaves it standing in the furrow, foolishly we turn from your presence and journey into a land where water never flows.  O God, you are the Lord of Life, and you give endlessly more than we could ever find or know.  Turn us back to you, our Source, our Flowing Water of Life.

Our desire is to work, to know, to serve, and we are restless until we find that which resides in your will.  So on your altar we lay our lives.  Grant that we may no more go our from your presence.  Keep us ever watchful for your will, that we may join your Spirit in pursuing the tasks you lay before us.  Then in all we do, at all times and places, keep us still of heart, that we may watch for your presence among us.  Keep us with you, and call us out of the dark of our lives into the light of your glory.  Keep our going out and our coming in from this day forth, and for ever more.  Amen 

[wanderingforgod]

Deeper Still

O God, no word we speak tells how deep we know you.  No wind that blows says the depth of your name across our hearts. No rainbow seen proclaims the fullness of your grandeur.  We know you in a deeper way – deeper than any way known.  A heart at peace is far loftier proof of you than any gift the world can bestow.  Grant us that gift – a heart being at rest with you.  Grant us to know you, to feel you as even your Son did feel you near and know of your abiding care.

You are more near to us than thinking, and closer than our own will is to our own love.  But still we long to be one with you – truly, completely, all-in-all.  Then shall our hearts embrace you fully and perfect bliss enfold us.    

[wanderingforgod]

O Lord Jesus, how can we imagine you sitting still, quietly ordering all things according to your will and having muted conversations with your Father?  Surely you must be busy like us, journeying about and spreading your healing grace throughout the generations.  You fill all things, and your power reaches into each one of us. Passing through the channels of my mind, the rays of your thought fall across my conscious, even when I am lost in the depths of sleep.  

So close, so personal, so common is your abiding, that your presence seems as only another phase of myself. But because of you, nearer am I to you than I am to me.  From your home into my home, from your life into my life, you come.  And because of your coming, your loves become my love, and your will and my will become the same.  Then in that place, my life’s true condition become yours, and your will holds me – I have no mine that is not yours.  

[wanderingforgod]

Twin Hearts

O Dear God, the fish you create live, but only where the waters flow; the birds fly, but only within you your sea of air; our souls breathe, but only in your infinite being. We breathe, we think, we love, only in you.  O that you will breathe your love into us.  Unworthy as we are, fill us with your divine Spirit until you see in us only what is yours.  

Then shall we breathe out the sweetest sharing; then shall we gather and embrace in harmony; then shall we love well all others and embrace their life within our own heart.  Then shall we be theirs and they be ours and we be one together – every human heart a twin.  

[wanderingforgod]

O Lord, as we walk through the door of a new year, be Thou the first of our lives; be Thou the One; be Thou the Calling which leads us; the answer to Love; and in us each awaken hope, fear, boundless desire, and a passion for Christ that exceeds the cold of life.  

On this frigid, dark morning, arise in the east of our hearts the glowing embers of your pure grace.  In your gentleness and truth lead back our souls by whatever path is needed.  Led by your flame warmed Spirit, show us the bright road leading to your footstool, where we may rest, listen , and share with you the deeps of our lives.  And in that time of sharing , grant us better sight, better hearing, and a humble heart to share with all the joy of your presence.  Amen