Daring to Live Differently : On the Road Chaplain

Daring to Live Differently… Hello weekend readers. Al and I were off for a few days up in the Carson National Forest. Our time was magical and majestic! For me, a huge mixed Conifer forest is magical, especially when mushroom season is on and you see all those “gnome-homes.” Not that I put a lot into fairies and gnomes, but you almost want to look for them in their tiny houses at the base of a huge Ponderosa Pine!

Then there is the majestic—100’+plus trees that clap their hands for you in the winds and creak as they gently bend in the wind. And the Aspens—did you know that with a little wind they sing an incredible song? You can’t see it, but you hear it. Wednesday night was one more majestic show in the cosmos—the July Super-moon. As it came up through the trees I imagined Elliott with ET in his bike-basket flying over the moon-how delightful indeed.

All this brought me to musing about creation and creative minds and the joy and wonder of what we often see and hear and sometimes not see but still it is there. And that sent me to poet/pastor, Drew Jackson. I just love his books, God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming and Touch the Earth: Poems on The Way. They remind me of God’s incredible creativity and the creativity God has placed in each of us.

A Fuller Theological Seminary grad (go Fuller!-I did), Drew found his way not only as pastor but spiritual poet and author. His perspectives are profound-they make you think. He dares us to live differently and I like that because that’s how Al and I see life. As camp-hosts and avid hikers and RV’rs, we see a side of life that many folks never take the chance to see, hear, and experience—things that often we cannot see but it fills us with wonder and awe.

So, what fills you with wonder and awe? What creativity blows your mind? Are you searching for such things? What magical and majestic things have touched your life lately? If we can’t answer some of these questions I think we’re stuck in a box—yet God is calling us to live differently. Soak in the words from Pastor Jackson’s poem, This Unveiling.

What is it that we cannot see…this Unveiling
This is the pressing question of every age:
What is it that we cannot see?
For life is hiddenness, as is God,
and we have been given the gift of searching.

The unseen works on us, always.
Waves pulsing through our flesh, unfelt.
Forces pulling at our bodies.
Forces putting black bodies in cells en masse.
Each one underneath a veil of opacity that we call law.

All that is hidden is meant to be revealed, yet revelation cannot be achieved.
It comes when it comes,
when it wants to unearth itself—
fall from the heavens like light to those who have insisted it lay itself bare.

This unveiling — daring us to live differently.

Just writing this with Drew’s permission, makes me want to hook up the RV and get outside again…Ah, next week will have to do. Until then, I want to keep searching, and for me it will be in the forest, gazing at the cosmos, or kayaking on the lake, breathing in clean air and being delighted with the fish that jump and the Herons on the shore who watch me as much as I watch them. Believe me, when you search you find different things you’ve missed and once you find them, like King David, you live differently because God’s creativity has touched you beyond belief—AMEN!
(Below are sections from Psalm 19 using The Voice translation)

The celestial realms announce God’s glory; the skies testify of His hands’ great work.
Each day pours out more of their sayings; each night, more to hear and more to learn.
Inaudible words are their manner of speech and silence, their means to convey.
Yet from here to the ends of the earth, their voices have gone out; the whole world can hear what they say.

The Eternal’s law is perfect, turning lives around.
His words are reliable and true, instilling wisdom to open minds.
The Eternal’s directions are correct, giving satisfaction to the heart.
God’s commandments are clear, lending clarity to the eyes.
The awe of the Eternal is clean, sustaining for all of eternity.
The Eternal’s decisions are sound; they are right through and through.