Pastor Brian's Ruminations

August 24, 2007

Dear fellow sojourners on the journey of faith,

In late July Kay and Caitlyn and I joined Colin out in the Grand Tetons, adjacent to Yellowstone, for our annual summer vacation.  Colin was working for an airline at the Jackson Hole airport this summer and served as our tour guide.  How majestic the Grand Tetons are!  We had the chance to see them in brilliant sunshine, in fog, in the increasing dusk, and most stunningly as thunderstorms rolled through.

We made several hikes of varying lengths.  As Kay and I started off on a two-hour hike, Colin (20) and Caitlyn (18) started off-almost sprinting-on what the map said was a six-hour hike.  It was another exercise in letting go for us as parents, another exercise in trust.  Sure enough they made it back just fine, in five hours!

Next week we move Caitlyn into her freshman dorm at UW-Madison.  It’s another exercise in trust, another exercise in letting go.  And we do so with a rich mixture of pride and sadness and excitement and wonder at her unfolding life journey.

I believe that God trusts us in deeply significant ways.  God trusts us to build relationships of care and mutuality, to seek justice, to create beauty, speak truth, and live goodness.  The fact that we humans face great suffering and tragedy in life speaks to a Creator God who has great faith in us indeed.  It is this God who in Christ suffers with us and not apart from us, this God who in Christ calls us toward living the reign of compassion and justice and truth each day. 

Don’t forget your water bottle on the path this week.  See you in worship!

Brian

P.S. Keep the Well in your prayers…and consider signing up to be part of the Covenant of 100!