Dreams Unlocked

Last Friday - the beginning of the Battle. I had knee surgery last Friday to correct an injury sustained while trail running 2 years ago. I tore the meniscus in my left knee. For the past 2 years I did physiotherapy to try to manage the pain and discomfort. (I need to write another post about the difference between American and Canadian health care - let me just say - you get what you pay for). But, this post is focused on this past week - a week of forced indolence. I was in a lot of pain and discomfort. And I was always tired. I'm tired right now. I had to postpone several meetings that I had scheduled. I did go to a staff lunch meeting and a Bible Study with our small group. - But was exhausted at the end of that day. It looks like this week might be a repeat of last week - although I will be at church tomorrow, speaking briefly in the Adult Ed. Class and then attending worship. I also am speaking 4 times next weekend - I'll be speaking at a Cornell InterVar...

Dear God, Teach me silence that I might learn to hear. Teach me to love you from my inmost being.                  to wait on You.                  to never ask anything that is outside of Your will.                  to let you act within my soul, forming within it true prayer. When you start to work within me, you release inner power that I might be faithful every hour, in focusing on You. Your presence in my life is a precious gift. Teach me to guard it and steward all that you have gifted me with. Amen. (adapted from Jean-Nicholas Grou).

Leslie Newbign was a missionary to India from Scotland. He joined the Church of South India and eventually rose to the rank of bishop. When he came back to the West, he saw that the Western's Christian moorings had been jettisoned. He began to make the case that the Church now has to approach ministry as a missionary in a foreign culture. We no longer spoke the same vernacular as everyone else. Newbign challenged us to abandon the myth of the modern world. This myth is that a person can jettison faith in God and rest in science and naturalism and still enjoy the following things: meaning in life a basis for human dignity moral consensus hope character shared values strong community Newbign argued that all of the above were facades in a culture that had set off on her journey without God. Humans left to their own are not strong enough to formulate the things needed to secure healthy community and meaning in life. We struggle and stumble - but it remai...