Thursday’s Thirst

I have been reading the Psalms this week and something has jumped out at me as never before.  Many of the psalms view the past and the present with very differing thoughts.  The present is seen as a cup half full, and often times much worse, questioning God’s lack of concern and action.  However memories of the past focus upon the faithfulness of God, his acts of deliverance and consistent love.  I guess people today complaining about the present and talking about “the good old days” is nothing new.

As is my custom, I am currently reading two books. I started reading both of them the same day a week or so ago. One is over 600 pages long, the other only 139 pages. However, in spite of the obvious disparity, I expect I will finish the “600 plus-er” first. Why? Well, for one reason the longer book is a large print version of a Tom Clancy novel. The other is a very technical, academic book with minute print. When reading the Jack Ryan Jr. novel I am having a difficult time setting the book down at the end of a chapter. The other book, “How (Not) to be Secular – Reading Charles Taylor” by James A. K. Smith, has my brain fried every 3-4 pages – so that it takes me 2-3 sittings just to get through a chapter.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the one of the two disciples walking the road to Emmaus on Easter (Luke 24.13-35). Cleopas and his friend were not among the twelve, but may have been two the of seventy Jesus sent out. And they definitely were among the 100 or so who gathered in the upper room. They tell the Easter story in a very special way:

This month as I make home visits I have been focusing upon the Easter story in the Gospel of Matthew.  And this week, as I prepare to preach on Sunday, I am additionally looking at the part of the Easter story generally known as The Road to Emmaus.  Something that has struck me about both accounts is how patient and kind Jesus is with his followers.

I had a strange dream Tuesday night.  Strange in content.  Strange in that it had no apparent context with anything in my life.  Strange that I remembered it.

I’m on vacation (if that’s possible while retired), so I have extra time to read and less motivation to write.  The result is that you receive reflections from what I have been reading.  Today you get a few paragraphs from the concluding chapter of “Leading through Disruption – A Changemaker’s Guide to Twenty-First Century Leadership” (2023) by Andrew N. Liveris.

  Sorry about last week, folks …. Just didn’t have any “writing” in me.  And don’t be surprised if it happens again in the upcoming future.  We will be on vacation from the 13th to the 31st … and one never knows how the spirit will move … Or, as Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3.8)

 Here it is the last week in February and I am still thinking about the Epistle lesson from February 1!  “The

The part of the story I find most significant is not that Jesus’ “face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light”(Matthew 17.2) or the fact that “there appeared to (the disciples) Moses and Elijah, talking with (Jesus)” (Matthew 17.3)  Rather, it is what happens after the Father, speaking from a bright cloud that overshadowed them said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17.5) – causing the three disciples to fall on their faces in terror.

Last week was a pretty busy week – any time you add a funeral service into the mix, the calendar tends to bet a little bit crowded.  Tuesday evolved into a longer day than usual – it happens when one’s wife gets sick on a day that starts with the dentist and ends at the dance studio.  So, yesterday I took the day off.