"True North..................................."

”As you sit on a hillside, or lie prone under the tree of the forest, or sprawl wet-legged on the shingly beach of a mountain stream, the great door, that does not look like a door, opens; and, experiencing the present purely is being emptied and hollow. You catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall”……Annie Dillard

Sunday morning’s sermon fell short of connecting in any manner with my own thinking, its focus on those four men in Mark’s gospel who uncovered a roof in order to lower a sick friend into the midst of a prayer meeting. The pastor was making a plea for our congregation to likewise know a similar zeal in bringing others with them, the front entrance large enough to accommodate such a task and there being no need mimic the story in every detail. In making the church, itself, though, the point of salvation, with no emphasis on Christ “in” me remaining the main ingredient, what we tend to slowly lose in any body of believers is the recognition that we, ourselves, serve as a temple for His resurrection. I realize, of course, the possibility of some “going off the deep end” with that theology as well, claiming themselves, not just a vessel for the Holy Ghost, but administrators, as well, with all authority for whatever somehow now transferred unto whichever way their mentality opts to use it. Indeed, somewhere in this we seem to have lost the anchor-line. In Ephesians, Paul speaks of his God-given mission equating to (a) preaching the “unsearchable riches” we now have access to through Christ, and (b) making all men see what is the “fellowship of the mystery”, that which was lost to us all the way back in the beginning of the world. While those two words within the first segment surely ought to entice us enough to search out just what has given us via an inner reconnection, the latter four tell me that our relationship maintained with Him will never be one within the grasp of our fully understanding His reality alive in us and thus never existing in terms of our being able to manipulate it as we own it. With no wish to suggest the Creator and nature are one and the same, I confess to having found, in my own experience, that stepping into the fullness of His presence occurs in much the same way as the above author describes becoming one with the world around her. It is a matter of His faith, His peace, His fruit being openly manifested through me; and anything left behind after the waters recede is merely temporary blessings. It is important, therefore, that, in our witness of Him, we do not set anything above Him. Always, let me point to a risen Savior, not just my denominational bunch, not merely my interpretation of the Book……