News

Pastors are one of the last breed of generalists. That is we are the proverbial “Jack of all trades, masters of none”. While we may have our own individual forte’s, pastoral job descriptions for parish pastors are all very similar. Preach, teach, baptize, lead worship, bury the dead, visit the sick and wounded, and drink a lot of coffee.

One thing we all do is write. We write newsletter articles, columns, letters, thank you notes, teaching outlines and sermons. We all seem to have our own style in doing these writings, but we all seem to do them.

I couldn’t begin to tell you if I have a “style.” When call committees have asked about my preaching style, I just respond that I actually have several styles. Perhaps that is my style.

One thing I have experienced over the years in sitting down before a paper with pen in hand, or later at a typewriter, and, more recently, sitting down at a computer, is that I so often begin with a sentence or two of introduction, but have absolutely no idea where I am going with whatever I am writing. (Perhaps you agree that far too often such lack of direction shows).

After that sentence or two, somehow a third sentence flows out…then a fourth, then a fifth…soon I have a paragraph or two and away I go. Sometimes it seems words appear on the computer’s monitor before I even think them. I’m not talking about that annoying autocorrect, I mean the words appear seemingly before I consciously think them.

Before long I am struggling with some kind of summary….what did I say? What point(s) were made? What is the writing about? Generally I never write something, then send it to the printer or email to the intended recipient. Usually there are rewrites. Sometimes interminable rewrites. Sometimes what I wrote a few days ago is torn up or deleted and off I go again with other words appearing from nowhere it seems. Eventually I am satisfied enough or a deadline occurs and I must be satisfied as there is no longer time to be otherwise. It is not unheard of that as folks are settling into their chairs for worship, I am typing the final Amen on yet one more rewrite.

What a great parable for life! We all start somewhere and often end up in a place not at all like our plans, hopes, or dreams. Life comes at us and drags us along. Experiences appear and we have no idea how they got there. More importantly, we often have little idea how we got there. A small town Pennsylvania boy living most of his adult life 2,000 miles from home in and around cities and major metropolitan areas. Students who are often the first in their family to attend college, Many who have a college degree no longer working in any field close to their area of study….so many unpredictable things that happen to us in life. Good things, difficult things. Unforeseen things and unforeseen people crossing our life’s path often changing its very direction.

Coincidence? Happenstance? Subliminal choices? Overt choices and decisions? Could be. Maybe even a mixture of some of these. Yet through it all there sometimes seems to be a force at work greater than these and greater than ourselves.

Maybe ours is not to figure this out, but to run and go with it. Let those words appear before we think or type them. Let events and people speak to us. Let us be both ourselves and changed. Let us trust in all we belong to God.