It Takes a Duck

This was written about five years ago.

It has been over a year since my last entry, my life has, naturally, moved on. Here is an insight, I have learned for 1,897th time.

While I seek the truth, I know the truest truth is always bathed in the distorted hues of our hatred, pride, fears, shame and doubt. I am sure truth exists, I am just as certain it influences our lives. (His word is truth.) Our Lord assures us that we shall know the truth and this knowledge will free us from self-deceit. Sometimes this truth reveals the lies told by a massive of choir of liars - among whom, I have a solo part.

While God breathes truth through our minds and hearts, these precepts travel through a glass dimly. I once read that a word is not the thing it denotes, just as a map is the terrain it represents. Truth is like landmarks that correct a poorly drawn map. In June of 2014 I feared that I would never serve as a pastor again. I was prepared for that outcome. Since January of 2015 I have preached every Sunday but two.  So much for the reality behind my fears. See me correcting my map.

I think we see ourselves as navigating our lives through a torrent, when, in truth, our vessel has no  pilot's wheel. Let’s face it; there may be a rudder but we have no control over it. I love the poem “To a Water Foul.” (To shift the metaphor from sea, to air, to land.)

He, who, from zone to zone,

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,

In the long way that I must trace alone, 

Will lead my steps aright. To a Waterfowl

To a Waterfowl

William Cullen Bryant 1794–1878

Today I believe Mr Bryant is mistaken when he writes, “Lone wandering, but not lost.” Although I cannot fault the poet, for, like him, I often suspect I am alone, wandering, and lost. Thanks God I have learned to mistrust my doubts.