Monthly Archives: July 2025

Everything, Everywhere

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If there wasn’t a Bible, what would build your faith and guide your life?

That was the question a friend and I kicked around for an hour or so the other day. I think our conversation was podcast worthy.

As we shared our thoughts, both of us were stretched a little because we approached the question from different places. He attends a church that leads with “Bible Believing” when describing itself. I identify more as a Christ follower. While there is some overlap in those positions, there is a difference.

Of course there is another camp that wasn’t represented that day. This third camp is actually the one that inspired the question. The camp of good, moral, loving people that would have trouble locating the 23’rd Psalm. How were they formed into good, moral, loving people? I don’t think it is because they know us folks that can find all 150 of the psalms.

Full disclosure, I approached this time of dialogue firmly believing that the Spirit is speaking through and in all of life. Yes, we know we are loved because the Bible tells us so, but a lot of other stuff does as well.

It’s worth noting that Jesus didn’t say, “After I’m gone there will be a book to guide you.” He said the Spirit will lead us into all truth, and show us some things he hadn’t got around to yet. (see John 16:12&13)

So that was my starting point. After an hour, I came away with the following affirmations.

First of all, the Bible truly contains words of life, words to live by, words like: “God is love,” “Do for others what you’d have them do for you,” “Love your neighbor as yourself,” “God so loved,” “Blessed are the peacemakers,” “God with us,” “In God we live and move and have our being,” “Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly,” I could go on for a while.

But, the Creator is not contained in a book any more than in a holy building or a denomination. This ordained Christian pastor would even say that God is not contained by Christianity. I love that CS Lewis said that Aslan the lion, the Christ figure in The Chronicles of Narnia, was not a tame lion. A theologian named Anselm said, “God is beyond that which can be grasped.” The universe itself does not contain its Creator.

So I would add that along with sacred writings, Spirit also speaks within our very selves. We have a moral compass, we know what it is to love, our being alive connects us like an umbilical cord with the Lord of life. The One who molded us, imprinted us with a divine spark. That’s why that list of passages I typed a minute ago feel more like reminders than new ground when we read them. We remember who we are. We hear the sacred whisper from a place inside us deeper than our bones.

I would also add that same One who speaks to us from deep within ourselves, speaks to us from outside of ourselves. We hear/feel/see/sense the voice of the sacred in all creation. The oceans’ water, the dirt of the ancient mountains, fat clouds, bright sun, gleaming moon, rooted things, four legged things, multi legged thing, no legged things, they all sing the song. Every single one of us has heard/felt/seen/sensed their hymn of praise.

Almost every morning I pray a version of this affirmation:“For God’s Word in scripture, in creation, in relationships, for God’s Word that is in all of life, even in me, thanks be to God.”

So, I invite you to take a deep breath.

Pay attention to each of your five senses. They are conduits of the holy. Listen to your heart. Savor a second and third and fourth deep breath. Allow yourself to be open to the truth that all you are taking in is a sacred gift. I’d be willing to bet a sizable amount that you will hear/feel/see/sense the ever humming Hymn of Love.

Who Are You?

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I am a retired United Methodist minister, seventy-two years old.

Some would say that seventy-two isn’t that old, and most days I agree. Still, I watch the seasons change, and wonder how many more leaf cycles I have in me. There is no getting around it, retirement can feel like the second to last thing on your life’s to-do list.

While that feeling is there, and it is a fact that no one is getting younger; I just don’t believe the retirement chapter is supposed to be the one with a bunch of blank pages. That said, I don’t think a retired pastor’s, or any other retired person’s, immediate question should be, how do I fill those pages? That feels a little desperate. Distant travels, books to be read and written, and beach trips with grands will be there. If you are healthy, there will be stuff on those retirement pages. My deeper question is, who am I now that my name isn’t on the church sign? How do I fill my remaining days with meaning?

Not counting a nine month interim appointment and a couple of forays into church politics, I am a decade into the retirement chapter. Turns out Reverend is a tough label to shake. It feels like I should be a little further down the self awareness road, but ten years after culling my wardrobe to a pretty sparse supply of so-called “church clothes,” I’m still asking, who am I?

I have learned that there is an identifiable second half of life. It’s bad math but some call it the third half. It’s different in a lot of ways from the first half or two. A bunch of things besides clothes don’t fit anymore. If you haven’t tested the water earlier, retirement throws you in the deep end this pool, and it’s time to swim.

This season in our journey has its unique gifts, lessons, and tasks. I am no longer a student. I am not building a career. I am not identified by what I do because I no longer do it. I am an elder. (elder and elderly are two different things) Again, it’s a new and different place in life’s journey. There are new maps, and sometimes they are hard to read. I am growing more comfortable with the edges though, and sometimes a compass will do.

I got pretty comfortable with my role in the church and community. I dedicated my life to the local church, and represented it wherever I went. But, turns out my first name actually isn’t “Pastor.” I am not tethered to the denominational nest anymore. The world is a whole lot bigger than I thought.

It baffles some of my friends and family, but I no longer worry too much about what is orthodox, or Wesleyan, or biblical for that matter. I believe that the essence of those things is written on my heart, and I don’t need to keep checking in with them to make sure I am okay. I now ask, is it real? I worry more about being authentic than I do about being right. Like Pinocchio and the Velveteen Rabbit, I just want to be real.

Put another way, I want to be a real, genuine, spiritual human being. Plainly said, like the Spirit, I want to be one who doesn’t do but is love. Okay, maybe that wasn’t plainly said, but that’s what made Pinocchio and the rabbit real.

A friend challenged me to describe myself without referring to what I do or by the roles I fulfill in my life. In other words, who AM I?

I told him, “I’m me. I’m the me I have been all along.”

Retirement Is a new chapter, but it doesn’t define you any more than that job title did. You are more than a retired whatever. It’s just that now you are freer than you ever have been to lay down your label and be your truest you.