Pastoral Thought--August 26

Throughout the summer, and in some of these pastoral thoughts, I have spent significant time re-telling you stories about running with Luna. From people being welcoming and friendly to her and to me, to being a bit rude while driving too close to us on the road, Luna and I have encountered the local neighborhood here at Plains together. And for the most part, I have enjoyed my time with her. 

But that has stopped. . . she and I have not been running now for at least a week and probably longer if I thought about it. As of this moment, I cannot put my finger on exactly why I have not run with her. 

She doesn’t pull much after the first half a mile, and traffic has not picked up any more than normal outside our home. Even as construction on new homes increases along our route, the workers have been kind to her and given us plenty of room. The extreme heat of July is past us, and while it is still hot out on the road, it is not too hot for her, or for me. She has not been bad and I have not seen more people walking their pets which would mean she needs to be more careful when encountering strangers. 

We just aren’t running together. . . and I wonder why?

Perhaps I have slipped into a posture of functionalism—which is a place where the function of a specific task becomes so habitual that it can replace the joy and spontaneity of that same action. So, as taking Luna for a run has become a more functional task, I have then found my passion and joy to run also diminishing in equal portion. I still enjoy it, but something is missing and that missing ’thing’ is important to consider today. 

Sadly, this functional issue, or transition, can also happen in the church. When it does, we find the necessary blessings of our day, the things that sustain us, or the ways that God is intimately present in our faith journey helping us to make sense out of something senseless, disappears. This idea is captured in Ben Campbell Johnson’s work. He writes: 

"When there is no sense of the Divine, people go home empty. Soon they forget the main reason for church and worship. As the awareness of God withers, joy evaporates and persons find it increasingly difficult to speak of God to one another."

So today, don’t let yourself fall into a place or position of functionalism. Whether you are blessed today or feeling a little beaten down, find that awareness of God with you. Then as you find it, you might just feel the joy and passion of how God is something that you can hold onto in times of struggle. 

Blessings

Rev. Derek