I admit that I indulged a bit last week, and bought a ticket for the $540,000,000 lottery. You may assume, since I am writing today from the office, that I did not win. In many ways this was just a harmless indulgence, a $1 charge for a 10 minute fantasy. I will not tell you what I had planned to do with the money, although there would have been enough for some real philanthropic work.
Today, as I scanned the radio dials, I came across a commentator who spoke of the lottery and the winner from Illinois. He read the announcement that the winner was from Redbud, located south of Springfield, and made the comment that if you have to define a location by its relationship to Springfield, it must be remote. It was a bit of a shot, kind of like what I heard from Cincy friends when I moved to Springfield Diocese (it was called the "hinterlands"), but it started me thinking.
By what relationship(s) are you defined? What do you place at the center of your life?
In the Church this week we walk with Jesus through the events of Holy Week. In the days ahead we will meditate on the Mandatum, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Crucifixion, and Resurrection. We will discover again that for the Christian, Jesus, is to form the center of our life. We are defined, by nothing else, but our proximity to Jesus, and vice versa! And he, truly, is not remote!
I too bought a ticket, even as Gideon put out his fleece. God told me no. Interestingly, my dreams coincided with your admonitions on who we are and where we live. The starting point for our dreams was an expanded Briarwood with a longer term potential for outreach. We even considered calling you as the Chaplain for the estate chapel and the ministry of teaching and evangelism. Alas, my plans were not those of God, so we will continue to talk by phone!
ReplyDelete