Still Reading...

2 Weeks, 4 days... That's how long I've now been birthed out of my sabbatical and out into the world. I'm still debating how public I should go with my new commitments. Every day it feels less and less pressing that I share them with anyone. Yet there is one thing that's certain, I have so far maintained a discipline of reading that I long to make a sustainable discipline throughout my next season of ministry.

At least for a while, I'll continue to write about what I'm reading. I certainly don't expect anyone to follow my ramblings, but it's a good discipline for me. It lodges the reading in extra corners of my memory, and perhaps over time it will allow me to see streams of what God is doing with me through study.

As a part of my devotional life, I've been working through A.W. Tozer's The Attributes of God. It's a short book for such an audacious title; it's just 10 chapters and 195 pages. Yet, I found myself captivated by Tozer's unrelenting insistence on a God that is bigger, better, and bolder than anything than I can imagine.

I live in a culture that fills conversation with modifiers, qualifiers, and conditionals. Often, that is a good thing. In pastoral ministry it can be the better part of valor to give people room to listen and maneuver with what they are dealing with. Wriggle room is good.

But reading Tozer made me wonder if modifiers maybe just adding mud to something already muddy. What if what we needed is more clarity and fewer qualifiers? Tozer offers 10 attributes for our contemplation:

God's

Infinitude

Immensity

Goodness

Justice

Mercy

Grace

Omnipresence

Immanence

Holiness

Perfection

I'm prone to assent to all these categories, perhaps you are too. Yet I know that I am just as like to put boundaries on them, somehow seeking to make God more manageable. "Nope," says Tozer, "Go bigger." If you can imagine God's characteristics in any of these categories, you must go one step beyond and then one more beyond that. I was moved to worship God, and with more clarity, as I read this book.

I had a seminary professor who advocated that we find a couple of theological conversation partners and authors, perhaps even decades or centuries old, that would challenge us and anchor us. I have some of those, but I think I'll be adding Tozer to my table.

Butterflies and Balloons

Yesterday was my return to 'normal' life. I've been thinking hard about my return for the last couple of weeks.

Where is God leading me to pastor differently because of this sabbatical gift?
What about our church culture should I embrace?
Will students remember my name?
Will I remember their names?
Am I ready for this?

Those questions, and a million besides, were at the forefront of my mind as I took the oddly unfamiliar (but memorized) drive to work yesterday morning. I'll confess. Walking up the stairs to my office I had butterflies like it was the first day of school.

And then, when I get to my office, this is what greets me:



Wow! That's about all I can say about that... Wow!

I suppose I still have some of the butterflies and questions but that was an awesome welcome back! Thank you especially to Lisa, Rush, and the students who spent all kinds of lung power getting that office filled. It was great to be back with people I love, talking about common work that we love, and having a great dose of laughter in the middle of it.

I don't think I'm quite done with this blog yet, there might be more updates to come as the meaning of my sabbatical unfolds with more clarity in the weeks to come. But in the meantime, thank you to all who have gone out of your way to support us on our sabbatical journey... and on our return.

Peace,

Erik