Outside My Comfort Zone

When I had the opportunity to join this summer’s pilgrimage trip, I was both excited and apprehensive. I can’t remember the last time I went camping; I’m an Inside Person through and through. And on this trip to the Grand Tetons, we were going to be semi-camping: staying in tent-cabins with no electricity or water, and cooking outside.

Despite my apprehensions about the accommodations, I said yes. I wanted the chance to spend more time with this class of youth who spent the past year learning online— including in confirmation class with Fr. Kevin and me.

Wow, am I glad God strengthened me to agree to step outside my comfort zone this week!

We walked and hiked almost a marathon‘s worth of distance. We cooked and ate and met outside our tents. We swam in at least three different lakes and whitewater rafted down the Snake River. We visited two different national parks and saw bison, elk, a moose, a bear, bald eagles, and a marmot. We reveled in the glory of God’s creation and sought Christ in one another and in ourselves.

I’m so grateful to this group for inviting me in. It was a week I will never forget. Thanks be to God!

Chapel of the Transfiguration

Like Ants in the Summer

"the ants are a people without strength, yet they provide their food in the summer" Proverbs 30:25

A Country Unfinished, Not Broken

God speaks through Scripture. Of this, I am entirely convinced.

God speaks in other ways, too. Christians have told me that God speaks to them through nature, through art, and through the mouths of their loved ones—to name only a few.

On this Independence Day, I hear God speaking to me in Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb," which she wrote for the inauguration this past January. In it, she reminded the nation,

"There is always light if we're brave enough to see it."

This was a hopeful and healing statement in a time of great division in the country. I also hear this sentiment in the context of a changing church and a changing world. It's easy to be overwhelmed and afraid in tumultuous times like these. But the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus is the light that is coming into the world. It assures us, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it" (John 1:5).

As I grapple with how to be a Christian in a deeply misguided world, I'm turning today to Gorman's poem. It's a reminder that our country is, as she describes it: "a nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished."

You can (re)watch her reading of the poem "The Hill We Climb" at the January 2021 inauguration here: