The Anchor

I am back at my computer this morning and I think back to "normal" - whatever that means.  I am dressed in my pickleball clothes and will leave soon to play pickleball with my friends at Woodward Park.  

I have already listened to the app - "Pray as you go" and am struck - as usual by the gift of my faith.  This morning I heard about the story of the calling of Phillip and Nathaniel.  This struck me today:

 

⁵⁰ Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹ And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you,^[m] you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Bald Head Island.  We as a family were celebrating my brother Geoff's 70th birthday.  We are a family that knows how to celebrate - they joined me on a cruise for my 60th birthday and Chuck's 75th birthday and we all went to Utah for Wayne's 70th and now to North Carolina for Geoff's.  

The whole week was full of fun and food and games and sun and ocean wonders.  Several times we were up early in the morning and just in awe of the sunrise.  It is such a gift to be living for a week in a community that shares that love of nature.  We saw the "heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending."  My sister in law, Vicky, loves my brother and wanted this week and the party in the middle of the week to be special - and it all was.  What made it most special was the love that was so evident.  There is nothing more precious for a sister than to watch her brothers have love in their marriages.  What a gift.

I titled this - "the anchor" - because my anchor is not just my family.  It was when I went home and went to church and saw familiar faces and sang praise songs and hymns and took communion and sat in a sanctuary that I realized - this is my anchor.  It is the relationship that I have with God which is experienced in a real way in being part of a church community.

I came home to news of 2 deaths within the church and struggles of friends who are important to me.  That in addition to my awareness of the news of the day - Afghanistan, Covid, floods in Tennessee.  Life is hard.  Life is not just a week at the beach - it is the daily struggle to survive at times, it is the perseverance of putting one foot in front of the other and keeping going, it is the commitment to love no matter what.

So, I begin this week at home grateful for the anchor of faith and - always - expectant - that as I seek to follow Jesus i will "see greater things than these."