Friday, April 27, 2012

Back at it Again
It has been a year-- the worst of times, and the best of times.  I remember the pictures of the man facing the Christmas tsunami on the beach in Thailand, realizing the wave that would hit in seconds would kill him, turning away from it and just bracing for what would happen.  I understand how he felt now.
I am divorced.  I never thought that it would be possible to write those words; then I never thought that it would be possible for the woman I loved to do what she did.
I am amazed to find myself not drowned, but riding the wave to a new and better life, by the grace of God.  That last terrible anniversary of our wedding, May 10, was also the day that G-6.106b was erased from the Book of Order.
But I preached all the way through the ordeal, and Christ was faithful through each stumbling step.  As I watch what is happening in the Presbyterian Church (USA), I am reminded of the terrible pain and rancor of this year, and the desperate sense of inevitability in our separation.
I will not leave the PC(USA), but I cannot in all truth say that I know the day will not come when the PC(USA) will want me to leave.  But I know that Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church and I will survive the wave that is crashing relentlessly through this time of our lives.
Trust God, love Christ, do the duty that lies nearest, and we shall see what the Lord intends to do when the wave subsides, and the landscape is rearranged.  Pray for the commissioners to General Assembly this year.