On the Comeback Trail (Introduction)

    In recent weeks, it has been a time of re-focusing and re-imagining what this blog can do and what it needs to do in order to be a worthwhile focus of my ministry in the long run.  Originally conceived as a 'sandbox' for me to work in as I tried to keep my mind active in a homiletic kind of way, this blog now needs to be something more going forward.

   I am about to re-enter public ministry.  The details are still being worked out and I don't have an exact timetable or a sequence of events before me.  While 'on leave' I have been functioning as a priest, spending time deep in prayer and 'spritual renewal', and working with a great team of people who have my interests and health at heart.  I pray every day for the people I have left behind, and for the priests who have been serving in the interim. 

   I do not intend to talk about the details of my 'leave' here on the blog (yet) or the actions that precipitated this leave, but I think that I do have something to say -- actually, a lot to say -- from my recent experiences on how Christians respond to stress, crisis, personal sin, persecution, conversion, and challenge.  While cathartic for me, I hope that these observations can help all of my readers consider the challenges that they face in their lives.  I also hope to be able to report milestones of healing and redemption very soon as well.  I can point to gifts of grace and mercy revealed in the silence of my own heart, but a visible, tangible restoration in the public sphere is only beginning to bud for others to see.

   Looking out over the congregations I have been priviledged to pastor over the last 5 years, it is tough to consider the pain and anguish so many suffer... challenging medical diagnoses, broken families, disappointments regarding children--both young and grown, financial problems, loss of family memebers, uncertainty for the future.  In short, these shadow moments of our lives are not signs that we are alone or that God has withheld his grace.   They are only shadows.  The sun still shines.  Our call is to step out towards the light with radical trust in the power of our Lord to provide, even in times of confusion and misery.

   Over the next three weeks or so, I have 8 observations to post about the journey from darkness to light.  I welcome your comments, appreciate your "hits", "likes" and "+1"s, and look forward to constructive thoughts on how I can improve these reflections.  There may be the beginnings of a retreat program here... or maybe not... I place that in God's hands.  But the most important thing is that these months of darkness and pain not be un-redeemed... God has a purpose to all of this.  And so, let me show you what my hidden wound has taught me.