Thinking Out Loud

I recently listened to a sermon by Paul Simpson Duke, from which today's post comes. Along with his wife, Stacey, Paul is Co-Pastor of First Baptist Church, Ann Arbor, MI (American Baptist). I first heard Paul preach when I was in seminary in Louisville, and Paul was the minster at Highland Baptist Church, in Lousiville. It was always a privilege to hear him. You can listen to sermons by Paul and Stacey at their church's website. I express appreciation to Paul for his moving words.

Sometimes in life, we feel lost, no sense of clarity, much ambiguity, too little comfort for now. To keep living, to keep moving, and loving, and waiting in that long uncertain season of your life is what it means to be a child of God. Do you want to know what your life is going to be like next year, next week?—see a psychic. But faith is open-ended. And the blessing is in the step by step of trust along an uncertain way.

Thomas Merton once offered this prayer:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Or to put it in the words of the old gospel hymn:
Many things about tomorrow,
I don’t seem to understand;
But I know who holds tomorrow,
And I know who holds my hand.

~Paul Simpson Duke
Co-Pastor
First Baptist Church (American Baptist)
Ann Arbor, MI