Leadership and Spirituality

Finding the Well

Leave a Comment / Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines / By /

The two daughters and son-in-law are now safely returned to their homes in Seattle. It was a fantastic 4½-day visit over Thanksgiving weekend. Lots of good-natured chaos, meaningful conversations, problem-solving, family activities, picture-taking, movies, food of course, and messes everywhere. Ah yes, the perfect family get-together. I discovered by happenstance that it is a lot harder to monitor one’s physical condition with all that noise, activity, and distraction. I found myself on occasion ready to “crash,” having missed the warning signals of whatever would have gotten me back in my recliner for a rest. No harm done, really; but for […]

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Dreams of Healing

Leave a Comment / Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Personal, Theological Reflection / By /

After a weekend of mundane challenges, I’ve had two very positive days and am feeling fine today. Yesterday was my last chemotherapy of “Round 1,” so I have a rest from those particular rigors until December 16. Daily radiation keeps up the attack on the Beast, a foreigner that is doomed. It should just give up now. I had quite a night though—profuse sweating at times, vivid dreams, no sickness whatsoever, and actually pretty darn good sleep despite all the activity. The medical explanation for the night sweats is probably that super-duper steroid they give me with the chemo. I

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A VAP and the Flow of the Spirit

Leave a Comment / It All Started in the Garden, Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Personal, Sermon Illustrations, Theological Reflection, Uncategorized / By /

Two weeks ago, I had a Vein Access Port (VAP) surgically installed just below my left front shoulder. Its purpose is to provide reliable access to a central vein for the infusion of chemotherapy. It is imbedded completely under the skin, minimizing infection possibilities and making very efficient use of a durable “drum” pierced by the IV needle every day. And it saves those veins in the arms and hands, which are not always the most comfortable sites for such an intrusion. You can imagine how important it is to keep my VAP channel clear. At the end of each

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To Live Is Christ, To Die Is Gain!

Leave a Comment / Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, The Pastoral Call, Theological Reflection / By /

The news of the Rev. Dr. Henry Greene’s death has silenced me in shock and awe. My dear friend and colleague in renewal work within the PC(USA) died suddenly on Monday, while doing what he loved, hiking in Yosemite National Park. Henry was the real deal, a genuine to-the-core Christian who lived for Christ in all he did. I could devote this entire post as a tribute to him (and may still at a later date), but he would be embarrassed by that and would find a way to shift the focus onto his Lord. So that is what I

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Resting in Uselessness

Leave a Comment / It All Started in the Garden, Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Personal, Uncategorized / By /

Two days of radiation, before chemo gets started on Monday, have me thinking about what is required of me in the radiology oncology department. My sole job is to lie down on the table in the middle of a large room, put my arms up over my head into a custom-made cradle, allow the technicians to position me exactly in line with the lasers seeking out minute tattoos on my body, and then remain still for fifteen minutes. That’s it. No reading, no iPod, no talking . . . just be still and take regular shallow breaths so my tumor

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This Is Going to Hurt

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One of my all-time favorite movies is Hook, starring Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts and Maggie Smith. There’s this great scene where Captain Hook (Hoffman) is stealing the affections of the kidnapped children of grown up Peter Pan (Williams). Hook is making more progress with the already alienated son Jack than the younger daughter Maggie. Soon we see Jack dressed up as a miniature Captain Hook, but one thing more is needed to complete the costume: a pierced ear to accommodate a big gold ear ring. As Hook holds up his arm hook, the tool of choice for ear-piercing,

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The Down-side of Playing It by the Numbers

Leave a Comment / 2012th General Assembly (Pittsburgh), Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, The Property Clause, Theological Reflection / By /

I have had my diagnosis of lung cancer for just one week now, though I was strongly suspicious for a week or two prior to that: enough time to start getting my head and heart around the possibilities. In those weeks, my cough and an antibiotic were making it hard for me to sleep, so there were so many hours and such a big world-wide-web to awaken my curiosity. Bad idea. I saw just one number (the average 5-year survival rate for lung cancer) and made a decision right then and there: I’m not going to do this by the

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On Assignment: A New Perspective on “Call”

Leave a Comment / Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, Romans 8, Theological Reflection / By /

Presbyterians use the term “discerning one’s call” to refer to the process of figuring out one’s vocation. In the Presbyterian/Reformed Tradition, that call is sensed not only by the ministerial candidate personally but by the Presbytery’s Committee on Preparation for Ministry and ultimately by a congregation that desires to call a candidate into pastoral service. It was a Christian community’s process over years’ time that solidified my sense of call to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament. That call, exercised as a pastor-teacher, has shaped my identity and brought structure to my life since 1987. The last seven years “without

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Following and Leading

Leave a Comment / 221st General Assembly (2014), Leadership and Spirituality, Marriage Definition, New Form of Government (nFOG), PCUSA, Sermon on the Mount, The Missional Church, Theological Reflection / By /

San Francisco Presbytery passed two of three overtures related to Israel/Palestine last night. Its decisions (by fairly close margins) reflected a particular view of the PCUSA’s place in the world and the realms in which it is called to lead. That whole Middle East issue is incendiary and difficult and not my area of expertise, so I defer to friends Viola Larson and Alan Wisdom for any detailed discussion. But the question of whether the PCUSA has standing to insert its political solutions into the international mix is a real one, and germane to my current topic: the church and

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Reflections on Kenya and Uganda: Two Musings

Leave a Comment / Kenya & Uganda, Leadership and Spirituality, People, Personal, Sermon Illustrations, Theological Reflection / By /

Two unrelated observations today . . . Lots of Children. One thing that strikes you as you drive the countryside of both Kenya and Uganda is that there sure are a lot of children around. Schools both public and private, day schools and boarding schools, dot the landscape. You can’t help but notice the kids in their school uniforms walking along the highways and byways, acting as young people do everywhere. After making this observation, when I got home, I looked up the statistics provided by the Central Intelligence Agency, of all places:  Uganda’s median age is 15.5 years (birthrate

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