It's not always easy being in the middle

I have reached the midpoint of the Pastor's Conference and just about the midpoint of my sabbatical. It has been nice to have a group of colleagues and several professors at the Omaha School for Pastors to bounce ideas off about Trinitarian Leadership after spending the first month reading and reflecting alone. The picture above is of Hazelrigg Student Center where we have most of our meals, classes and fellowship time (and do a lot of idea bouncing).

In the last couple days we have learned in our "Presbyterians and Culture Seminar" that Presbyterians often find ourselves in the middle. Dr. Brad Longfield from Dubuque (where Dawn Flippin went to seminary) taught us that Presbyterians were not only in the middle of the Revolutionary War but also in the middle of the Civil War. In fact the Presbyterian Church split into North and Southern Presbyterians during the war and it took another hundred years after the war ended to heal the split. Sometimes being in the middle is painful. One of the questions that was asked in the lecture was: "If the Presbyterian Church had been able to hold together, is it possible that the nation would have held together?" The response by Dr. Longfield (that drew a laugh) was that "All things are possible in God." And yet it got me thinking about some reading from my morning devotional "Leading a Life with God: The Practice of Spiritual Leadership" by Daniel Wolpert. In the 11th devotion Dan Wolpert wrote: "When leaders and a faith community begin to live in the world of the impossible, a world inhabited by a God for whom nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37), they truly begin to see the miraculous happen. They allow themselves to step into the life of grace offered within a kingdom defined by boundless generosity and infinite blessing." (p. 147) Wolpert challenges us as spiritual leaders to be willing to listen to God and try the impossible- even is it's just beyond what we might think we are able to do. It's like the colleague at the Pastor's Talent Show on Friday who did a Taikwondo demonstration breaking boards. He said the trick is a lot of practice but also to hit through the board. Don't just aim for the board but for a point just beyond the board. And my colleage and friend is battling Parkinsons even as he was breaking the boards in the talent show. Maybe if we aim for the impossible (just beyond our ability and regardless of the barriers) we will accomplish what God wants us to do and be who God wants us to be.