Gone Fishing

One of my often-played CDs is titled Souls Alike. It contains a collection of songs written by a number of up and coming songwriters and sung by Bonnie Raitt. The second track, called God Was in the Water, speaks to me for some reason.

Here are the words:

God was in the water that day

Pickin'through the roots and stones

Trippin' over sunken logs

Tryin' not to make his presence known.


God was in the water that day

Wadin' in careful steps

Bubbles rising from his feet

Comin' up from the muddy depths


Castin' out a line

Castin'out a line into the shadows

Castin' out a line, but no one's biting


I sit at my pitiful desk

Starin' at the colorless walls

Wishin' I was any place else

Down into a dream I fall

Sittin' in a tiny boat

Driftin' on the mindless sea

And if I disappear

At least I'm floating free


Castin' out a line

Castin' out a line into the shadows

Castin' out a line but no one's biting



God was in the air that day

Breathin' out a haunted breeze

Tryin' not to make a sound

Shufflin' through the dried up leaves


God was in the air that day

Circlin' like a drunken hawk

Sweepin' with a hungry eye

Over the ground I walk


Castin' out a line

Castin' out a line into the shadows

Castin' out a line but no one's biting.

(Randall Bramblett/Davis Causey)



It makes me wonder.

Could God be "casting out a line" for me somehow?


And why don't I "bite"?


It reminds me that living life relying only on what the world offers is unfulfilling, bland, and aimless. And ironically, while I cast around looking for meaning on my own terms, God is still patiently seeking me in infinite ways and places.


And what about us as a church?

Can we see all the places that God is seeking us?

What kind of "bait" does God use, and how often do we ignore it?

Why do we ignore it?

What if all of us, both as individuals, and together as a church, made a point, even for a little while, to notice the ways in which God seeks us?


I believe that God has wonderfully equipped every one of us with all that we need to bring to each other and the community around us more than just a glimpse of the Kingdom of God.


All we need to do is "bite".

Much Like an Arch

Since Mike and I recently celebrated a wedding anniversary I have lately been in the frame of mind to reflect on marriage and relationships in general. If I have learned anything in the last twenty-seven years of being part of an established couple, I have witnessed the mystery of the whole being more than the sum of its parts.

A favorite poem of mine,one by John Ciardi, comes to mind:

Most Like an Arch This Marriage

Most like an arch- an entrance which upholds
and shores the stone-crush up the air like lace.
Mass made idea, and idea held in place.
A lock in time. Inside half-heaven unfolds.

Most like an arch- two weaknesses that lean
into a strength. Two fallings become firm.
Two joined abeyanes become a term
naming fact that teaches fact to mean.

Not quite that? Not much less. World as it is,
what's strong and separate falters. All I do
at piling stone on stone apart from you
is roofless around nothing. 'Till we kiss

I am no more than upright and unset.
It is by falling in and in we make
the all-bearing point, for one another's sake,
in faultless failing, raised by our own weight.


It seems to me this poem is about more than just a relationship between two people.

When I think about our life as a church, as a community, I realize how this so readily applies. We are so much less when we insist on standing on our own, and so much more when we lean together, sharing our concerns, our weaknesses, our doubts, our humanity.

It's only then that we become a structure that forms a doorway to something holy and beautiful. This is, I believe, is how God has planned it.

My hope for the transformation process at Aldersgate is that we all learn to "lean together", to share our strengthes, our burdens, our joys, our gifts, and all that we have to offer each other to become a community that is bringing the Kingdom of God to a world that so sorely needs it.