Edgework

It has been just over seven years now that I have posted a thousand-word essay on this website every two weeks. This is blog 188, so you can do the math if you like. It was a conscious decision to begin posting my reflections on a public website. It was my way of saying that I wanted to be accountable to the larger community for the journey of discovery and integration that I found myself on. From time to time some persons have been offended by what I have written, but for the most part responses to my writings have uncovered a whole community of fellow questors who have encouraged me to keep writing.

If you have followed my writings over these years you will be aware that I consider myself to be a life-long learner. Some people I know have sewed up their views about faith and life by their early twenties. I consider myself to be an incessant student. It seems I have more interest and passion to keep discovering truth at this stage of my life than perhaps ever before. And I have the fortune of not being financially dependent upon a salary from an institution that demands I maintain status quo thinking.

However I do not consider that to be an excuse to be irresponsible. Yet I do sense a greater freedom to explore issues in my present life situation than I did in earlier years when I was gainfully employed. So, as you will have noticed, I try to keep up with the dialogue that is happening in the church at large, and particularly in the evangelical and Anabaptist communities. There is something exhilarating about reading books about faith and life as they come off the press. I notice that persons fully employed often struggle to keep up with that contemporary dialogue. And I am indeed fortunate that my wife, Ruth, is a great supporter, often reading some of the books I read and always editing my essays before they are posted.

It has been a great journey for both of us and we treasure the deep friendships that have developed through these writings. Not only that, but reading and writing keeps us both on a growing edge. I am a traveler, so my soul resonates with the words of Lord Alfred Tennyson in his epic poem, Ulysses:

I am a part of all that I have met,
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life!

I have met so many wonderful people in the books I read. And my way of honoring them is to try to digest what they are saying and then articulate those ideas for those who may never read those books. In a sense that is what I did for many years as a Bible College Professor; get to the main point and supporting arguments of a book and then present them in condensed form to students eager to get onto the bandwagon of learning.

But there comes a time to take a break. In biblical terms we call it a “Sabbath.” Sabbath is more than a command to keep the seventh day holy; it is a principle that calls people not only to work, but also to stop working. It is the latter that some of us have trouble doing, perhaps because too much of our identity is wrapped up in the work we do. When we stop working we must believe that our lives still matter to God and others even when we are not “producing.”

My pastor began a four-month sabbatical on September 1st of this year. I think it is a good idea. While serving as Conference Minister for the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference I promoted the idea of pastoral sabbaticals. And I am pleased to see that the concept is catching on. Instead of just plowing ahead, increasingly pastors are taking a Sabbatical break for renewal and rest.

So, after some thought, Ruth and I have decided that this is the fall that we will follow a dream we have had most of our lives. We have traveled all over Central and South America and much of North America pursuing studies, ministry and following family members. And always these travels have broadened our horizons and given us much gratification.

But we have never been to the Canadian East Coast. So after making some inquiries about when the fall colors are at their best in that part of the world, we nailed down plans to take our trusty and efficient Fiat all the way to Newfoundland and many points in between. We plan to leave on September 19th and return sometime in mid-October. As the date of our departure is drawing closer we are attempting to wrap up our gardens, connect with family members one last time, and make all necessary arrangements.

At first I assumed that in order to keep up my regular postings on this website I would need to write three or four extra essays before leaving. But on second thought, I determined to take a “sabbatical” from my writings for a short time. Hey, when pastors go on sabbaticals they don’t pre-record a bunch of sermons that will be played for their congregations while they are gone, do they? So, I thought why should I keep “preaching” when I am on my sabbatical?

So this will be the final essay I will post before we leave. I plan to pick up my regular essay writing routine later this fall. I even have some ideas I would like to explore when I start writing again. But for now I will be “off-line” as they say. This old, retired guy is going on a sabbatical. Hurray!

But I’ll be back…