The Trip North, Pas Deux

Out of the gate, thank you for all your prayers. Meeting CANA's Vocations Committee was one of the most pleasant experiences that I've encountered in quite some time. Father Jack Grubbs and his committee, along with Bishop David Bena had many thoughtful questions throughout the nearly 90 minute interview.

The afternoon meeting at Church of the Messiah was a different story. I was in the Parish Library, sitting around the table with men who's love for God and His people was palpable. Too, the members of this committee were men who made considerable sacrifice in the name of truth and the Gospel.

The encounter had a completely different feel to the interview I had at the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Church of God offices at Simpsonville, MD back in 1991. That day entailed a lengthy ordeal that included gatekeepers, "good cop/bad cop" tag-team interviewers and a sense that if you weren't a legacy, you were facing an uphill day.

The Trip North

Its 11:00 AM and in about two hours and change, I'll be heading north to Herndon Virginia and a meeting with the CANA Vocations Committee. This appointment has been in the making since 2005 and I must confess that I'm experiencing low-level butterflies.

What does a Calling feel like?

Hollywood, Cecil B. DeMille and the crew from Monty Python have made some broad efforts to try and approximate a Divine calling, between burning bushes and holy grails and the like. The truth is, with all the metaphorical language that can be brought to bear, there's real difficulty in providing a description that'll carry water. Still, being a guy of considerable cranial density, allow me to give it a go.

A Calling is both simultaneously Ethereal and Visceral. By this, I mean to say that though its as hard to catch as a nightbird, it presents itself in a way that will not be ignored. Man is called to the Divine service in eternity past and that calling exists before his DNA is formed. In other words, just as it is with the Lord's election, the Lord's calling stretches back eternally. Yet in spite of all the heavenly mist, I was aware of a calling when I was six years old. Now understand that as a young crumb cruncher, quantifying this call at a tender age was impossible for all practical purposes.

Age, maturity, awareness of the Divine along with life's experiences all worked in harmony to reveal the dimension and scope of this Holy calling. What at six years was little more than pictures in the sky became like an architect's sketches. These too in time were fleshed out to a point where the calling would begin solidification. This process has shown be that:

A calling is Dynamic and Unfolding. Abram didn't have the Lord's opus dropped on his desk in one delivery. God's call to Abe, though settled, unfolded with each step made by the patriarch. With each drop of sweat, each bend in the road, the call unfolded before his eyes.

I had no sense whatsoever in the late 1980's that my calling would take me to the Anglican expression of the Faith, or place me in a Dalmatic. Its quite likely that I would have repudiated the idea as nonsense. Yet, here I stand. Each footprint across time and territory, across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, has purposefully led he to this moment.

A calling is Inescapable. Moses bugged out of the whole Egyptian scene and hit the road to Median. Jonah, after saying "nuts to this", hopped a west-bound boat to Spain. Saint Paul said "Woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel." Moses would live another lifetime before the Almighty caught up with him, and still a third living out that Holy calling. Jonah was brought back to shore special delivery, in the belly of a beast of a fish. Saint Paul finished the race in the bowels of the Mammertine Prison. The Lord's call on each of these lives was irrevocable.

Maybe, this has given a sense of just what it feels like to be Called by the Almighty.

A Seperate Blog with a Distinct Scope

It was twenty years ago today... No wait, that was Sergeant Pepper. Let's try again...

Three years ago, on the heels of the Episcopal Church's General Convention, I stepped out and started my first Blog, "The Catbird Seat". Spotty at first, it evolved into a more or less eclectic potpourri of thoughts, musings and the like. It fits just fine and I intend to keep it rolling along at present speed and course.

Lately, I've been thinking about my life's spiritual journey and gave some consideration to giving that journey its own venue. Hence, "Crossing the Bay" was born. My hope is that Crossing will provide a clearer picture of the man the Master is re-creating in as an icon of His Son, Christ Jesus. Personally, I've found the whole thing rather interesting, and it still leaves me in a sense of wonder as to why He chose me, and what He has seen in me? Like most of you reading this, serious self-examination leaves me feeling creepy and makes me want to shower afterwords. Yet for all the schmutz, our LORD called me from eternity past and continues to tweak, poke and stretch me for eternity future. All the while, there is this present moment where in Him, we live, and move, and have our being.

Rather than being a self-indulgent exercise in vanity, my hopes are that this blog would be a source of inspiration. Not because of me, but rather what our LORD can do with a schlub like me.