The Naming of The Thing

I spent months seeking a perfect name for each of my children. Their names needed to mean something, to elicit that just right emotional response in the hearer, as well as roll off the tongue with an appropriate lilt and cadence. It became an obsession that robbed me of sleep. Well, as I sought to birth this blog, the naming of the thing almost stopped me from starting.

But I said I was going to do this. Here goes. It will be what it will be --- the musings of a middle-aged minister who prays the last twenty or so years of his career can be the most effective.

I like to write. I like to ponder theological issues --- though I'm not overly skilled at either exercise. My primary purpose in writing this blog is to encourage others in their Christian faith. At times I might seem dogmatic. I've been a Presbyterian PREACHER for a long time, but I'm also a man who has struggled with doubt. So, at other moments I may appear lacking in all conviction, too comfortable with ambiguity for some folk's taste. But as a PASTOR, I've grown wary of "pat" answers.

Back to the naming of the thing. "Late Summer" is a reference to an obscure C. S. Lewis poem (who is deservedly more famous for his prose) of which I'm particularly fond. It reminds me that our youthful dreams often remained unfulfilled, and that life doesn't always turn out like we think it will. It's a rather melancholy little ode, but it speaks hope to my heart because the day (at least in my life and the congregation I am blessed to serve) remains bright, even ripe, with promise. In other words, there's still a lot of work to be done before winter sets in.


Late Summer

"I, dusty and bedraggled as I am,

Pestered with wasps and weeds and making jam,

Blowsy and stale, my welcome long outstayed,

Proved false in every promise that I made,

At my beginning, I believed, like you,

Something would come from all this green and blue,

Mortals remember, looking on the thing

I am, that I , even I, was once a spring."