the center of my life…
There used to be a church in the center of my life,
a sun around which everything revolved. It kept
me warm and bright, protected from the deeper
spaces where the universe was surely cold and dark.
But then one day I broke orbit. It wasn’t necessarily
spectacular, just a slight course alteration fueled by
siren songs of greener pastures and stiller waters.
They waved goodbye as I became a sailor of the soul.
I’ve sailed a decade now and I can tell you stories of
the see, of strange lands who know nothing of power
in the blood or the sinner’s prayer. There have been
days of valley passage when I was afraid, but I have
not known fear for I was marked as a child in the dew
of my life by a goodness and mercy that follows me still.
Still, I ache some nights and rub eyes that runneth over
for there used to be a church in the center of my life.
i savvy
Oh yeah. Interesting distinction between ‘been afraid’ and ‘I have not known fear.’ I’ll be thinking about that while. This is truly beautiful, John. And true for many of us, I think. At this end of my life, I am grateful for the church I’ve found, imperfect as it is, in this last half and still able to say ‘thank you’ for the one I lost from the first half. Thank you.
i’m in year 2 of the same journey. this resonated. thanks friend.
Friday in the Nursing Home service a 95 year old lady said,”Sing the Church in the Wildwood” and we all sang it!
Dad
“They waved goodbye as I became a sailor of the soul.” It’s almost been a year. Even then, I pictured it like leaving the safety of the nursery-like, salt marsh to brave the ocean waters. Greeting the discomfort of spiritual adolescence. Or adulthood. Or something.