“Be still and know that I am God.” These words from Psalm 46 may be a rather surprising inspiration for a blog, but they are words that resonate so deeply with me I dare to call them “life changing.” In what has been and continues to be an amazing journey deeper into the heart of God – at times wild and unsettling, at other times calm and almost mundane – this prayer has moved me to feel grounded in my faith, with a heart and mind open to experiencing God’s amazing grace. It is in the still place that I encounter my fears and my doubts, my curiosities and questions, as well as every good thing I know to be the essence of who it is that God created me to be. From that place of stillness, of knowing who and whose I am, has come any insight or awareness or wisdom I might possess.
In a weirdly wonderful way, those words are how this middle-aged woman has come to write a blog. My journey to the priesthood has been a long and winding road, with more blessings than I could have hoped for, some of which were obvious blessings from the get-go, others that had the blessing part hidden under layers of challenge. It has been about being who it is that God created me to be and also becoming who it is that God created me to be. This is, quite frankly, what I think life is for all of us, whether we understand it as a spiritual journey with a religious identity, as I do, or in another way. Through the years of my formal discernment and formation for priesthood, through my training as a chaplain, and as a pastor, this is something I have thought about, prayed about, talked about, written about. Recently I been convinced by others to share some of my writings with a (potentially) larger audience.
So here it is…my first attempt at blogging, which really will be an eclectic collection of writings. Some will be newspaper articles; I know this because I have been asked to post what has been published already. I imagine there will be the occasional sermon or reflection written for the parish I am so fortunate to serve. It probably is not beyond the realm of possibility that a piece of poetry will show up, though I already feel the need to proclaim my novice status as a poet even more loudly than my novice status as a blogger. And beyond that, who knows? If my life til now holds any clue, I expect the answer will come from that still place.
Peace,
Paula+
February 12, 2018