Rowing and Sowing

My friend Tom Becker invited me last night to speak about college transition and emerging adulthood at the Row House lecture series/event. I spent a good deal of the day fretting about how the talk would go. I decided to chill and go with it. I drew out a quick sketch of some major themes and trusted that God would make it all work. Preparation is important in making a presentation, yet it is also wise to leave some room for the Spirit to move. Too much structure can be stifling. I also fight the tendency to say too much. I am learning to be more economical with words. To say less but mean more. I attempt to apply this principle to these blog entries, although my most read blogs of all times are not pop songs but long albums where I riffed on and on. Ranted even.

The Row House, where nothing is not sacred, takes on an eclectic range of topics. Most of the speakers are from the local area who have developed a niche interest in a topic and the speaker gives a talk on it with a faith perspective. Information and inspiration. Geared to both skeptics outside of the church and those inside the walls who want to go beyond the walls of the church. My talk centered on the critical idea of calling.

The talk appear to have gone well. We had a nice turn-out of young emerging adults to older adults with kids who are approaching the transition. Afterwards, Tom and I went out for a beer and we chatted about all of the people he knew at the drinking establishment who were former church kids who he has gotten to know in his social meanderings in the city who have left the faith. The bar was packed, Saturday night parishioners in the church of the club scene. It can be frustrating to know that what many emerging adults are looking for in the party scene is connection, a place to meet others, have some fun, and enjoy a night on the town. Yet, many leave the night empty as the glass they drank from, still thirsty, in a dessert of spiritual dehydration and hunger, crawling next Saturday to another mirage of meaning.

For many, the Church feels more like a fridge where the goal is to keep everyone on the shelf, chilly, and in good order. Why cannot the Church be more like an oven, with the aroma of grace spilling out into the streets drawing the hungry in? Becker is like a baker trying to do this and I have to applaud his vocation.

T.S. Eliot in  his poem "Choruses from the Rock"  wrote:    

The lot of man is ceaseless labor,

Or ceaseless idleness, which is still harder,

Or irregular labour, which is not pleasant.

I have trodden the winepress alone, and I know

That it is hard to be really useful, resigning

The things that men count for happiness, seeking

The good deeds that lead to obscurity, accepting

With equal face those that bring ignominy,

The applause of all or the love of none.

All men are ready to invest their money

But most expect dividends.

I say to you: Make perfect your will.

I say: take no thought of the harvest,

But only of proper sowing.

The world turns and the world changes,

But one thing does not change.

In all of my years, one thing does not change,

However you disguise it, this thing does not change:

The perpetual struggle of Good and Evil.

Forgetful, you neglect your shrines and churches;

The men you are in these times deride

What has been done of good, you find explanations

To satisfy the rational and enlightened mind.

Second, you neglect and belittle the desert.

The desert is not remote in southern tropics

The desert is not only around the corner,

The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,

The desert is in the heart of your brother.

The good man is the builder, if he build what is good.

I will show you the things that are not being done,

And some of the things that were long ago done,

That you may take heart, Make perfect your will.

Let me show you the work of the humble. Listen. 

Keep rowing Tom...