‘He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul.’

C.S. Lewis once remarked, ‘We read to know we are not alone’.

And so, I begin this site to create a space of companionship for servant leaders where we remember that we walk with others on this common way with Christ who is the Way; where we enter a quiet place to wait for the grace of God to catch our hearts with fresh wonder; where we sit in the life-giving support of the Spirit.

It is my hope that this will be a place to find encouragement along the ‘camino de fe’ when the way seems long and our strong resolve towards resilience dissipates in the dust of dissension, decline, or dark nights of the soul; when the dawn of new beginnings delays and we can only say with the psalmists, ‘How long, O LORD?’

The choppy waters of ministry sometimes distract us from staying fixed on the sovereign God who works to interface and overlap, weave and wrap all things together for good in both our personal lives and the lives of those we serve in his name.  As we open ourselves to spiritual transformation through the day in day out deliberate anchoring of our souls in him, we are stirred to anticipate discoveries of new freedom and peace within our callings and fall into the depths of God’s love to experience ripples of joy in every season.

As a minister, I have been through valleys and rough seas which at times shook me to the core.  Yet, when the heat became stifling and the waters rose with fury, I came to see with the help of faithful companions on the journey that these same realities offered me opportunities to dip more deeply into the basin of his generous love, healing power, and sustaining grace to see everything with new eyes.  The most difficult of people and most challenging of circumstances become the greatest agents of transformation.  The things we usually consider to be so-called thorns are actually invitations to walk in fuller union with him dependent on his grace, increasingly refined as agents of his reconciling gospel within ourselves, our homes, and our pastoral charges.

Everything is gift.  Everything.  Even when this statement is hard to hear given the intensity of pain or fear written across our hearts in the middle of a mess, stressed to the limit.

Behind the scenes, under the surface, around the edges, in the very center of our beings, God uses all things to bring us to the secure shoreline of his infinite goodness and care as we dare to exercise the faith he gives to walk on dangerously debilitating water and live more deeply into his call on our lives in love … no matter the internal or external pressures we face.

This is a place where unpalatable or rough waters can be honestly named for what they are, but are then given back to Christ for transformation into something surprisingly life-giving with his presence permeating each story, each former worry, each sorry division.

He holds out fresh, still water where we can be renewed.

Here we welcome him to expose our every need so we might find true repose and release from that which hinders genuine meekness motivated to display his majesty.  Here we allow him to knead the soles of our weary feet in the basin of his love and set us on the path of his choosing in wholeness and willing surrender to the glory of his name.

Go ahead.  Take off the socks of silent striving to survive the cracks and blisters of solitude in your suffering and dip your feet, just as they are, into his basin of covenant kindness to soothe your aching spirit among others who know the necessity of doing the same.

Servant leadership is the model he set.  It took him to the cross.  He knows the cost.

Come, let him wash you in his love.

‘Lord, upon all servant leaders who have perhaps come looking to hear a word of consolation, strength, or direction from you, pour out your Spirit that they may find renewed hope in their call to serve in the full knowledge that you have brought them to this time and place in their lives for your purposes.  May your never ending presence and steadfast love bring your will to completion in and through them as together we wait patiently on you to do all things well. 

Should anyone feel as though they are slipping under the waters of adversity this day, lift up the eyes of their heart  to see the shoreline of your promises which will never fail rising up beneath their feet to rescue and deliver them on the solid ground of our eternal Rock.   Let tidal waves of discouragement pummeling best intentions turn to gentle waves of courageous faith funneling them to safety on currents of your love.   Amen.’