The Unclad Soul

Indulge me if you will to be a little revealing and vulnerable with you. It’s a big world out there and sometimes it seems to be getting away from me. As I age I cannot help but wonder what it all has meant and means and where I might have taken different steps along the way. When I was a boy I wanted to be a doctor. I thought it would be the neatest thing ever to be able to walk into a room wearing a starched white lab coat and look into someone’s throat or ears or listen to their heart with a stethoscope and say, I know what’s wrong. And then I’d help them get well. It was a boyhood dream I suppose but as I moved through school I didn’t think I had the brains to do all of the science and math and physiology and chemistry that was required. And I didn’t really have anyone to convince me otherwise. I had other dreams: becoming a professional baseball player running the bases in Yankee Stadium; a lawyer successfully defending the innocent wrongly accused; a teacher fill...

I was once a minister. When my marriage fell apart years ago and I was divorced I left the ministry thinking I would eventually get back in. That became much more difficult than I ever thought. Eventually I went into other things. I actually loved preaching. I loved the struggle. The demand it placed on me. The need to say something every week that meant something. I loved to research a theme. I loved the thought of looking at my faith in different ways. I loved exploring the whole idea of God. The what and who and where that always circles God. I never knew for sure any solid answers for any of that but I wanted to know. I loved reading and finding things to put in my sermons that helped bring my point home. I read everything: novels, poems, biographies, billboards, menus, greeting cards; anything that might me make think. There were messages everywhere and I wanted all of them. I loved writing. Someone once asked me which I enjoyed most, preaching or writing. I said I enjoyed pr...