Sunday, September 1, 2013: Jeremiah 2:4-13

Larry was my spiritual director for seven years, but when I moved from Durham, North Carolina, to Pittsburgh, I could no longer make the monthly drive. On my last visit, instead of lighting a candle and inviting me to sit with him in a time of silence, he suggested we take a walk. As the river water rippled over the smooth rocks alongside our path, we let our conversation ripple over the last seven years.

We agreed that one of the ongoing lessons I’d been learning was that I could be more available to God by not holding on to people, things and ideas. I had been grieving because I was saying goodbye to a city, people and the church that had been my home for many years. We both laughed when I said, “It’s not getting much easier.”

This releasing is hardest for me when the thing that God is inviting me to release has gained an identity, so much so that it’s beginning to function for me as a god. I’m amazed at how easily jobs, people, things and even ideas weasel their way into taking a God’s-job role in our lives.