good news sunday...

this is the first work of the famous michelangelo...being sunday and all, i spent equal time watching the famous 'osteen' and then calming my brain with ideas of the great people of the world...

"one should not become an artist because he can, but because he must...it is only for those who would be miserable without it..."

i find this to be fascinating...it seems that there are many parallels with the artist and the pastor...it's tedious, and challenging...it involves hours of nonstop preparation...the art of preaching, care, counseling....not to mention the love of humanity and what we owe due to our receiving...

in a day and age where there is much waxing and waning of convictions, i find it interesting that this quote reflects the atmosphere in which the great artist found himself...after lorenzo medici died, michelangelo found himself at the church and the library that existed there...the books and the art...this is what the priest of the church said to him..."we are a school...we have no censors here at santo spirito...there are no forbidden books...we insist that our students remain free to think, inquire, doubt...we do not fear that catholicism will suffer from our liberality...our religion is strengthened as the minds of our students grow mature..."

lately the conversation has revolved around our society having to have the black and white answer readily available...there is no time to think, inquire, doubt...these things reflect a dubious nature...answers wrapped up in the box has been given to us in the scriptures...

i will confess, as i read the blessed words handed down through the ages, there are many times i end up with more questions than answers...i have never found what jesus said to be easy and quick in the answer genre...mr. o this morning said that "we can use negativity to thwart the work of god in our life..." he used jeremiah as a reference and told of how jeremiah told god he couldn't do what god had asked...clearly, he didn't consider the myriad of texts within the same book that reveals many people who were never given the chance to thwart...they were chosen to have hardened hearts and then there were those whose blatent life of wrongness was used despite the situation...

where is the pulpit that allows the wrestling to occur? where is the voice that doesn't hand down a pat formula for how to love or serve? where is the gathering in which the honesty of who we are, truly, is reflected in and within the walls in which the gathered come?

i know i am not alone in this quandry...at least i believe it to not be...these past few weeks have been powerful in formation...i know there are close friends of mine who doubt everything because of painful experiences...but i find good news today in this quote by the priest...

is it truly a sign of maturity when we don't have the answers ready and waiting? or is the maturity in place when we ADMIT we don't have the concise, absolute answer? maybe there is no real maturity...maybe there is...