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TITLE: SKYLINE
TEXT: "To Thee O Lord, I lift up my soul." (Psalm 25:1)

Henry David Thoreau found great ministries from a walk in the woods. He wrote: "Alone in the woods or fields ... I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related ... I dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful ... I am not satisfied with ordinary windows. I must have a true skylight."

Many have found Thoreau's skylight in nature. There can be healing from the sea; inspiration from the mountain; serenity in the desert. Some have found that skylight in prayer; to lift up our soul to God and find him to be the very ground of our being.

Where do you find a skylight? Where do you find a connection with that which helps you discover who you are and brings you renewal, revitalization and refreshment? Where do you find that which gives you a sense of perspective and helps you see things in their proper order?

Life needs a skylight ... a place of connectedness where we can get in touch with who and whose we are.

Clergy Talk, October 1995, p. 6.

TITLE: FINDING OURSELVES
TEXT: "If any man would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Mark 8:34)

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Polonius says to his son, "This above all to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false any man."

These immortal lines from Hamlet are stirring and always draw a positive response from us, but the question has to be asked: true to which self? We are often pulled and drawn in many different directions. Our true self can be very difficult to pin down.

In many ways Jesus tells us that only when we are faithful to a high and commanding cause, or love beyond ourselves, can we really find ourselves. One way Jesus put it was: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

There is no such thing as being true to a self that is not in turn true to something greater than self. We need the love of Christ in order to not serve our lesser selves.

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