Dear Friends in Christ,
In his comic novel, BECK IS BACK, John Updike has
his protagonist consider the meaning of the term "Holy Land," and he comes to this definition: "The holy land was where you
accepted being. Middle Age was a holy land. Marriage." For some reason, this brings to mind for me the advice of the Chinese
sage, Lao Tzu, that instead of looking for the place where we can be happy, we should try to learn how to be happy in the
place where we are. Any land, any place, can be holy for you--it is a matter of perspective and commitment. It is also a matter
of faith.
Have you heard the saying, "Life is what happens
when you have made other plans?" I look back on my life and ministry and I am just astonished at how different it has been
from what I was expecting. But it has all been my own personal holy land. If life had taken me down other paths, I would be
a different person today. I am glad I am the person my life has made. I am thankful for what I have learned and where it has
brought me.
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| Pastor Peter Bastien |
CTS has definitely been holy land for me. And CTS
means all of you. We Americans tend to think individualistically, but I am so acutely aware that my formation as a
unique personality has been a joint, collaborative project. Your presence in my life, whether positively or negatively, has
molded me into the human being I am today. I am very thankful for all you have been to me and done for me.
And the project of my creation is not finished and
will not be finished until the day I die. I look in the mirror and see this old guy and I never believe it. It always startles
me because inside I am still a growing boy, excited by how much there is still to learn, anticipating new adventures in the
faith.
T.S. Eliot looked at the world and saw a wasteland,
Walt Whitman looked at the same world and saw a garden of delights—and both of them were right. These are moral and
spiritual possibilities. We are all things, including good and evil. And it is all holy land, both the struggling against
the wasteland and the struggle for the garden. Christians look at the wasteland and think of how they can tend and care for
and fertilize until it will become a garden. This, too, is faith.
Updike's character knows where the project begins.
A holy land is where you accept being. My life is not what I planned for or hoped for, but I accept the life that has been
given me. CTS, Pat, Florence
and Sarah, Cross Country Lane, Gaithersburg. Pretty
ordinary looking to most eyes, I guess. But to me it is all holy land. It is the life God has given me. It is the place where
Jesus is teaching me what it means to be human. I am very grateful and, like Moses, I take off the shoes from my feet, for
this place is for me holy ground.
Yours in Christ,
--Pastor Bastien
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