Wow!  2018 went by fast!  It was a busy year with lots of traveling.  We experienced weddings, funerals, dealing with unexpected death, and births.  I started this post and then never came back.  Now 2019 is past and we are well into 2020.  When people say time flies, I am understanding it now.  I finished my sabbatical and jumped back gingerly into the life of the congregation and am now feeling more connected and useful than before.  It is different but so am I.  It was somewhat unnerving to make such a shift in thinking about church.  I have long been a person who feels that God is with us always and is an active participant in every aspect of our lives, if we open ourselves to that. Up until recently that included the church community as an absolute necessity.  Now, I am realizing that there are aspects of “church” that just don’t work for me.  It is also true that these things are human additions to the truth of God’s message  for us.  Now more than ever I am aware that following Jesus is so much more that what the organized institution of church, (church brought to the US by colonization), offers.  In some instances the church has distorted what the Way of Christ really is.  Unlocking this for myself has been life-giving.  It has opened my eyes to the wonder and glory of life in the spirit.   More later.