Feeling God's love, and feeling the privilege of being a minister tonight.

I posted earlier today when I was at the Guthrie theater about "a chance to enrich the soul with some good theater." I'm feeling very enriched. The play ("Stage Kiss") was really funny. The first act was basically a farce, and the second act was a surprising twist of the farce that turned into a beautiful message about the power of love. And as I sit here late at night, after a long week of the ups and downs of life, I'm looking to the rest of August and feeling the immensity of God's love and presence. I received a spirit-lifting meditation on love in the play today, and I look toward a month with a funeral, a wedding, and a baptism, and then the next month I get to be reunited with the love of my life. This month will see three of the major events of life, in all of which God is present - in death, the love that heals and comforts, from God and from a wife's dedication to her sick and dying spouse, and the reminder that not even death can separate us from God's love; the love of a couple to turn that love into the covenant of marriage; and the baptismal ritual that remembers and affirms God's love for all his/her/its sons and daughters. I also had the privilege tonight of being at the rehearsal of two incredibly talented young adults who are doing a recital tomorrow - God present in artistic expression. I'll spend time with some of our homeless and hurting brothers and sisters, and have opportunity to join the struggle of those who simply want a living wage and a path to the dignity of the exodus out of financial anxiety. Being a minister is a unique privilege of being allowed to be present and to be a witness to the fullness of human experience: the joys and sorrow, the hopes and the dashed hopes, the pains and the celebrations. For whatever it's worth, that is where my heart is tonight, and it feels good.