in the middle

The middle...

sometimes desired....

sometimes despised.

I remember, as a young boy,

a terrific thunder storm in the middle of the night...

storm so loud it rattled the windows in my room.

Storm so loud

it woke me from my dreams.

Fear of being alone I

jumped out of my bed .....

ran down the hall....

I stayed the night in the middle

of my mother and father

in thier huge bed.

In the middle I was safe.

As a teenager.....

I liked the middle desk in the classroom....

the middle seat on the bus....

the middle of the group.

Safety comes in the middle...

less noticed that way.

I serve a church....

former "mainline denomination".

We are often called the middle.

The middle of the church....

where I baptized a man

who grew up Orthodox Jew

and his wife

who called herself

an Agnostic Protestant.

They met in the middle

(the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.)

and found a refuge of

meaning and hope.

The middle of the church means the meeting of minds....

differences

merge....

meet...

mingle.

Those of us in the middle say,

"We agree to disagree."

Yet....we certainly are not that agreeable these days.

Open to the middle of the Bible

and find the Psalms.

Words of comfort,

lament, and hope.....

such as:

Psalm 23.

Green pastures.....

still waters.

Calm, peace, unity.

And

yet

right there in the middle

we are called to:

walk in the

shadow of the valley of death

and

sit at table

with our

enemy.

The middle....

not all it's thought to be.

And

yet....

each turn I take....

I am called to live and serve in the middle.

In the middle of what?

That

I am left

to discern today

and the day after today.