Lover of Soul(s) and Inviter to the Dance

            This Summer I was at Camp Gilmont for a week of camp as the theme enabler/bible leader.  It was my second summer and I really enjoy it.  I got to spend time with some wonderful kids, fantastic counselors and staff and just chilled.  My total teaching time was a couple of hours a day, so I spent the rest of my time reading, eating, napping, and walking in the woods.  I highly recommend the experience.
            Every afternoon, I would take a 2-3 hour hike on the trails at Camp Gilmont, always trying to go somewhere I had not been before.  Most of the time I tried simply to be present in the woods, looking, listening, paying attention to what is before me and around me.  I tried not to have an agenda.  Just walk and explore, look and see.
            One day a question kept popping in my head.  “What am I supposed to be doing in my life?”  This is the question I have been living with the last four years, especially since I left the church I was serving.  One advantage to serving a church as a pastor is you know what you are supposed to be doing.  Pastors have both job descriptions and job expectations. The challenge as a pastor, at least for me, was that I had too much to do and not enough time to do it.  Surprisingly, these last four years also have been filled with lots to do.  I am always busy with too much to do.  The question is “Is this what I am supposed to be doing?’  How would I know?  I have no job description and no job expectations. This is wonderful in so many ways but doesn’t help me to know what my purpose is. Am I doing what I am supposed to be doing?  Is there something else? 
            For those of us who seek to follow Christ, this question becomes a faith question.  Am I being faithful to the One who called me?  I see that I am on a unique journey.  Am I on the right path?  Is there something I am missing?  How will I know?
            Walking that day in the woods at Camp Gilmont, this question kept repeating itself to me, “What am I supposed to be doing?”  I’ve learned that when these questions keep coming at me again and again, it is best not to push them away but to enter into them.  Embrace them. The question is asking that all previous answers be reexamined and redefined.  Look and see.  Be present and explore.
            I sat with my back against a pine tree and looked down the trail at another pine tree.  This second pine tree was over 100 feet tall, an impressive specimen. I stared that this massive tree for a while and decided to ask the tree the question I have been struggling with for so long.  “What am I supposed to be doing?” I asked.  Then I sat in the silence.  For a while. Breathing in.  Breathing out.  Presence.
            Suddenly these words came into my mind. “You are to be Lover of Soul(s) and Inviter to the Dance.”  Was the pine tree responding? Who knows but I believe it was.  The tree was inviting me to see what I had not seen before. 
I am called to love the soul of each person, that part of us where our true self resides, which is our depth, our life, our purpose.  For so many of us the soul resides in the unconscious, the unknown part of us.  It is the place of faith, of hope and of love from which faith, hope, and love break forth into our lives.  Ultimately there is only One Soul, just as there is One Life. I call this One Life/One Soul Christ. We are all unique incarnations of the One Soul, which is why when I love my soul, I love yours and when I love your soul, I love mine.  I am called to be a Lover of this Soul(s).
            What is this Dance to which I am to invite others?  That is what the Wild Mustang Dance blog is about.  The Dance to which I am called. The Dance to which all of us are called – all humans, all creatures, all living things, all that is.  God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in one eternal dance (perichoresis) and Jesus Christ came to make sure we can all join in.  I invite you to continue to read this blog to see all the wonderful ways this Dance unfolds.

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