Our Tuesday is a bit cooler with the promise of rain in the forecast. I was thinking that we all have some of God in us…in that we each attempt to fashion organizations that we are a part of and people that are close to us…in our image and after our likeness. I just left Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale…or the University that Delyte Morris built. Almost every success for the past over 70 years has his fingerprint on it. President Morris envisioned a University without prejudice and bias and with an international outreach…and he brought all of those wonderful elements to pass. Dr. Morris saw a world-class university that never forgot where it came from and thus had its’ primary mission to the people of impoverished Southern Illinois.

Eldorado, my hometown, Duquoin, and most of the little Southern Illinois Towns and Villages were founded with purpose and vision by a handful of people. While those Visions flourished…the town prospered…when they were forgotten…the forgotten towns languished. The Bible tells us that, ‘Where there is no vision…the people perish.’

Churches are governed by members of our human family. But…then again…our Bible was written by the same. In George and Ira Gerwishins’ popular song from their Opera, Porgy, and Bess that is sung by the character, ‘Sportin’ Life, he sings, ‘It ain’t necessarily so, The things that you’re liable to read in the Bible, It ain’t necessarily so.’ The media spends an inordinate amount of time covering either the far right of politics or the far left and basically ignores the preponderance of people that are neither..but rather in the middle. Many of us have thought deeply regarding the very divisive subjects of the day and our opinions can not be expressed in a soundbite. Nor are our opinions hanging off of the edge of political/religious thought. If we are not careful we can be guilty of fashioning our churches in our own image…and forgetting the many who are not like us and who can not find a home in our narrow faith and worldview.

‘We see through a glass darkly,’ Paul told us. We search for God and his will for our lives and our churches and our world. Often we see the shadows…while the image stands in dim light…