Vacation

Enjoyed our vacation with family at Hilton Head. One of my favorite things was to rise early and go outside to sit and read with a cup of coffee, interrupted by an occasional squirrel or lizard. I'm definitely a morning person. I admit I have some resentment about giving my employer the best hours of my day. By evening I'm not much good, and reading is a real effort at night.

I began to re-read Calvin's Institutes. His negative reputation among evangelicals is a puzzle to me. His work is full of joy at God's creation, and his description of Christ as Mediator (his favorite term for the Lord) is worth the read.

I also tackled The Dark Night of the Soul (St. John of the Cross), a classic of Roman mystical theology. It struck me as I was reading that St. John was describing universal mystical experience, and that a Catholic, an Orthodox, an "exchanged life" Protestant, a Buddhist, or a Sufi could identify with the painful process of moving from the world of sight and thought into the bliss of the Divine Love. Whether the process is looked upon as an attainment of the soul to a higher plane, or (from a Protestant point of view) the struggle of faith to believe that Christ has accomplished all we need for life and godliness, the experience is the same.

As usual on vacations, I contemplated my age and the future. I have a greater peace about both than I did a year ago. The refuge of old thoughts and habits is like an old leaky hut--not much there in the way of substance any more.

"I love thee, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold."