"God works all things for good, for those who love Him and are called for His purposes."                                                                       Romans 8:28

Dear People of St. David's,

I pray that you are well and pray that there are moments in your life when God is giving you clarity about His presence in your life. I pray, too, that you have some glimpse, however fleeting, of His purpose at work in your life and the lives of those you love.

This is my prayer for you and for me. It's my prayer because sometimes it's hard to notice in life whether God's presence is actually with us. If you're like me, you don't always feel that presence. We may not feel God's presence simply because we're not paying attention. We miss the sense that God is with us, loving us, because there are so many other activities and people in our lives. We may not consider that God is with us, loving us because we're having a down or flat emotional day, one with more pain than joy. It may be because we're going through a hard time or someone we love is on a very wrong path or is simply not getting over some physical or emotional difficulty. Sometimes we lose any sense of what God's presence is even like.

But the promise of God is that God is always with us, whether we feel it or not. The Creator and Redeemer of all that is, is a God who is so powerful that all of creation is in order, even as God reaches down to touch individual lives like yours and mine. We worship and follow after a God who wants us to know His presence in our very lives; the God who is seeking us and looking for those openings in our souls so that He may touch us. It may only be a glimpse or it may be a prolonged period of life when we know at our very core that God is with us, with those we love, and with all people.

That is, I believe, what is at the core of St. Paul's little quote at the beginning of this message. The good that God works is not that all of our lives will be carefree and easy, with no pain or struggles or death. Those come for all of us and we shouldn't be surprised by this. After all, our Founder, Jesus Christ, went to a cross for our sake. No, the good that God works is a purpose that includes His presence in our lives, but is far beyond our personal desires or wants - a purpose that is God's alone and one that is often far beyond our comprehension, but one that is bounded and infused with the most profound love.

Today is the second anniversary of our family's plane crash in Alaska. We are all well and thriving in various places, pursuing the lives God seems to be calling us to live. It is an event that I still cannot explain with any real certainty or fully understand. Still, it was one moment in my life, at least, that was infused with God's presence and love. A lot of that presence came through many of your prayers and acts of love and caring. For that I will always be most grateful and will remember the presence of God's love.

So allow me to invite you to open your heart for the first time or again to the presence of a God who wants you and has good in mind for you, even though it may not always look that way. The glimpse may be fleeting, but you'll know it and it will make sense.