Backroads

Scripture, Books, Art & Thoughts about the Peculiar Journey of Faith

Hiking in the Scottish Highlands, April 2023

Being a Christian has always been an “alternative” lifestyle. But the trip is much more scenic and interesting on the backroads.

1. Why this newsletter? Why now?

I love trudging along the Christian path, or should I say stumbling along, which I do more than I care to admit. Regardless, to commit to the Christian journey is to have a direction, a destination, and a reason for being human. Jesus gave us his marching orders when he declared, “Give unto Caesar the things that are his, but give unto God the things that are His” (Mark 12:17). Money is a part of what Jesus was talking about, but, by no means, all of it. We belong to God, and God is drawing us to him on what promises to be an unending, incredible — yet sometimes uphill — journey. Those who confuse the drive for political power, the hunger for affluence, and the race to judgment with living as a Christian will soon discover they’ve not been walking on the path, but on a dead end street.

2. Who should read this newsletter? What kind of community do I want to build?

Twenty or so years ago, I asked my wife Kay to review a book that I was somewhat taken with and was eager to teach. A day or two later she returned to me, slapped the book on the kitchen counter, punched it three times with her index finger, and said, “Pat, you could read this entire book and not know what a Christian is, and you certainly wouldn’t know how to live as one!” That put the kibosh on the book. It also got my attention. Christianity can easily become a theory with an abstract appeal that gives us a high fructose dose of ephemeral comfort, yet makes no demands of us, nor will it change us. The earliest followers of Christ were, in fact, called “The Way” (Acts 24:14). Christians, then and now, undertake a concrete Way of life, the Christian walk, we say. That gives us much more than an occasional sugar high. I want to keep company with a community of people who want to walk this alternative path. We may even keep one another from falling from time to time.

Christians undertake a concrete Way of life, the Christian walk, we say.

Rather than '“alternative path”, I’m inclined to use “backroads” for the Christian journey. Sticking to the main roads, we can reliably get from point A to point B without much thought, and therein lies the problem. Our journey with Christ is an experiential one, like turning off the interstate for a blue highway. In the winding, stop-and-go traffic, we have to take a look at real places, real people, thriving towns, dying ones, gorgeous farms, and abandoned heaps of masonry and wood where families once lived. We don’t know what will appear when we round the next corner. The unknown is the leading edge of our wonder. Wonder is what draws us further along our path with Christ, but it is a circuitous, eye-opening, sometimes baffling backroad’s journey. Recall what Jesus said to Nicodemus, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). Nicodemus wanted a straight-line GPS, but walking with Jesus is a Rand-McNally atlas with crooked lines and switchbacks of black, blue, and red strokes painted across the page of a human lifetime.. Nick would learn that along the Way, just as we do.

3. Who am I?

In late November, my wife Kay and I celebrated our forty-eighth wedding anniversary. Without an ounce of feigned humility, I can assure you Kay is the best thing I can say about me. We have relished one adventure after another, not the least of which is raising three children and now fawning over three grandchildren. For the past thirty-six years, I have served as an Episcopal priest, and most of those years as rector of three parishes. The first was situated in the suburbs of Beaumont, TX, the second in the ex-burbs of sprawling Austin, TX, and this last parish, which I have served for twelve years, in urban San Antonio. I spent nine years working as a chaplain and theology teacher in two Episcopal boarding schools. Along the way, I uprooted the family to lead a worldwide mission society and filled a short-term mission in Newfoundland in the isolated outports in the North Atlantic. Backroads are a specialty of ours.

Before ordination, I taught English literature and composition to 150 students and coached football, basketball, and tennis in a 6-A Alabama high school — all for the whopping salary of $14,500 per year ($11,500 without the coaching supplement). I enlisted as a private in the Army Infantry, became a drill instructor, and then an officer in an emergency deployment battalion. I jumped out of three different aircraft, including a jet — vestiges of my youthful immortal illusions.

Kay, never the slacker, worked as a registered nurse in intensive care units in four different states. Yet I can never recall a time she missed Sunday worship, choir practice, or a Wednesday covered dish supper. A good woman “is more precious than rubies” the Good Book says (Proverbs 3:15-18). The Good Book is right.

Retirement has been a tougher hike than I expected. Signing up for Medicare, choosing a healthcare supplement, starting my pension payments, and sitting on hold for hours listening to every variation of scratchy electronic Muzak was maddening. During the process, I imagined I had been stranded in an elevator in a New York office building for three days sans earplugs.

Mercifully, the last phone call was completed.  Kay and I will eat, keep the lights on, and see a doctor. I am sleeping better, thinking clearer, and paying more attention to the road-miles behind me and the the Way ahead.

4. What can you expect of me?

My goal will be to post at least once per week — more if possible. My comments will be centered on a Scripture text, the Book of Common Prayer, American history, a current event, art, a book I am reading, and most especially the unpredictable antics I encounter along the Way. God has set his signposts and sign-people all around us.

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