Heard a sermon last night that cut to the quick. It evoked the image of a "new priesthood" -- a new movement of God in the New Year. The preacher's vision of life and the work of God in the world felt inspired to the first power.

And then I thought of Jack Kerouac -- right in the middle of her sermon. I thought of his amazing book, on practical Buddhism no less, entitled Some of the Dharma. Kerouac and the preacher were on the same line.

Then something else came to mind: the jaw-dropping last act of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town".

Each of these three 'productions', i.e., Paula White's sermon, Jack Kerouac's spiritual diary, and TNW's seminal play: they were all saying the same thing.

To wit, the Truth of life lies in every case under the surface of the world. What you see, and even what you think you want to see, is not the Lasting Thing. God's work is infinitely higher than our desires and our ratiocination, tho' at times linked with those things.

Ultimately, what God is doing is different from what we think is going on.

What a relief! What a redemption (of our pasts)! What a Promise of real action!

So I'm hopeful for 2024. Hope you can be, too. LUV U.

PZ