Lent: day 17

“I find hope in the wilderness when…”

“…I get to see my ‘rainbow friends.’” I am what is commonly termed a “GA junkie.” It doesn’t matter where the General Assembly is being held, I want to be there and so does my entire family. My wife and co-pastor started attending with me in 1996. My 21-year-old daughter has literally grown up going to General Assemblies, including serving as a YAD and a Youth Liaison with the Covenant Network. But it’s our 8-year-old son who really helps put it in perspective. Whenever he hears we’re going to another General Assembly, he gets excited and says, “I get to see my rainbow friends!”

He’s used that term ever since he was 4 years old, attending the 2006 General Assembly in Birmingham. Our family was there and his sister was serving as a YAD and when his parents were busy, people at the booths of the Witherspoon Society, Voices of Sophia, and More Light Presbyterians took turns playing with him and making him feel welcome. Our son’s experience with his “rainbow friends” has made him feel a special connection within the church.

It’s those “rainbow friends” that also give me hope. I don’t attend the General Assembly simply to help work on social justice issues; I attend because I need to experience the kind of welcoming and hopeful atmosphere that I feel in the presence of fellow Presbyterians. While I look forward to that wonderful worship service where thousands of Presbyterians gather on a Sunday morning at the beginning of the Assembly, it still doesn’t compare to the More Light worship service where so many different voices are raised in song and where there is a real sense of praise to God. Somehow, when we gather in a place where all of us come together as “strangers” and we get the chance to see the great variety of humanity present in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), my hope is renewed that we will begin to appreciate our differences and not merely tolerate them, or worse, to use those differences to separate us from one another.

It’s my “rainbow friends” that give me hope and I give thanks for them daily.

The Rev. Mitch Trigger
Rockaway, New Jersey

Lent: day 16

I find hope in the wilderness when I remember that I am not alone, that wilderness is a shared part of our journey of faith, that not only did an entire people wander, led by a cloud and a pillar of fire, but that I try to follow a Jesus whose own walk in the wilderness brought him closer to his calling.

The Reverend Laura Cunningham
Pastor Nauraushaun Presbyterian Church
Pearl River, NY

Lent: day 15

I find hope in the wilderness when I remember my centering prayer: "Thou art with me. Thy will be done."

Jenny Howard, M.Div. student, Louisville Seminary

Lent: day 14

What gets you through the wilderness?
"Jesus and music...and the bucket with which to carry a tune."

Donna Konias

Lent: day 13

I find hope in the wilderness when I travel with those willing to set their face toward Jerusalem, as Jesus did, to set aside safety and comfort - in order to serve others, regardless of the cost.

Ray Bagnuolo, Pastor Jan Hus Presbyterian Church and Neighborhood House
Openly gay Minister of Word and Sacrament PC(USA), Board Member of MLP

Lent: day 12

I find hope in the wilderness when even a sightless man can see transgender people have rights.

Anna Taylor Sweringen
Presbyterian Welcome Board Member

Lent: day 11

I find hope in the Wilderness when...
Portion of a letter sent to Meg Harper in October, 2009, from Earl Brown, Jr.- serving his 23rd year in jail and at this time in solitary confinement:

Please do not let yourself cry. There is a window, I can see trees and sky beyond the fences and razor wire. I can open it slightly and get fresh air and I am never really alone. Please remember that the things of beauty that I find rest in can’t be taken from me.

So my dear friend, Jesus had his forty days wilderness experience, Moses had 40 years…the Buddah had his Tree… and Muhammad his Cave; A pattern and example to know and understand the I Am in us all. So no problem with Shoe (Earl’s nickname) and 4 months of solitary. May the Love, Power, and Peace, the Mystery that has been hidden from the ages… Çhrist in You, Your Hope of Glory. be clear and dear to you, whose tears have taken your soul to the laundry mat, making you clean, without spot of blemish, precious! As Ever, your Brother Earl, Jr.