A number of years ago I discovered the writings of Thomas Merton. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the kindness of Dr. Jerry Mercer at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky who decided to offer his course on the writings of Thomas Merton during a semester that fit into my rather busy senior year. Merton was a Trappist Monk who spent most of his days at the Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky, in silence, as a hermit. Thomas Merton was actually one of the last allowed to live the hermit life at Gethsemane. There he discovered the ever-present tension between living a holy life, in the midst of what can be a very unholy world.

Thomas Merton struggled with many internal battles. His life before the monastery was rather colorful. Some say he originally planned to become a Franciscan Monk. But, the day before he was to take his holy orders with the Franciscan monastery, he was called to the office and told he would not be accepted by the Franciscan order. Why? Some believe it was discovered Merton had a son out of wedlock for you see in the days before his conversion, he lived a rather wild life.

It’s here we discover the ever-present tension facing all of us in this journey we call life. In the midst of his past, Merton found himself living in the present, in the midst of a holy God, trying to sort out grace, mercy and yes, even life, as it relates to living a life for God. Some days are good, some days, not so good. While many days we’re simply faced with living life one step at a time.

In a July 1965 journal entry Merton writes; “Seeing more and more that my understanding of myself and of my life has always been most inadequate. Now that I want more than ever to see, I realize how difficult it is. (I have a sense that reality is smothered and words are substituted for it.) The job of the Church is to awaken in myself, and in others, the sense of real possibility and of truth, without arrogance and idealism. The terrible thing is we are often suffocated from the noise of our own propaganda, able to make ourselves believe whatever we want.”

What propaganda does the church put forth? What propaganda do we find ourselves believing as truth? How far have we truly strayed from the true message of the Gospel? How does all of this fit into the journey we call life?

The first Thomas Merton book I read was “New Seeds of Contemplation.” A truly fascinating book in which, as the title eludes to, Merton simply “contemplated” life. Maybe that’s where we’ve fallen short these days. In the midst of the suffocating noise of what many call truth, we’ve lost the ability to encourage people to truly contemplate, and discuss, what’s going on in life. But isn’t that where the rubber really hits the road?

In the midst of life, we discover a loving God who really does want to give us hope for the future.

Keep encouraged!
Dr. Rus

Once upon a time, in a land far away, when I was a young boy and thought I knew everything, life couldn’t have been better. Without a care in the world, well except for making sure the same amount of gas was in the car that was in it when I borrowed it from Dad, all that really mattered was having fun with friends.

I look back on those days with good memories. But to be honest, even though some say it would be nice to be a teenager again, I know I don’t want to go back to being a teen again. It’s not that my teen years were tough, I just don’t want to experience all that peer pressure again, nor have to worry about when my face is going to break out just before a date. Life for teens is also a lot different these days than when I was growing up. It’s true, we do live in a different world. While it would be nice to have the same moral base we once had, and it would be nice to not have to worry about all the trouble in the world today, there’s one thing we must reconcile within our lives. “The only constant in life, is change.”

As I look at how life rolls on these days, I must admit there are many blessings around me too. I guess I’ve never been one to look at a glass “half empty.” Instead, I’m the guy looking at the glass that’s “half full.” There are always options, and there are always incredible blessings on the way, or in our midst. All we need to do is open our eyes to see what’s going on around us, and in turn be thankful.

Could life be better? Sure. But, by who’s measuring stick are we using to measure betterness in life? As I sit here this morning I’m thinking about the wonderful blessings of family, friends, work, and yes, even a few material things. But most importantly, I’m thinking about the blessing of our middle son, who just returned from a mission trip to Mexico, who’s also another year older today.

Today Ryan is 17. That means tomorrow he’ll probably want to know if I’ll let him get his license yet so he can drive my Mustang!

Happy birthday Ryan!
Dad

Cool new feature on my webshots lets me put a slide show right here on my blog! Enjoy the collection of pictures from the opening day of the 31st Anniversary of the Sterling Renaissance Festival in Sterling, New York.

Every year we head out to the Sterling Renaissance Festival in Sterling, New York and it’s always a great time. It’s one of our major summer promotions for the radio station I work at as well. Every Friday I interview someone from the festival, in character of course. It kicked off this time around with the annual interivew with Queen Elizabeth. That was followed by the Sheriff of the Shire, and now I’m getting set for interviews with Hey Nunnie Nunnie and Don Juan & Miguel. If you’re in the area, the festival is a must see! It runs weekends only until the weekend of August 19th this year. The weekends are always themed and there’s lots to do.

Here’s a picture of our fun from yesterday! This year Rachel arranged to have us get into costume for the festival. Thanks so much to Rachel, as well as Judy the wonderful costume designer who helped get us set for our day of fun stepping back in time.

Here we are with the Queen!

That’s “Ben the Pirate” (our youngest son). Sandra my wife, Queen Elizabeth, and me!

Can you tell we’re having fun!

Keep encouraged!
Dr. Rus

P.S. I’ll post some more pictures later!