Pastor’s Column – Aug 2025

Pastor’s Column – Aug 2025

Sunset over Lake Erie
“Lake Erie Evening” by Lori L. Stalteri is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

To understand the world, knowledge is not enough.
You must see it, touch it, live in its presence and drink
the vital heat of existence in the very heart of reality.

  • Teilhard de Chardin

Our family attended Dunkirk Family Camp this summer, which perches on a picturesque cliff overlooking Lake Erie in Dunkirk, New York. Among many activities we could choose from was an opportunity to go seining. Seining was a completely new word for me. A fellow camper and naturalist by occupation had two people stretch a net the entire width of a stream. Then the rest of our group got in the water, kicking up mud and decaying leaves, disturbing and directing every living thing to the net. Those that held the net then lifted it out of the water, revealing a multitude of creatures. Our resident naturalist went through each critter, assigning it a point value: Dragonfly nymph, 3 points. Crawfish, 2 points. Fish, 2 points. He also shared with us the unique feature of each one and the way it evolved to survive and thrive. After adding up all the points, he was ready to declare the good news. He announced that this stream is healthy and doing very well.

I did not anticipate the spiritual impact seining would have on me. We had walked over that stream every day that week. I noticed the occasional frog or fish here and there, but it wasn’t until I dug my feet into muck and bent down to witness the abundance of life all around that I fully appreciated the presence of God. I was a child, discovering the wonder and awe of this world.

We can read scripture. We can know God by constructing nice and safe theological frames to contain it. However, to put our feet in the waters of life, the dirt and mud of life we will discover far more than we could ever just know.

Teilhard de Chardin invites us beyond knowing God in a heady way, but to experience the divine relationally. What would it look like to take an entire day, seining as we go? With our hearts ready to discover, what if we put our nets in the water at the doctor’s office waiting room, the check-out line at the grocery store, or in a visit with a friend or family member? What life might we pull to the surface that we would have surely missed? I invite you to practice that today, and I hope that by the end of the day, your discoveries will inspire you to declare this stream good news.

Blessings for the journey,
Rev. Keith McDevitt

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