in the beginning

So what is all this about?

A canon is usually a list. Like the canon of scripture. Or the canon of law. So I guess this is my personal canon of whatever deep theological topic I'm pondering in any given week.

This week is mainly electricity, and how it's impossible to do any deep pondering without it. With the power off everywhere thanks to hurricane Ike coming to the Ohio Valley I have no access to any of the resources I usually use, so I can't think. Nor do ministry. There's no power so my parish is closed. How Christianity was able to get anything done for the first 1900 years is beyond me. Candles are no help. They just show me enough of my place to see the blank computer screen and the blank tv screen.

But the main reason I'm not pondering anything is because of vacation. One of my spiritual directors in seminary told us that if some work event gets canceled, then the time is a gift from God and you can't fill it up with work. I've always tried to follow that. And now God has apparently given me a whole week. Maybe two. And since pondering theology is my work I can't do it.

So if you have things canceled, don't fill them up with work. Enjoy the gift. And if you don't have anything canceled, maybe God just likes me more than you.

Til next week or I get power and have to go back to pondering