Interrupted by God
Interrupted by God
glimpses from the Edge
Photographs and Essays by
Tracey Lind
— to Emily
The Pilgrim Press, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115-1100
Copyright © 2004 by Tracey Lind
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America and are used by permission. Changes have been made for inclusivity.
All rights reserved. Published 2004
Copyright material taken from A New Zealand Prayer Book—He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa is used with permission. Quotes from The Book of Common Prayer (1979) of the Episcopal Church, U.S.A., are used with permission.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
This book has been reproduced as a digital reprint.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lind, Tracey, 1954-
Interrupted by God : glimpses from the edge / photographs and essays by Tracey Lind.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8298-1622-4 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-8298-1968-7
1. Christian life—Anecdotes. 2. Christian life—Meditations. I. Title.
BV4501.3.L55 2004
283’.092—dc22
2004049415
Contents
It was born on a winter day . . .
The Preacher’s Prayer on the Eve of War
Life Happens in the Interruptions
Confessions of an Evangelical Universalist
Foreword
In his book, Ministry and Imagination, the late theologian Urban Holmes suggested that the spiritual imagination is an act of pilgrimage whereby the hungry soul goes “outside the city” to find God’s presence. Leaving the city in order to see God is an ancient Christian practice, one that can be traced back to the fourth century. As the faith became increasingly conflated with imperial Roman values, faithful believers who could still imagine a life of intentional spirituality made their way to the countryside and desert where they hoped to better envision and practice a way of life in God.
Today, “the city” embodies the system of what is, the religious patterns and institutions with which contemporary Americans live—the accepted way of doing things, approved faith narratives, and proven programs of piety. Although such ways of