Porch

I've been away on vacation for the last seven weeks. Seven weeks.

That's a long time to be out of ordinary time, and a long time to be gone from my daily life as a Chaplain in the hospital. A long time to be out of any routine!

This morning I read in Acts 5:12 how all the apostles and the people were gathered together at Solomon's Portico. According to the bible commentary as well as "Google, source of all knowledge," this colonnade was historically located by one of the early historians, Josephus. I'm not so interested in "if it really did exist" or not, but rather what this landscape implies for me, in this moment.

I'm in-between. Done with one "job" and now ready to launch something new. Done with trip-of-a-lifetime-vacation and now fearing anything that seems ordinary. Glad to be back but wish I was still away. I think that porches are a landscape that holds these in-between times. Right now I'm in that threshold before what is next but is after what has been.

I think that my ordinary-today-porch is not so extravagant as a royally-named Colonnade, so I consider what it means to live into this moment, in the dark shadows of unknown and with companionship of a creative God of surprises towards what is next.

What is your porch like, in this moment?