Conversations

I don't have too many conversations with people, much less unplanned, random conversations. I had a couple of those this week -- one with someone I knew and one with a stranger. Both were a little surprising; like I said -- I really don't talk much with people.

As you might expect, the conversation with the stranger was pretty casual. He was a little older than me, retired, and like me -- looking at stuff to work in his yard. I'm not sure why he decided to converse with me, but sensing he just needed to talk to another guy, I went along with it. He is relatively new to the Ozarks, having moved here from central California four years ago. He and his wife relocated to help his son and daughter in law by taking care of their kids while they finished college and got started in life after college. After spending a couple of years living in the kids' basement, mom and dad bought their own home and they now have the house with the worst yard in their neighborhood. 
I was buying mulch and cow manure. He (Warren) was buying sod. In addition to the personal story, I was informed of some of the differences between life in CA and life in SWMO. All-in-all, it wasn't a bad experience; just something unexpected and out of the ordinary.

The other conversation was with a pastor friend that I have known for a number of years. In addition to pastoring a church, he serves as the Chaplain at two rural Mercy hospitals and oversees us volunteer chaplains. I really did enjoy sitting for an hour or so talking shop with him. We talked a bit about the job of serving as chaplain and some of the challenges we face in dealing with patients, staff, and hospital protocols. We also talked about life in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), non-denominational churches, and religion in general. 
In my own experiences I am finding God to be a lot less confusing when I am able to relate to God alone rather than trying to figure out how people view God and try to relate to (or manipulate) their own idea of God. I sometimes wonder how important it is to God that we love him back.

As a dad, I love my kids. I started loving them long before they were able to even understand the concept of loving me back. Today I would continue to love them even if they didn't demonstrate that they returned my love.
We always say that God's love is unconditional and then we turn around and say that we're going to hell if we don't love God back and follow all of his rules. I've come to the conclusion that most of those rules are a bunch of crap that religion made up to control us rather than conditions set forth by God.

I know this is heresy to my SBC friends, but I think most of them are full of themselves, their idolized denomination, and a bag or two of the cow manure I bought for my garden -- but I suppose that's a conversation for another day.

John