Living in the real world

It's interesting to be in a place where each person is here for the same reason, where everyone identifies themselves as a child of God, and where that relationship to the Creator is the definitive attribute... not race or gender or political alliegence or nationality or age or any other of the thousands of ways we tend to seperate one from another.

You'd think that such a gathering would be fundamentally inwardly focused... but it's not. The spirit of this conference has more to do with the way we respond to God's love as people who live in the real world.

I've often said that our spiritual journey must engage with real people in the nitty-gritty of our day to day if it is to go anywhere at all. And our speakers here have all focused on the same idea.

We don't - we can't - go through spiritual formation in isolation, and it is contrary to God's plan for our lives to live in a kind of spiritual vacuum that fails to deal with the imperative to serve.

If I have time I'll add to this post later in the day. Meanwhile, I've added a couple more photographs from my walk around the lake. This place is beautiful.

Peace - DEREK