Kenton J. Kutney

This is a theological reflection that has grown during my cancer journey. Someone texted me in June when faced with a splenectomy that it was like a terrorist attack on body. I know they meant well. But immediately that didn't sit right with me. What terror? That's not biblical. Who's the terrorist? Does Satan have so much power to take over and ravage my world? He'd like us to think he's all that. He's a prowling, roaring toothless beast.  Yet I feel - I know - I am surrounded by ministering angels, abiding in the abundance of life in Christ, wrapped in the comfort of the Holy Spirit , and loved by the awesome grace of my Father. A sinner saved. Wow. It's all true! So I can truly say it again: it is well with my soul!

Standing comfortably amidst the contradiction... On the one hand I'm still having trouble walking from the ensuite bathroom to the bed without a rest break; on the other hand, these opening lines from the poem 'Song of the Open Road' make me want to wander and explore: "Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,  Healthy, free, the world before me,  The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose." (Inspired by Whitman's 19th c. travels through the American frontier).

white horses crest  waves wash over my life  the ebbing tide flows  sweeps foam through my feet around my toes  my soul dances dappled by Light in pleasant tidal pools  eddies of memories  i wander through the timeless Now a waking dream  sojourn with you always be  with me  in the present the benevolent present  of your presence castles grand  now gone with time  rock hard granite  smoothed down fine thousands and more thousands  grains of sand  flying footprints  washed clean away  by the enduring mystery  of timeless Now 

I need  not  your sympathy,  shallow pity I want  your empathy,  understood deeply  Hard-earned kinship through suffering  Any rube can endure  but to infer to learn from  Wisdom  in the crucible  this is Grace at work  in the tapestry of life

Remembering a dear old friend - a creative mentor, godly and faithful friend. I read this today in his honour to family and friends gathered together to say goodbye and to celebrate. From a novel by Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter , about memory and time: "And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence. But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remembered now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive." You have today. And you have memory. Cherish both. Love with all your heart. 

  A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society Eugene H. Peterson InterVarsity Press, 2000 -  212 pages.  (This revised and expanded edition includes the Psalms of Ascent in The Message translation as well as a new epilogue. This is a book for modern pilgrims who want to learn to live in communion with God. Also available from IVP is a companion volume, A Long Obedience Journal.) Just the other day I was taken back to a book on the Ascent Psalms that I initially discovered while attending Regent College written by pastor-theologian, Eugene Peterson, called "A Long Obedience In The Same Direction".  What took me back in my memory was a newly released online video by Fuller Studios which featured Bono from the rock band U2 joining in conversation with Peterson at his rustic home at Flathead Lake, Montana. As Bono walks the path up to their home he is welcomed by Jan Peterson in a most grandmotherly way. Immediately Eugene's raspy sage-lik...

A Conversation with Author Wendell Berry http://world.regent-college.edu/leading-ideas/we-are-still-near-the-beginning