THE LAST RIVER MILE

Thoughts near the take-out.

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GEOFF POSEGATE

Retired United Methodist pastor and leadership coach.

  • WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO ‘CHARACTER MATTERS’?

    In the 1990’s, when the president engaged in inappropriate behavior with a White House intern, we heard the phrase “character matters.” As he compounded the matter by lying about, much of the nation insisted a leader’s values and personal actions matter, regardless of how much we agree or disagree with that person’s politics.

    I find it odd and confusing that I don’t seem to hear much insistence that character matters now. I even heard this about our present POTUS from one person who cried out against the president’s morals three decades ago: “We didn’t elect him to be a Boy Scout. It doesn’t matter, as long as he gets the job done.” That’s quite a 180-degree pivot.

    Granted, the actual character identity of few leaders matches their carefully polished public images. The moral lapses of multiple presidents are legendary. Still, many of us have an unspoken expectation or hope that our leaders at least will aspire to be their better selves.

    Now, many flaunt and even celebrate the lack of good character. Under the shield of, “He tells it like it is,” we’re supposed to give a pass to brazen pridefulness, off-the-chart narcissism, and apocalyptic egocentricity. We are expected to applaud someone who sees healthy accountability as something that should never hinder him, due to some kind of perceived entitlement most of us cannot comprehend. We see the top office engaging in name-calling and outright slander which we would not allow from our own children and grandchildren. We are expected to tolerate an endless, cruel demonizing of those with whom he does not agree or whom he does not happen to like. And don’t even get me started the beyond-disrespectful treatment of women.

    So, again, what happened to ‘character matters’? Does it only matter to the extent that it supports or challenges my particular political views?

    I cannot stand in judgement without judging myself. I am in no position to throw the first stone. This is about behavior, not the value of a human being. The president is declared worthy the life, death, resurrection and promised return of Jesus, the hope of the world, not one iota less than I am.

    In the final analysis, whatever is going on in secular leadership, character matters for those of us who dare to claim Jesus as Lord. Loving God, loving others as God loves us, practicing humility, and seeking to serve rather than to be served – all these things must characterize us. I probably need to just focus on doing a better job of this myself.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • A CHRIST-LIKE PHOTOBOMB

    I heard a great story from a church with whom I am somewhat familiar. As many congregations do, this one has a weekly fellowship dinner and small-group discipleship gathering. Not too long ago someone new to the church showed up for this event. The newcomer was one of the following: 1) A gay or lesbian person, 2) Someone with mental health challenges, 3) A person from a different ethnic background than most of the people in that congregation, 4) Someone with a non-binary gender identity, 5) An unhoused person, 6) An undocumented immigrant, 7) Someone with a different political view than most of the people in the church, 8) A person with a criminal record. Amazingly, the church members did a pretty good job of welcoming their new guest.

    At a recent weekly session attendance was unusually high. The newcomer noted above arrived late, and took a seat alone. As the meal continued and the group readied for their learning sessions, the pastor was moving through the crowd taking pictures, with the permission of those getting their pictures taken. When he came to the new person, that individual happily agreed to be photographed. Suddenly, a church member ran over and stood alongside the newcomer, saying that there was no way she was going to allow the new person to have a picture taken alone.

    Hearing this story, it was as if God thumped me on the head saying, “THIS is Church! This is what the Kingdom looks like. This is what it means to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Nobody gets pictured alone.”

    I felt conviction. Looking at the list above, would I run to the side of any of them to have my picture taken with them? Is there any one of them whom I would not photobomb? If so, I might have some work to do.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • WHY DOLLY PARTON?

    Today many of us are reacting to the passing of a larger than life presence in American culture. There’s never been anyone quite like Dolly Parton, and there never will be again. The Queen of Country Music was queen of much in addition to that. We are honoring her for far more than her incredible musical talent.

    Do you notice what’s happening to us with Dolly’s death, nation-wide? Memorials from all corners of our culture afford her a status higher than the greatest athletes, the most renowned entertainment icons, and the most impacting world leaders. People from political, philosophical, and theological camps which we thought would never agree on anything seem to concur that the world is a permanently better place because Dolly Parton was a part of it.

    Why is this happening? We haven’t been this united around anyone or anything, since…when?!? What was it/is it about her?

    Dolly has a focused, warm, and unapologetic Christ-like faith. I saw (and reposted) a meme that pictured Jesus and Dolly talking, with Jesus saying, “I think you understand me better than theologians do!” (He’s right, BTW!) Dolly practiced a level of proportional generosity that puts most of the current financial movers and shakers to shame. She had a humble good humor, and was completely comfortable with laughing at herself. (She once said, “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap!”) Dolly was the genuine article and she believed every human being deserves the right to be exactly who God made them to be. From that, she had a wide-open, welcoming posture toward all persons, especially those on the margins.

    Still, why are we setting aside all our issues, anxieties, and polarities (at least for today) to mourn and celebrate this incredible woman?

    Is it possible that we all hunger for someone like Dolly Parton was and is? Could it be that we long for a world defined by Dolly’s heart? In the toxic swamp that life in 2026 can so often be, are we in fact aching to believe that our better selves somehow can prevail, as Dolly’s did for her entire life?

    What if the script we’ve been living is wrong? Political leaders in child-like tantrums with one another…groups of all kinds demonizing each another…Olympic levels of self-indulgence and indifference…religion used more as a weapon that means of care and salvation…What if all that isn’t the “real world” at all, but a false world? Is the way Dolly saw the world and treated the world is in fact the way life is supposed to be?

    In addition to mourning the passing of a truly great human being, could that be what’s going on with us?

    Go rest high up on that mountain, Dolly. You were and are the best.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • THE BUCK STOPS HERE

    Elaine (my wife) and I have been watching Tom Hanks’ documentary series on the Second World War. We just finished the episode covering the Allied invasion of Normandy in France. This happened under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower. At some point in preparation for this precarious, massive operation, Eisenhower said something to the effect that if the effort to establish a beach head in occupied Western Europe failed, it would be his responsibility. Eisenhower accepted the full, ominous weight of leadership.

    Eventually we will see the episode in which President Harry S Truman makes the horrific decision to drop the first atomic bombs on Japan. Truman weighed the alternatives and did the “math” in terms of allied and Japanese loss of life. He accepted responsibility for a leadership step that will be second -guessed for the rest of history. Right or wrong, the man famous for “The Buck Stops Here” sign on his desk knew that it would fall on him.

    In contrast to this type of leadership, it seems that too many leaders of all types today have made an art form of placing blame on someone or something else. Elaine and I don’t watch “The Simpsons”, but somehow we heard Homer Simpson’s iconic line, “It’s everybody’s fault but mine!” We’ve joked about it over the years, but in these present days it’s not that funny. It’s all too real. Whether it’s the outcome of votes, programs, events, military actions or whatever, too many leaders point fingers elsewhere when results are as yet uncertain or when things don’t go well. Few leaders openly state, “This is all on me.” I don’t know many who would lay on themselves the pivotally important decisions like Operation Overlord or whether or not to deploy “Little Boy” and “Fat Man.”

    Saul of Tarsus, better known by his Jesus-following name Paul (literally “little one” or “humble one”) was an early leader among those who followed Jesus of Nazareth. He had a very realistic view of himself. He knew that as a disciple of Jesus the Christ and as a leader he had done some things well and some things poorly. (See Romans 7:19.) He placed blame nowhere else, and recognized his own hopelessness apart from Jesus. For those of us trying to walk in the way of Jesus now, this is our model. As a subset of this, leaders must be self-aware and must be willing to accept responsibility.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • BELONGING

    I believe humans beings have a basic need for belonging. If persons lack a sense that they belong in a family, a group, or a community, that becomes a lens that makes all of life look bleak.

    I’ve had my own battle with this. I’ve been blessed with a great family, wonderful relationships, good friendships, and helpful colleagues in the work that I did. Still, somewhere or somehow I developed a nagging core belief that I don’t really have a place in this world. As blessed as my life has been, I’ve wrestled with a raspy little voice saying that I really don’t matter. Specifically, I acquired the idea that my value to some other human beings depended on how I benefited them. It made me wonder if my relationships with friends and co-workers in fact were utilitarian contracts. As long as I did that which was pleasing or beneficial to another, then the relationship was intact. More of my life than I care to admit has been a self-imposed battle to prove to the world that I deserve space in it. I don’t blame anyone but myself for this framework, which requires constant dismantling. A lot of it is probably a function of my particular personality. Still, it doesn’t change the fact that once in a whole I feel like the odd person out; like I really don’t fit in anywhere.

    I suspect I’m not alone. So many overt and covert messages around us reinforce the idea that our value is based on performance and how well we benefit someone else. If we contribute to our team winning, to our company’s success, to a leader’s ego, etc., then we are valuable. And on this basis we earn belonging. All of this impacts not only individual relationships, but social, economic, and political constructs as well. Say what you will, the whole current ICE/immigration struggle ultimately is about who belongs/contributes and who doesn’t.

    In my view, it’s belonging that makes the gospel of Jesus the Christ so radical. Resistance to Jesus was less about doctrine than it was about whom he welcomed and with whom he spent time. Jesus relentlessly went to and engaged the outcasts of Jewish and Roman culture. He openly connected with those labeled “sinners” who officially did not belong in Jewish faith fellowship. He commitment the shameful act of entering the homes of the parasitic tax collectors working for Rome. He would talk in public with women labeled as being of questionable reputation. And such people flocked to him for one simple reason – he treated them as if they belonged. A person didn’t have to be any way, act any way, or even believe any way to earn belonging. Jesus simply gave it, loving and valuing person as is. To put a spin on a currently popular meme, Jesus wasn’t a scandal because of saying certain people didn’t belong; he was scandalous because of who did belong in his eyes.

    And that’s one of the main reasons I am a Jesus-follower. He has declared total war on the lingering elements of my assumption that I don’t really belong anywhere or that my belonging is dependent on my utility to others. Ultimately, it’s one or the other – either I don’t really belong, or I do belong simply because I am loved by an infinitely loving God, made fully known in Jesus the crucified and risen. There really is no middle ground.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • EXPECTATION ISN’T THE SAME AS EXPECTANCY

    On 06.08.26 I posted about living in expectancy. After further thought and conversation (thanks to those involved in this) I feel I need to expand on this some. I want to bear down more on the difference between expectation and expectancy. As I see it, they are not the same.

    In practice, when we are expectant we are in hopes of a particular outcome. Expectant fans anticipate their team winning. Expectant parents wait for the birth of a new life. Expectant voters want their candidate to win. (Today is a voting day, by the way. Get out and do it!) It’s important in so many circumstances to have expectation. In expectation, though, we are the architects of the desired hope. We have designed the blueprint for what needs to take place, and it’s up to us, to others, to fate, to God, to whatever combination to make this expectation a reality. For those of us who are people of faith, this can mean that we write the script, and then it’s God’s job to read the lines correctly and to follow the stage directions, all to the desired conclusion. At its worst, we can end up calling the expectation shots on who is “right”, who is wrong, who is “in”, who doesn’t belong, who God favors, and who is not worth it. In the practice of expectation, we’re in the driver’s seat.

    A climate of expectancy is something different, in my experience and observation. It is both an openness to and a hopefulness for a future that we do not determine. It is a willingness to be joyfully surprised by something we do not create or dictate. For Jesus-followers, it’s being open to whatever outcome the Holy Spirit generates. And it’s about seeking to welcome and join in that thing which we don’t engineer by our efforts, desires, and preferences.

    Expectancy is risky, because ultimately we relinquish our addiction to control. We yield to a God who is unbounded by time, space, circumstances, human thought, and all the things we assume bind everyone and everything. We welcome a unique Person who is both with God from before existence (see John 17:5) and one of us at the same time – something we can neither create nor fully understand. We fling ourselves into a Holy Spirit who is as uncontrollable and uncontainable as the wind. All that is taking a huge chance. Yet for centuries, through the fierce ebbs and flows of human history, people somehow hunger for this expectancy.

    So where in your life are you understandably expectant, and where are you risking expectancy?

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • WHEN ALL ARE WELCOME; NO EXCEPTIONS

    Recently I had the opportunity to introduce something called Holy Communion in a large worship gathering. Depending on the church tradition, Holy Communion also is called The Lord’s Supper or The Eucharist. (The latter comes from a Greek word meaning “thanksgiving”.) It is a small meal of bread and wine or grape juice. Simply put, it signifies a remembrance of Jesus’ sacrificial death on a cross, a recognition of Jesus’ resurrected, living presence right now, and an anticipation of Jesus’ return in final, life-and-world transforming and reconciling victory.

    In my particular church tribe (United Methodist) part of the run-up to actually sharing Holy Communion is the reminder that it is open to everyone. A person does not have to be a member of a United Methodist Church or any church of any brand name to receive it. An individual does not even have to be one who buys into the Jesus thing. We believe sharing this simple meal can be a person’s doorway into experience the grace of God in Jesus the Christ. So, one of the most important parts of preparing to celebrate is the reminder to the gathering that all are welcome.

    At the very moment I said those words, one of the many people at the front of the gathering who was helping with logistics of serving turned and looked at me. This person’s eyes stayed on me as I explained that there are absolutely no barriers to the Lord’s table, and everyone is welcome. The individual was near tears, and I realized that the moment had become WAY beyond me and the simple mechanics of the Communion invitation. This was someone who had extensive, painful experience with not being welcomed. I was happily pushed aside, and it was Jesus reaching in that moment to embrace that individual.

    The particular soul was one of the following types of individuals: A non-white person. A person whose first language is not English. A person battling with mental health struggles. A gay or lesbian person. A neurodivergent person. An unhoused person. A person who does not identify with culturally dominant gender roles. An undocumented person. A person who cannot read. A special-needs person. A non-Christian person. A person living legally in the United States under asylum. A person with a criminal record.

    I’m not going to tell you which specific type of person the individual was. It doesn’t matter. You and I need to wrestle with the truth of who is not welcome in our particular settings.

    I was recently reminded of the words and thoughts of the late, great Rachel Held Evans. She noted that the scandal of the earliest followers of Jesus was not who they kept out, but who they welcomed in. Jesus himself observed that we will be surprised by those who enter the eternal Kingdom. (See Luke 13:28-30, Matthew 8:11-12, Matthew 21:31.) We’d better be practicing joining in his radical welcome now.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • GenZ GIVES ME HOPE!

    I mentioned in my last post that I spent much of last week at a state-wide youth conference led by Jesus-followers. I had the opportunity to watch several hundred members of Generation Z experience and practice faith. (GenZ is made up generally of those born between 1997 and 2012.) In addition, I am a part of a church with a strong student ministry. Up to 50% of the youth who participate are not from our church, and they are there because someone in GenZ invited them. The group has exceptional lay leadership. One of the leaders recently observed of the GenZ participants in youth ministry that they are providing the model for the rest of the church. Truer words have seldom been spoken.

    Many people point out that organized Christianity in North America seems to be at a low ebb. Churches are closing left and right. In less than a decade the number of people who identify as being a part of no faith system has doubled. Unchurched people are even more disillusioned with churches as belief in Jesus has been coopted for political purposes in these divided times. As I’ve said ad nauseum, people in America know more about what we Christians are against than what we are for. Yet while we baby-boomers (born 1948-1964) wring our hands and fret about all this, GenZ largely is unaffected.

    GenZ has their issues, as every generation does. But they bring much to the table. They may be distrustful overall of organized religion, but GenZ is exceptionally open spiritually. They just value and expect authenticity, having almost zero b.s. tolerance as a generation. GenZ Jesus-followers care little about doctrine and proof-texting, but they are openly hungry for authentic enccounter with Jesus. Getting into the Bible is less an intellectual exercise for them as it is an experience. I see GenZ as much more welcoming than we who have gone before them. (The statewide rally had a quiet room adjacent to the worship auditorium for those who had sensory-sensitive needs.) They don’t see diversity as a threat; rather it is an expression of the varied tapestry of God’s design. GenZ values work/life balance, and sees mental health concerns as centrally important rather than as a stigma. They are a pragmatic generation, but one that has a strong sense of service, and they want to be a part of something that is bigger than themselves. And they know how to dance for joy before the Lord! (Get on YouTube and enter “Church Clap.”)

    In my admittedly limited engagement with GenZ and following Jesus, I’d say two things: First, all of us in the Body of Christ need to go to school on them, as our church leader noted. Where the Church has become a self-preserving institution, they will help us to be an outwardly-focused movement again. Second, I have no worries about the future of the genuine Body of Christ. In GenZ I’m looking at the future, and it is good.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT OR FEAR CULTIVATION?

    I recently attended a large, faith-based youth conference gathering. As part of the event, several hundred students and their leaders would join in worship each evening. One night, in the midst of singing praise, the group had an unanticipated visitor. A local law enforcement officer came in the back of the auditorium and spoke to one of the conference leaders. He then walked quietly down one side of the crowd, obviously trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. After a few moments he returned to the back, still working on not impacting the worship that was happening. He spoke again to a few of the conference leaders, they all smiled, and the officer exited the facility. It turns out that someone had accidentally “butt-dailed” 911. He just wanted to follow-up and make sure everything was okay. He was just doing his job, and he did it well.

    However, the reaction among a few of the students and leaders who saw the policeman was noteworthy. One of the co-directors of the conference was Latino. (Native-born; his family is from Mexico.) The co-director was not visibly present in the auditorium at the time when the local policeman was there. Charged by the days in which we live, people did quick math in their heads and wondered if the co-director was in danger or had been detained. And instant fear filled a portion of the room for a time.

    Friends, that’s where we are in this country. It’s not just undocumented criminals who are in fear of a largely unchecked, unregulated para-military masked force having its way throughout the land. Any brown-skinned person, citizen or not, documented or not has reason to be afraid. Those who have died by I.C.E. use of deadly force posed no threat. (In at least one case, the wrong person was pursued and subsequently died.)

    I know that many who support President Trump’s policies and practices bristle when comparisons are made between this administration and the rise of the Third Reich in the 1920’s and 30’s. Well – stop using the same playbook! (Creating fear in the streets, undermining or eliminating free elections, suppression of opposition voices, demonizing and blaming “the other.” dismantling balance of power, degrading the free press, use of the “big lie” tactic, etc., etc.) I’m also aware that one default response to I.C.E. killings is, “Just comply.” I don’t even want to hear that. Where was compliance when Capital Police tried to protect the Capital and a Constitutional process on 01.06.21?

    A nation needs fair and safe border policies and practices. And I do not in any way advocate using violence to resist I.C.E. incursion. But, whatever was initially intended, this has devolved to domestic terrorism. The time for non-violent citizen resistance is now. Followers of Jesus are called to stand in the gap for those who are victimized. (Zechariah 7:9-10, among the myriad of texts speaking to this in the Bible.)

    This is not the America I was taught to love as a child. This is not the America I want to leave for my grandchildren. We are better than this.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • HOW CAN YOU TRUST HOPE?

    A close friend of mine struggles to have hope. This person has been burned by life so often and has faced so much disappointment and setback that a positive view of the future seems out of reach. My friend can’t seem to find a trustable hope.

    How do we have hope when hope has been crushed too often? How do we muster up hope when it seems that we live in days that are void of it? I recently listened to a National Public Radio interview of Ben Bradford, who hosts the NPR podcast “Are We Doomed?” I used to think that just religious people focused on the end times. Now, apparently, many people feel the possibility. That’s a hard environment in which to cultivate hope.

    I don’t have an answer. I just have some leanings that help me, at least a little. When I hope for something and it doesn’t come about, I have to asked if my hope was nothing more than an expectation that MY agenda would be addressed. That’s a pretty limited field for hope, if it’s narrowed to only that which I think should take place. Related to that, I have to have the courage to let my hope be open-ended. Hoping for good, positive, beneficial outcomes, I need be ready for possibilities that I have not considered.

    In the NPR interview, Ben Bradford says that the way we will survive an end-of-life-as-we-know-it circumstance will happen collaboratively. He believes that in the worst of calamities the best of human capability to come together and work together happens. Maybe that’s something we should be practicing right now, whether or not something “apocalyptic” takes place. Perhaps we should be asking one another what we’re hoping for, actively listening to the response. I think we should model actually being hope for someone who feels hopeless, when possible.

    The descendants of Hebrews hoped for God to send some kind of anointed One (“messiah”) for centuries. Over time, they locked in specific expectations of what that chosen One would be like. Jesus was and is the answer to that hope. And the messiah Jesus is was on virtually no one’s radar. There’s a lesson about hope in that.

    All that’s just me. I wonder how you keep hope alive. How do you trust hope?

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.