Ken’s e-Pistle

February 21, 2024

As I write this it is Presidents’ Day.  This past weekend I began Jared Cohen’s book, “Life After Power:  Seven Presidents and Their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House.”  I quickly admit that I haven’t finished it yet, but I have been greatly intrigued thus far.  Thomas Jefferson is the first subject and other notables include James Madison, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover and, of course, Jimmy Carter.  I haven’t gotten through the entire assembly, but you get the idea.

As with most good reads, we are able to project ourselves easily into the subject matter. We draw lessons from the lives of others and we pause to consider our own choices, priorities and changes in the light of what we have read.

The listed worthies are, in some ways, catalysts for our own path choices as we move into new chapters of service.  What are our opportunities?  What are our resources. What are our abilities and interests?  Most importantly, what is our Lord calling us to do next?

Of course, most of us have faced these moments at important junctures of our lives.  Graduation, marriage, parenthood, grand-parenthood, retirement, etc.  It is a considerable list.

This volume has tugged a bit at my imagination.  What if each day were an opportunity to do something new.  What if each dawn is a call to leave aside the “power” of the past and search for new challenges and new opportunities in the day at hand?

It is an interesting thought.  Many possibilities arise such as the newness of life and ministry in every day.  The releasing of anchors to the past which hold us back.  The awareness of God’s voice in the present moment.  Indeed, something to think about.

I bid you peace!