Post Number One

THE CONTROLLING METAPHOR

The title for this personal web page came from a camp fire devotion I did years ago during our annual week at Choir Camp. Knowing that I was required to have something to share for evening devotions, I began to think about images from my past that might serve as a metaphor for the devotion. As always, I began to think about the town of my youth - Frankfort, Michigan.

Frankfort is located on the shore of Lake Michigan just south of what is now the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. A wonderful lighthouse stands at the end of the north pier. That lighthouse fascinated me as a young kid. My whole family loved to watch the sun set over Lake Michigan with the lighthouse standing in silhouette against the horizon. North of town stands another lighthouse. It is the Point Betsie light built around 1870. Pondering those two lights I thought about the difference in their purpose.

The Frankfort light marks the entrance to the harbor. The Point Betsie light marks a shallow reef and a place of danger. I thought about our need to know both in our lives. We need to know our home - where we belong and where we can find rest. Likewise we need to know the places of danger - the places we must avoid if we are to succeed. Life requires that we know both. That campfire devotion eventually became a sermon, and the sermon became the video devotion located elsewhere on this site. My life is lived out in the tension of knowing both my home and the difficulties that life presents. I look forward to sharing that journey with those who care to join me.

Dave Gladstone