What a great summer! I have actually taken some time to sit under a tree and read a couple of books that I should have read long ago. Let me share with you a single thought from one of these books.

Paulo Coelho’s fictional book The Alchemist, challenges us to not give up in our pursuit of our “personal legends,” (embodied in a youth’s ability to dream of what could be, what is possible).

In this decade old classic, a shepherd boy named Santiago journeys from Europe into Africa to find a great treasure. In the process, he ends up discovering that the real treasure is in the journey itself if one believes that the world in good and that each person is blessed to be part of the good.

As this poetic story unfolds, an old man claiming to be a mysterious king advises the young boy, “To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation. And when you want something good, the entire universe conspires in helping you achieve it.” The king also issues a warning, “Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out to be a threatening place.”

A great read. All this has me thinking about the work we will be doing this fall around the hallways of Trinity: to each discover our God-given beauties and to see, then, the good that we can become in this world. A journey worth taking!

                                                                                                                          Pastor Greg Johnson