Notice, this doesn’t mean we should turn off our brains. What can we do? What are we in control of? We can love completely, even without complete understanding. Heck, I, as your pastor, will do things you do not agree with or understand. They will do things we do not agree with or that we do not understand. Other people, even those we live with and know, will elude us. It’s no secret that these are difficult days and we’re all stretched thin. This is my hope for myself, you, and our church family today: that we would learn to love, and love completely - even without complete understanding. Yet in the face of uncertainty, he learned to love. As a father, what could he have done? What’s within his control? The Pastor is racked with confusion. Maclean said this in regards to his son, Paul, who struggled with gambling and alcoholism and died too young. Let those sentences wash over you, especially the last one: “We can love completely without complete understanding.” The Rev. In it he shares those potent words in the quotation above. Maclean, delivers a sermon in which he reflects on a struggle within his family. Towards the end of the book (and the film based on it), Norman’s father, the Rev. I am the father of sons and a Presbyterian pastor living in the mountains, so this shouldn’t surprise you, as Maclean’s story takes place in a very similar relational and geographical setting. One of my favorite books is Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It. We can love completely without complete understanding.”

“And so, it is those we live with and should know who elude us.

A river runs through it online book