FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER
Harold L. Myra
April 1, 1986
We all at times strain to see the light at the end of a tunnel. We feel that surely, past these particular circumstances, we'll exit into new realities. The New Yorker cartoon on this page therefore struck a chord even as it caused me to laugh. New Jersey? The long-anticipated, fought-for, longed-for light is, of all things, New Jersey? It wasn't the cartoonist's Manhattan viewpoint that struck me. My mind supplied its own assorted impressions-from Garden State license plates and lovely hills to Camden, where I was born, spent ten good years, and later in adulthood saw its urban decay. New Jersey or New Glarus, the cartoon has universal resonance. Our hard work and planning may result in "progress," but the new place we find ourselves-perhaps an expanded or more "significant" ministry-has its own problems. Dorothy Sayers speaks of there not truly being "solutions" to problems, only new realities. The figure in the cartoon is walking away from "New Jersey." Where will he go? We have choices, but they're usually limited. We can step forward into the New Jerseys and live out what is there, or go back to Manhattan and do much the same thing. I love Eugene Peterson's book title: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Our lives may be tunnel after tunnel where the only light ends up a New Jersey-a bland, infuriating, challenging, exciting mixture of potential. A New Jersey that becomes, in certain ways, what we make of it. People in our congregations constantly experience the light at the end of their tunnels as New Jerseys. With Eugene Peterson, we need to help them-and ourselves-perceive the challenge inherent in a great dream becoming a drab reality. John Sherrill, in the newsletter Intercessors, describes the struggle in praying ...
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