Our Church/Ourselves: Living the Life and Teachings of Jesus. Session 2: Introduction to Your Inward Journey. A devotional reflection by Becky Wolf

As we focus on our inward journeys this week, please consider the inward journey Leland must have taken to lead him to his most memorable action as described  by Frederick Buechner.
 
"In the year 1831, it seems, this church was repaired and several new additions were made. 

​One of them was a new steeple with a bell in it, and once it was set in place and painted, apparently, an extraordinary event took place, 'When the steeple was added,' Howard Mudgett writes in his history, 'one agile Lyman Woodard stood on his head in the belfry with his feet toward Heaven.'
 

That's the one and only thing I've been able to find out about Lyman Woodard, whoever he was, but it is enough.  I love him for doing what he did.  It was a crazy thing to do.  It was a risky thing to do.  It ran counter to all standards of New England practicality and prudence.  It stood the whole idea that you're supposed to be nothing but solemn in church on its head just like Lyman himself standing upside down on his.  And it was also a magical and magnificent and Mozartian thing to do.
 
If the Lord is indeed our shepard (Psalm 23), then everything goes topsy-turvy.  Losing becomes finding and crying becomes laughter.  The least becomes first and the weak become strong.  Instead of life being 'done in' by death in the end as we always supposed, death is 'done in' finally by life in the end.  If the Lord is our host at the great feast, then the sky is the limit."