Mysterious is a good word to use. Some one has created this website about me: John H.D. Lucy. I swear it wasn't me. Pretty cool to have someone else creating a legend about you.
I was born and raised in Hudson, Massachusetts before going to Saint Michael's College in Vermont to study math. Originally I planned on becoming a math teacher but soon found that I love writing far too much. I graduated summa cum laude in 2009 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa as an English major with a religious studies minor (also a member of Theta Alpha Kappa, the religious studies honors society). From St. Mike's I went to Washington, D.C. to study at Wesley Theological Seminary. First I was a Master of Divinity student, then I graduated with honors as a Master of Theological Studies in May 2012.
Though I had gone to seminary planning to be a pastor, two years in I convinced myself that God had called me to seminary to learn for my writing career but not to be a pastor. A year after graduation, while traveling across the country in a train and after visiting the Grand Canyon and Antelope Canyon, my fiancee and I came to the realization that I had been running away from my true calling: to be a pastor in the United Methodist Church. What a flip-flopper I am! A lot of cool things had happened while on that 5-week cross-country trip that made it pretty clear that God was trying to say something to me. What happened at seminary that had told me that I wasn't meant to be a pastor in the first place? Well, that's a long story, too; all of it is a long story. Suffice it to say that all of us often look at our dreams, at our vocations, as "cool" endeavors until we find out how much work is involved in making those dreams a reality. I had gone through that process until finally, in November of 2013, after publishing my first book, I accepted that I am made to be a pastor and cannot run away forever.
You might tell from that brief history of myself that I struggle with faith. Yes, I do believe in God and my faith is at the very core of who I am. Yet I struggle with actually believing. Does God really exist? And if He does, what does He really want from me? Can I decide to do what I want, or must I do what He wants? How am I supposed to know what God wants anyway? What the heck!
I've always considered myself as a thinker, as a doubting Thomas. Despite the number of strange, Holy Spirit type moments that I've experienced in my life, still I debate and debate and debate. I do not feel God's presence in my life the way I think other people do and I always question whether I love God, or whether I even want to love God. Because of who I am, I can move well in faith circles: everything I do and everything that I am is informed by my faith and what I believe; and I can also move well in atheist or agnostic circles: what I believe and what I do will always hold true for non-believers.
Currently I am the pastor of Jericho UMC in Jericho, VT, where I live next door, and Waterbury Center Community Church in Waterbury Center, VT.
Or you can find me on facebook at John H.D. Lucy. Or you can find me on Goodreads at John H.D. Lucy. Please feel free, too, to contact me at jlucy.wilde@gmail.com. And always feel free to comment on this website.
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| Photo Courtesy of Jeehye Kelly Kim-Pak |
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