echoes of redemption

I like to follow people who ask questions. Especially questions about faith. Especially questions which they don’t know the answers to. But there is a blend of theology that doesn’t allow questions – and it’s abusive.

Anyone not questioning their faith is not authentic – or their god is too small.

Either way, I’m not interested in following them.

The God I follow is immense and multi-faceted. His totality is unknowable – so no branch of human thought will ever completely understand him.  No one theology will be able to explain him.

Which is why he’s so amazing to follow.

And why we should still have questions.

Maybe the people that try to make those of us feel guilty when we doubt, question and wonder are just trying to control and manipulate us to think like they do – and maybe their view of God is monochromatic and incomplete.

So keep questioning. Let doubt spark curiosity. Embrace the wonder of God.

There are over 144,000 apps in the App Store. I’ve had over a gig of them on my phone up until today, the net result being a lot of time gazing into the glow of my phone. Which is why I’m taking a break.

Lent is a journey where we give up things that distract us from God and focus more time to prayer. So as we think through what to leave behind, we find things that distract us the most. Fog our clarity the greatest. Clamor for our focus the loudest. And we eliminate them.  In this spiritual act, we experience God in deeper ways because we’ve transferred our pursuit of freedom from our own hands into the hands of Jesus.

The sun was shining this weekend. And rain is falling today. And…

You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of you Father who is in heaven.

Central to the way of Jesus is the idea of loving the unlovable.

Reaching out to that person at work that no one gets along with.

Doing a favor for the person who rails against you.

Its showing the same love to the unlovable that God shows me – when so often I am unloveable.

Because…

(Your Father) makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Sun and rain – the elements of life – flowing freely from the heavens.

The signs that God is blessing the work of our hands. For every farmer that plants a crop relies on the grace of God to feed it with the sun, and nourish it with the rain.

So may we, as followers of Jesus flow blessing upon blessing – upon those who bless, and upon those who curse. Because we are called to stand as the image of God, releasing his grace upon the earth – like rays of sunlight and drops of rain.