Before you speak of peace, you must first have it in your heart. 
—St. Francis of Assisi  

Father Richard Rohr writes of the essential Christian call to nonviolence: 

Generations of Christians seem to have forgotten Jesus’ teachings on nonviolence. We’ve relegated visions of a peaceful kingdom to a far distant heaven, hardly believing Jesus could have meant for us to turn the other cheek here and now. It took Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948), a Hindu, to help us apply Jesus’ peacemaking in very practical ways. As Gandhi said, “It is a first-class human tragedy that peoples of the earth who claim to believe in the message of Jesus whom they describe as the Prince of Peace show little of that belief in actual practice.” [1] Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968), drawing from Gandhi’s writings and example, brought nonviolence to the forefront of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.  

Training in nonviolence has understandably emphasized largely external methods or ways of acting and resisting. These are important and necessary, but we must go even deeper. Unless these methods reflect our inner attitudes, they will not make a lasting difference. We all must admit that our secret inner attitudes are often cruel, attacking, judgmental, and harsh. The ego seems to find its energy precisely by having something to oppose, fix, or change. When the mind can judge something to be inferior, we feel superior. We must recognize our constant tendency toward negating reality, resisting it, opposing it, and attacking it on the level of our mind. This is the universal addiction. [2] 

Nonviolence teacher Ken Butigan understands God’s love to be at the center of nonviolence. 

Our true calling is to love one another as God has loved us. When we take this seriously, we are transformed into lovers who care for all beings. In practical terms this means resisting the tendency of the violence system to divide the world into various enemy camps. A fundamental script of this system is to separate “us” from “them”: … those who are worthy of our love and those who are not…. Often, we project our own unacknowledged violence onto [them].  

Nonviolence takes another approach. Practitioners of nonviolence seek to become their truest selves by slowly learning to love all beings, confident that all are kin and that we are called to embody this kinship concretely, especially in the midst of our most difficult and challenging conflicts…. Nonviolence is committed to challenging and resisting every form of violence. Nevertheless, it does not conclude that the opponent is absolutely and irrevocably incapable of loving or of being loved. To love the perpetrator … is a creative and daring act that seeks to provoke all parties to make contact with their true self, the undefiled reality of God which dwells at the center of their being. In short, their sacredness.… The greatest work of nonviolence is to create situations which free the sacredness of ourselves and our opponent. [3] 

Jesus Calls Us to Make Peace

Blessed are the peacemakers: They shall be recognized as children of God.  
—Matthew 5:9  

Father Richard considers what it means to be a peacemaker:  

This verse in Matthew’s Gospel is the only time the word peacemakers is ever used in the whole Bible. Peacemakers literally are the “ones who reconcile quarrels.” We can clearly see Jesus is not on the side of the violent but on the side of the nonviolent. Jesus is saying there must be a connection, a clear consistency, a constant unity between means and ends. There is no way to peace other than peacemaking itself.  

Today, many think we can achieve peace through violence. We’ve all witnessed actions coming from the logic “We’ll stop killing by killing.” It’s the way we think, even though it’s in opposition to all great religious teachings. Our need for immediate control leads us to disconnect the clear unity between means and ends. The U.S. even named a missile that was clearly meant for the destruction of humanity a “peacekeeper.” At least the word is more honest: peacekeeper, instead of Jesus’ peacemaker. But the peace we are keeping is a false peace. Jeremiah the prophet would say about our “peacekeeping” wars what he said to Israel’s leaders:  

“Peace! Peace!” they say, whereas there is no peace.  
They should be ashamed of their loathsome deeds.  
Not they! They feel no shame, they do not even know how to blush.  
—Jeremiah 8:11–12  

War is a means of seeking control, not a means of seeking peace. Pax Romana is the world’s way of seeking control and calling it peace. The Romans thought they had peace, but violence will always create more violence, especially on the edges, in the colonies. At the center, among folks who are “insiders,” it has what it calls peace, yet the violence has merely been exported to those on the edges of society. That is no real peace. Our rich gated communities with security entrances are evidence of the same today. As Pope Paul VI said, “If you want peace, work for justice.” [1]  

Do we have any idea of all the slavery and oppression, all the killing and torture, all the millions of people who have existed around the edges of every empire so those at the center of the empire could say they had peace? Every time we build a pyramid, certain people at the top will have their peace, yet there will be bloody bodies all around the bottom. Those at the top usually don’t recognize the price of their false peace.  

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus defines peace in a different way that we call Pax Christi, the peace of Christ. In the remaining Beatitudes, Jesus will connect his peace with justice and self-sacrifice (see Matthew 5:10). The Pax Romana creates a false peace by sacrificing others; the Pax Christi waits and works for true peace by sacrificing the false self of power, prestige, and possessions.  

John Chaffee’s Friday Five

Grace and Peace, Friends! This week, I was out with a friend who told me he was listening to a discussion online between a Christian and a Satanist. Yep, you read that correctly. He said that throughout the conversation, the Satanist was making excellent points about how the god of the Christian was vindictive, punitive, retributive, and kept account of wrongs.  He said the Christian failed to respond well to that indictment and how the conversation left a mark on him. I couldn’t stay silent.  During our walk, I burst out and said, “This is what infuriates me.  The Christian God is barely taught about in a Christian way.   Most people have no idea that God is infinite, out-pouring love, who does not keep account of wrongs and has already reconciled everyone and everything back to God (Col. 1:15-20).  Most people’s understanding of God can’t even live up to 1 Corinthians 13.  The problem is that we platform very passionate people into pulpits who are still quite immature, and they preach their immaturity but not Christianity.   Then, they hear someone like me talking like this and I am experienced as polarizing for just quoting parts of the New Testament that people were never told about.  Everything changes when you realize Christ came to salvage all of humanity (John 12:32).  People walk away from Christianity because, often, they were not really taught Christianity anyways.” The moment was a little odd because I vented more than spoke calmly.  We then continued our walk, which was quite a nice time, and moved on to other topics.  But I thought about that moment for the rest of the day. One of the reasons I started this weekly newsletter was to try and offer some other voices and share quotes from people who helped me shift my understanding of the faith into something larger, more integrative, more mature, and more robust.  I sincerely hope that if you have been reading these emails for the past few weeks or months or from the start, it has helped you expand your view of the world and God and challenged you to grow yourself. As always, thank you for reading. Onto this week’s five quotes!

1.”If you are too busy to read, then you are too busy.”-  Richard Foster, Founder of Renovare In the modern world, everything seems to be bidding for our attention.  There is always another movie or show to watch, some clip that went viral, some social media account begging for our reactivity… And so this metric of “being too busy to read” feels appropriate.  If we do not have the time to sit and read even a paragraph of something worthwhile, that likely means that our lives are too overrun with nonsensical things. As soon as I am done writing this week’s newsletter, I will absolutely sit down and read for a bit.  2.”Si comprehendus, non est Deus (If you can comprehend it, it is not God).”-  Augustine of Hippo, Early Church Father God is beyond our comprehension but not beyond our apprehension.  Besides, God is less of an idea or concept to grasp as much as a Loving Mystery to be held by.  3.”I am neither of the East nor of the West, no boundaries exist within my breast.”- Rumi, Sufi Poet Ken Wilber, the philosopher from Colorado, wrote a lovely book called No Boundary.  It takes to task how, in both the East and the West, we draw boundaries and lines between things.  While seemingly helpful at first, these boundaries and lines are simplistic and eventually cause their own problems. What I find enlightening is how Rumi refused the simplistic divide of East vs West, and wrote from a place of wholeness according to his own experience of faith and what it means to be human. It would probably be better for all of us to stop drawing lines in the sand and embrace wisdom no matter where it came from. 4.”All you have to do is write one true sentence.  Write the truest sentence that you know.”-  Ernest Hemingway, American Author I am still developing and growing as a writer and often think of Hemingway.  This idea of “writing a true sentence” is not easy.  I can see how we fluff up our words and fill our sentences with pomp and circumstance.  The world needs more of what must be said but has not yet been expressed.  5.”God weeps with us so that we may one day laugh with him.”-  Jurgen Moltmann, German Lutheran Theologian Moltmann is an impressive figure. He passed away earlier this year at the age of 98. As a systematic theologian, he was top-notch. However, beyond that, I have heard stories that he was enormously and tenderly pastoral. He was well acquainted with grief and loss after having lived through WWII and being a POW at the end of it. His book, The Crucified God, was a titanic shift for me.  The idea that God was passible (able to suffer) was a stark refusal of the static and impersonal god of the Aristotelian philosophers. I do not know about you, but it comforts me that God knows suffering, pain, grief, and loss.  God understands and has experienced disappointment, rejection, despair, hardship, etc. This only heightens the understanding that the Good News of Jesus is actually about the reconciliation, restoration, and renewal of all things in Christ.  A day is coming when evil will pass away, and all will know the Light that even welcomes our darkness.

Receiving God’s Mercy

Father Richard names forgiveness and mercy as two of God’s essential qualities:  

I once saw God’s mercy as patient, benevolent tolerance, a kind of grudging forgiveness, but now mercy has become for me God’s very self-understanding, a loving allowing, a willing breaking of the rules by the One who made the rules—a wink and a smile, a firm and joyful taking of our hand while we clutch at our sins and gaze at God in desire and disbelief. 

Mercy is a way to describe the mystery of forgiveness. More than a description of something God does now and then, it is who God is. According to Jesus, “Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13, 12:7). The word is hesed in Hebrew, and it means steadfast, enduring, unbreakable love. Sometimes the word is translated as “lovingkindness” or “covenant love.” God has made a covenant with all of creation (see Genesis 9:8–17) and will never break the divine side of the covenant. It’s only broken from our side. God’s love is steadfast. It is written in the divine image within us. It’s given; it sits there. We are the ones who clutch at our sins and beat ourselves instead of surrendering to divine mercy. That refusal to be forgiven is a form of pride. It says, “I’m better than mercy. I’m only going to accept it when I’m worthy and can preserve my so-called self-esteem.” Only the humble person, the little one, can live in and after mercy.  

The mystery of forgiveness is God’s ultimate entry into powerlessness. Look at the times when we have withheld forgiveness. It’s often our final attempt to hold a claim over the one we won’t forgive. It’s the way we finally hold onto power or seek the moral high ground over another person: “I will hold you in unforgiveness, and you’re going to know it just by my coldness, by my not looking over there, by my refusal to smile.” We do it subtly, to maintain our sense of superiority. Non-forgiveness is a form of power over another person, a way to manipulate, shame, control, and diminish them. God in Jesus refuses all such power.  

If Jesus is the revelation of what is going on inside the eternal God (see Colossians 1:15), which is the core of Christian faith, then we are forced to conclude that God is very humble. That is amazing, and difficult to imagine. This God seems never to hold rightful claims against us. Abdicating what we thought was the proper role of God, this God “has thrust all my sins behind God’s back” (see Isaiah 38:17).  

We do not attain anything by our own holiness but by ten thousand surrenders to mercy. A lifetime of received forgiveness allows us to become mercy. Mercy becomes our energy, our meaning. Perhaps we are finally enlightened and free when we can both receive mercy and give it away—without payment or punishment.  

1.

“If you are too busy to read, then you are too busy.”

– Richard Foster, Founder of Renovare

In the modern world, everything seems to be bidding for our attention.  There is always another movie or show to watch, some clip that went viral, some social media account begging for our reactivity…

And so this metric of “being too busy to read” feels appropriate.  If we do not have the time to sit and read even a paragraph of something worthwhile, that likely means that our lives are too overrun with nonsensical things.

As soon as I am done writing this week’s newsletter, I will absolutely sit down and read for a bit.

2.

“Si comprehendus, non est Deus (If you can comprehend it, it is not God).“

– Augustine of Hippo, Early Church Father

God is beyond our comprehension but not beyond our apprehension.  Besides, God is less of an idea or concept to grasp as much as a Loving Mystery to be held by.

3.

“I am neither of the East nor of the West, no boundaries exist within my breast.”

– Rumi, Sufi Poet

Ken Wilber, the philosopher from Colorado, wrote a lovely book called No Boundary.  It takes to task how, in both the East and the West, we draw boundaries and lines between things.  While seemingly helpful at first, these boundaries and lines are simplistic and eventually cause their own problems.

What I find enlightening is how Rumi refused the simplistic divide of East vs West, and wrote from a place of wholeness according to his own experience of faith and what it means to be human.

It would probably be better for all of us to stop drawing lines in the sand and embrace wisdom no matter where it came from.

4.

“All you have to do is write one true sentence.  Write the truest sentence that you know.“

– Ernest Hemingway, American Author

I am still developing and growing as a writer and often think of Hemingway.  This idea of “writing a true sentence” is not easy.  I can see how we fluff up our words and fill our sentences with pomp and circumstance.  The world needs more of what must be said but has not yet been expressed.

5.

“God weeps with us so that we may one day laugh with him.“

– Jurgen Moltmann, German Lutheran Theologian

Moltmann is an impressive figure. He passed away earlier this year at the age of 98. As a systematic theologian, he was top-notch. However, beyond that, I have heard stories that he was enormously and tenderly pastoral. He was well acquainted with grief and loss after having lived through WWII and being a POW at the end of it.

His book, The Crucified God, was a titanic shift for me.  The idea that God was passible (able to suffer) was a stark refusal of the static and impersonal god of the Aristotelian philosophers.

I do not know about you, but it comforts me that God knows suffering, pain, grief, and loss.  God understands and has experienced disappointment, rejection, despair, hardship, etc.

This only heightens the understanding that the Good News of Jesus is actually about the reconciliation, restoration, and renewal of all things in Christ.  A day is coming when evil will pass away, and all will know the Light that even welcomes our darkness.

“Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” —Luke 23:34 

Author Megan McKenna considers Jesus’ ability to forgive and how we are called to the same:  

We were created to be the friends of Jesus, the friends of God, friends with one another…. And so, we begin this journey of becoming, this way of being in the world guided by Jesus’s own words and actions that we will repeat over and over again in all our relationships and in so many moments of our lives.  

And the journey of becoming—of liberation—is the journey of forgiveness. As Jesus goes to the cross, tortured, in agony, he continues living with love, refusing to do evil, speaking the truth, doing justice, tending to all others with compassion, and relating to everyone with forgiveness and mercy….  

In his suffering, Jesus’s first words from the cross are among his last words to his friends (and the world): Father, forgive them. Our lives of soul, spirit, heart as human beings made in God’s image begin, speak, and fulfill these words over and over again. Father, forgive them. Father, forgive us.  

With Jesus, we pray always: Father, forgive them. It is Jesus’s foundational prayer with and for all of us, all ways…. We must forgive—we must begin with the words of forgiveness as a mantra that can transform our minds and souls. When we forgive, we do not consider all others as possible enemies but as possible neighbors, allies, and friends. And then we must forget—in the sense that we must make new memories, start relationships anew, open doors of possibility with different ways of relating to one another as equals, both and all intent on the fullness and wholeness of life shared and lived together as one. [1] 

McKenna reminds us of the difficulty of true forgiveness: 

Many of us pray the words of Jesus daily, with the Our Father. Midway through the prayer we say, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are in debt to us.”… 

We glibly pray this at every Eucharist and often in our personal prayers. Yet, it calls on us without any glibness. All of us know intimately how hard it is to forgive someone who has deeply offended and hurt us…. It is difficult to let go of the past and be present now to the other person and to all that it triggered in us…. 

It is hard for us to let go of bitterness that seems to rise up in our throats over time like bile—even after we have said the words of forgiveness to ourselves, and to others. We struggle to forgive the same person over and over again. Our broken hearts crack again and again…. But forgiveness is God’s greatest gift to all of us, setting us free to live as the beloved children of God. Forgiveness, more than any other act, perhaps, makes us like God. [2]

_______________________________________________

Sarah Young Jesus Calling

Receive My Peace. It is My continual gift to you. The best way to receive this gift is to sit quietly in My Presence, trusting Me in every area of your life. Quietness and trust accomplish far more than you can imagine not only in you, but also on earth and in heaven. When you trust Me in a given area, you release that problem or person into My care.
     Spending time alone with Me can be a difficult discipline, because it goes against the activity addiction of this age. You may appear to be doing nothing, but actually, you are participating in battles going on within spiritual realms. You are waging war – not with the weapons of this world, but with heavenly weapons, which have divine power to demolish strongholds. Living close to Me is a sure defense against evil.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

John 14:27 (NLT)
27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

Additional insight regarding John 14:27: The end result of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is deep and lasting peace. Unlike worldly peace, which is usually defined as the absence of conflict, this peace is a confident assurance in any circumstance; with Christ’ peace, we have no need to fear the present or the future. Sin, fear, uncertainty, doubt and numerous other forces are at war within us. The peace of God moves into our hearts and lives to restrain these hostile forces and offer comfort in place of conflict. Jesus says he will give us that peace if we are willing to accept it from him. If your life is full of stress, allow the Holy Spirit to fill you with Christ’s peace (see Philippians 4:6-7 for more on how to experience God’s peace.)

Isaiah 30:15 (NLT)
15 This is what the Sovereign Lord,
    the Holy One of Israel, says:
“Only in returning to me
    and resting in me will you be saved.
In quietness and confidence is your strength.
    But you would have none of it.

Additional insight regarding Isaiah 30:15: God warned Judah that turning to Egypt and other nations for military might could not save them. Only God could do that. They must wait for him “in quietness and confidence.” No amount of fast talking or hasty activity could speed up God’s grand design. We have nothing to say to God but thank you. Salvation comes from God alone. Because he has saved us, we can trust him and be peacefully confident that he will give us the strength to face our difficulties. We should lay aside our well-laid plans and allow him to act.

2nd Corinthians 10:4 (NLT)
4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.

Additional insight regarding 2nd Corinthians 10:4: We, like Paul, are merely weak humans, but we don’t need to use human plans and methods to win our battles. God’s mighty weapons are available to us as we fight against the devil’s “strongholds.” Paul assures us that God’s mighty weapons – prayer, faith, hope, love, God’s Word (the Bible), and Holy Spirit, are powerful and effective (see Ephesians 6:13-18)! These weapons can break down the proud human arguments against God and the walls that Satan builds to keep people from finding God. When dealing with people’s proud arguments that keep them from a relationship with Christ, we may be tempted to use our own methods. But nothing can break down these barriers like God’s weapons.

Click the link to get today’s song. You may be able to get thru it with dry eyes….

The answering machine messages left by those in the Twin Towers chanted as Psalms

Each year on 9-11 I commemorate the sorrow of that day by listening to this recording of Rabbi Irwin Kula chanting the messages left for loved ones by those who were in the Twin Towers.

I’ve rarely encountered anything as raw, devastating, and beautiful. I usually don’t make it through the whole thing.

The Grief Monster

The death of a loved one can cause us to sideline all the shit we usually focus on that doesn’t really matter in any spiritually meaningful way – things like petty resentments, snotty opinions, making sure our preferences are always met, vanity, grudges etc. 

I sometimes wonder if Mary the mother of our Lord and “the disciple whom Jesus loved” had any resentment between them. And I wonder if, in the moment of Jesus’ death, those resentments melted away in the heat of their shared grief and then disappeared forever when Jesus said, “here is your mother, here is your son”. 

Grief is a monster. But it is a monster that gives us to one another.

As always, be gentle with yourselves and hold your loved ones close. – Nadia

Restorative Justice

Activist and author Shane Claiborne examines the tension between justice and grace:  

Violence is contagious. Violence begets violence.… Pick up the sword and die by the sword. You kill us and we’ll kill you. There is a contagion of violence in the world; it’s spreading like a disease.  

But grace is also contagious. An act of kindness inspires another act of kindness…. A single act of forgiveness can feel like it heals the world. Grace begets grace. Love rubs off on those who are loved…. There’s nowhere you can see the battle of grace and disgrace waged more vehemently than in the criminal justice system. When it comes to words like “justice,” people can say the same thing and mean something completely different.  

Capital punishment offers us one version of justice. There is a sensibility to it: evil should not go without consequence. And there is a theology behind it: “An eye for an eye … a tooth for a tooth” [Leviticus 24:20].  

Yet grace offers us another version of justice. Grace makes room … for justice that is restorative, and dedicated to healing the wounds of injustice. But the grace thing is hard work. It takes faith—because it dares us to believe that not only can victims be healed, but so can the victimizers. It is not always easy to believe that love is more powerful than hatred, life more powerful than death, and that people can be better than the worst thing they’ve done.  

These two versions of justice compete for our allegiance. One leads to death. The other can lead to life, and to healing and redemption and other beautiful things. [1] 

Mennonite pastor Melissa Florer-Bixler connects forgiveness and restorative justice:  

We are told that we choose whose world we want to live in. We’ll choose wealth or God. We’ll choose violence or God. We’ll choose nationalism or God. We’ll choose racial hierarchy or God. Each case is an example of a different and incompatible operational system. One of those systems, if we live by it, binds us in endless struggle and violence that leads to our own destruction, as well as the destruction of others…. 

We are asked to choose which world we want to live in—a world of retributive justice or a world of forgiveness. [Theologian] Karl Barth, reflecting on forgiveness, writes, “Living by forgiveness is never by any means passivity, but Christian living in full activity.” Barth writes that, when we finally come before God, we will not be asked to give an account of our piety or morality. Instead, we will be asked, “Did you live by grace, or did you set up gods for yourself and perhaps want to become one yourself?” [2]  

We can’t operate in both orders. And when the world of revenge enters the renewed creation, the order built on good news, it poisons the possibility of mutuality, transformation, and reconciliation. The way out of the endless loop of retribution is to recognize that forgiveness of individuals is interwoven with the social order of God’s reign. [3]  

Womanist theologian Karen Baker-Fletcher describes forgiveness as a source of healing that can help break repetitive cycles of hatred and violence.   

Forgiveness is grounded in love that demands justice. Forgiveness is a God-given grace that frees the sinned against to pray for the salvation of sinners to free the world from further hatred, violence, and desecration. Forgiveness is … the act of desiring divine overcoming of evil while also desiring the salvation of those who have been seduced by it. Forgiveness is grounded in a tough divine love that prays for the power of righteousness to persuasively, powerfully move sinners into righteousness against all visible odds so that evil is overcome.   

In contrast, hatred desires the permanent annihilation of the other. Hatred has a negative capacity to infect the souls of well-meaning people of faith and the faithless alike when they are on the receiving end of sin. Hatred tempts the hated to hate. Forgiveness frees the sinned against, liberating them from continuing the cycle of hatred they have experienced. The pain of woundedness in forgiveness does not simply evaporate. That would be a denial of creaturely and divine humanity. To the contrary, the pain remains but is transformed into the healing force of compassion for a deeply wounded world and to joy wherever a witness to healing appears. [1] 

Through their work in social justice movements, embodiment teacher Prentis Hemphill names the inherent strength of a conscious act of forgiveness.   

Forgiveness and grace have much more to offer any culture than we give them credit for. They are rare sightings these days, yet where I have seen them, when I’ve been offered them, I realize that they are not the weak, pitiful emotions of people who don’t value themselves. They are the generous gift of people who know their worth cannot be diminished or compromised. When we offer grace or forgiveness, we refuse the false correlation between our worth and actions. But I’m not speaking about the kind of grace or forgiveness that coddles or panders. We don’t forgive out of our own desperation for another person; we forgive to invite one another back into our highest selves, back into our commitments. There is an acknowledgement that someone has been wronged or hurt, and forgiveness extends the possibility of trying again. I have struggled my way through forgiveness and grace, just as most of us struggle with them because of how often our hearts have been broken and how often we’ve been betrayed. I think it’s important for us to heed the warnings. Maybe eventually we can all learn to forgive far and wide, the way religions have taught. But for me to think of it that way is too tall an order. Maybe now we only need to forgive close in, nearby: the people in our families and our communities, the people we struggle alongside. Rather than denounce mercy, we try it in small doses. From there maybe forgiveness and grace spread and cover us, become more of the air we breathe. [2]

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Psalm 116: Filling One Another With Courage

Click Here for Audio I’m increasingly hearing Christians question the value of their churches’ Sunday gatherings, and churches embracing online streaming services has only accelerated the discontent. I wonder if earlier generations were equally frustrated with the church, but carried a greater sense of duty to persevere. Or perhaps there was simply greater social pressure to attend church which in many communities has now disappeared. Regardless of the cause, if we are serious about our faith but struggling with attending a church gathering, then at some point we must wrestle with what Scripture says about it.The writer of Hebrews clearly instructs believers to “not give up meeting together” (Hebrews 10:25), but we often overlook why we’re supposed to meet. The writer of the letter could have listed many reasons for gathering—to offer our worship to God, to learn sound doctrine from our teachers, and to be equipped for our mission as Christ’s disciples. But instead, the author of Hebrews offers a more basic, human, and pastoral reason. We are to meet regularly to “encourage one another.”I wonder if the growing dissatisfaction with church gatherings—both physical and virtual—is rooted in their failure to accomplish this most basic function. They may be informative with profound preaching. They may be entertaining with riveting music. But those are qualities easily achieved from a stage or screen. The kind of “one another” encouragement commanded in Hebrews, however, is personal, relational, and reciprocal. It’s not accomplished by passively sitting in a theater seat watching a performance. This kind of encouragement requires us to be fully present and engaged. It’s the arm-around-a-shoulder, praying-together-with-tears, let-me-help-you-carry-that-burden kind of gathering. It’s the kind where no one is invisible and everyone is known. And it’s the kind where personal stories of God’s goodness and power are shared.To fill each other with strength—the literal meaning of encouragement—requires two things. First, we must carry one another’s burdens. Paul says to bear each other’s burdens is how we fulfill the law of Christ (see Galatians 6:2). And, second, we must help those tempted by despair to see God’s power and goodness when their circumstances are blocking their vision. This is why God’s people have always shared the stories of his faithfulness as part of their worship. Psalm 116 is part of this ancient tradition.The psalm is composed as a testimony. The writer is sharing in the assembly of God’s people how YHWH’s compassion saved him from anguish and death. Psalm 116 is meant to give others hope and courage so they will continue trusting in the covenant faithfulness of YHWH even when it appears that “the cords of death entangled me.” This is also why we should continue to meet together and share our stories of God’s faithfulness. We have sisters and brothers who are “overcome by distress and sorrow” and who “have been brought low” by the world. They desperately need to be reminded of God’s goodness. And we should keep meeting because sooner or later our roles will reverse. We will be the ones brought low, and we will be the ones needing to be filled with courage of others. DAILY SCRIPTURE PSALM 116:1-19 WEEKLY PRAYER From Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945) O God, Early in the morning I cry unto you. Help me to pray And to think only of you. I cannot pray alone. In me there is darkness But with you there is light. I am lonely but you do not leave me. I am feeble in heart but you do not leave me. I am restless but with you there is peace. In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience. Your ways are past understanding, but You know the way for me. Amen.

 

Three Goodnesses

Father Richard Rohr writes of Jesus’ teachings and lived example of forgiveness: 

Among the most powerful of human experiences is to give or to receive forgiveness. I am told that two-thirds of the teaching of Jesus is directly or indirectly about this mystery of forgiveness: God’s breaking of God’s own rules. That’s not surprising, because forgiveness is probably the only human action that reveals three goodnesses simultaneously! When we forgive, we choose the goodness of others over their faults, we experience God’s goodness flowing through ourselves, and we also experience our own goodness in a way that surprises us. That is an awesome coming together of power, both human and divine.   

Eventually, I believe, we will all forgive one another because we have been forgiven, but let’s do it now and not wait until later. Let’s ask for the grace to let go of those grudges and hurts to which we cling. How else will we ever be free?   

If we don’t “get” forgiveness, we’re missing the whole mystery. We are still living in a world of meritocracy, of quid-pro-quo thinking, of performance and behavior that earns an award. Forgiveness is the great thawing of all logic, reason, and worthiness. It is a melting into the mystery of God as unearned love, unmerited grace, the humility and powerlessness of a Divine Lover.  

Without radical and rule-breaking forgiveness—received and given—there will be no reconstruction of anything. It alone breaks down our worldview of trying to buy and sell grace. Grace is certainly the one gift that must always be free, perfectly free, in order for it to work. Without forgiveness, there will be no future. We have hurt one another in too many historically documented and remembered ways. The only way out of the present justified hatreds of the world is grace. [1]  

An eagerness and readiness to love is the ultimate freedom and future. When we’ve been included in the spaciousness of divine love, there is just no room for human punishment, vengeance, rash judgment, or calls for retribution. We certainly see none of this small-mindedness in the Risen Christ after his own rejection, betrayal, and cruel death; we don’t see it even from his inner circle, or in the whole New Testament. I really cannot imagine a larger and more spacious way to live. Jesus’ death and resurrection event was a game changer for history.  

The Crucified and Risen Christ uses the mistakes of the past to create a positive future, a future of redemption instead of retribution. He does not eliminate or punish mistakes. He uses them for transformative purposes.  

People formed by such love are indestructible. Forgiveness might just be the very best description of what God’s goodness engenders in humanity. [

Forgiveness and Freedom

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. —Matthew 5:7 

Father Richard names how forgiveness creates opportunities for growth: 

The Spirit within us creates an unrelenting desire toward forgiveness and reconciliation. The entire gospel reveals the unfolding mystery of forgiveness; it is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the gospel’s transformative message. The energy of being forgiven—in our unworthiness of it—first breaks us out of our merit-badge mentality. The ongoing experience of being forgiven is necessary to renew our flagging spirit and keep us in the infinite ocean of grace. Toward the end of life, a universal forgiveness of everything for being what it is becomes the only way we can see and understand reality and finally live at peace. 

Zechariah said that God would “give God’s people knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of sin” (Luke 1:77). Forgiveness given and forgiveness received are always the pure work of uncreated grace. Such unearned and undeserved forgiveness is necessary to break down the quid pro quo world that I call meritocracy. Only when we experience undeserved love does this inward and outward flow begin to happen. Before that, we are dry, dead cisterns. Before that, we are into “religion” perhaps, but we don’t really have any dynamic notion of God or even our self. 

Grace re-creates all things; nothing new happens without forgiveness. We just keep repeating the same old patterns, illusions, and half-truths. Sometimes grace does not come immediately, but like Job we “sit in the ashes scraping our sores” (Job 2:8). Sometimes neither the desire nor the decision to forgive is present. Then we must grieve and wait. We must sit in our poverty, perhaps admitting our inability to forgive the offender. That is when we learn how to pray and how to “long and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6).  

True Spirit-led forgiveness always frees and heals at least one of the parties involved, and hopefully both. If it only preserves my moral high ground—as a magnanimous “Christian” person—I doubt if it is true forgiveness at all. In forgiveness, we live up to our true and deepest dignity. We then operate by a power and a logic not our own.  

At the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati, I had “70 x 7” painted over the main doorway [see Matthew 18:21–22]. New mail carriers thought it was the address! It was our address, in a way. It’s the distinctive hallmark of a people liberated by Christ. Community is not where forgiveness is unnecessary or unneeded. It is where forgiveness is very free to happen. And if it doesn’t happen on a daily basis, at least imperfectly, there will be no community. Without forgiveness the logic of victimhood and perpetrator rules instead of the illogic of love. 

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Psalm 115: We Become What We Behold

Click Here for Audio. Idolatry is a frequent topic in the Bible, and it is repeatedly condemned as a terrible sin for two reasons. First, and most obviously, we are commanded to worship God and no one else. The definition of idolatry is to worship a created thing rather than the Creator. Therefore, to engage in idolatry is to give our devotion to something that is underserving of it, and to withhold it from the One to whom it rightfully belongs. Simply put, idolatry hurts God.But there is another reason idolatry is condemned by Scripture that we often overlook. Idolatry hurts us. Jeremiah uses a helpful metaphor that captures both problems. When God’s people turned away from him to worship idols, the Lord said, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13). Idolatry is both a rejection of our faithful God and placing our trust in an unfaithful and unreliable alternative.Psalm 115 captures this terrible error with an even more direct warning. The writer contrasts the God worshipped by Israel with the idols worshipped by other nations. The idols have mouths, eyes, ears, noses, hands, and feet, but they cannot speak, see, hear, smell, feel, or walk. Unlike YHWH, the living God, they are lifeless objects, and “Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them” (verse 8).Ouch.The psalm highlights a profound but often overlooked truth—worship shapes the worshiper. Of course, by “worship” I do not merely mean music, prayers, and liturgies. Worship means “to ascribe worth.” What we worship is what we devote ourselves to, what we derive meaning and identity from, and what we prioritize above all else. Psalm 115 says that if we devote ourselves to lifeless things, we will also become lifeless.Father John Culkin, a professor of communication at Fordham University, once said, “We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” Although Culkin was talking about forms of media, his words fit uncomfortably close to those of Psalm 115. The people created lifeless gods from silver and gold, and then their creations remade the idol-worshipping people in their own lifeless image.However, the psalm also contains a positive message for those who put their trust in YHWH. His endless life will become our endless life. As many biblical scholars have noted, the Old Testament doesn’t have a well-developed theology of eternal life. Any sense of a life after death in God’s presence is vague at best. But Psalm 115 offers a compelling glimpse:“It is not the dead who praise YHWH, those who go down to the place of silence, it is we who extol YWHW, both now and forevermore. Praise YHWH” (verses 17-18).Is Psalm 115 saying those who put their trust in YHWH will never die but praise him forever? That appears to be what’s implied, and the message fits with the theme that we all become like what we behold. Just as dead idols lead those who trust in them to death, the eternally alive God leads those who trust in him to eternal life. DAILY SCRIPTURE PSALM 115:1-18 WEEKLY PRAYERFrom Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945) O God, Early in the morning I cry unto you. Help me to pray And to think only of you. I cannot pray alone. In me there is darkness But with you there is light. I am lonely but you do not leave me. I am feeble in heart but you do not leave me. I am restless but with you there is peace. In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience. Your ways are past understanding, but You know the way for me. Amen.

Brian McLaren connects our love of nature with our grief and anger when it’s treated without respect and care:  

Through the years, I’ve been involved in a lot of different areas of activism and so often what sustains us and motivates us in our activism work is anger. That’s legitimate because wherever we see injustice, we ought to be angry. But anger … can toxify our motivations if anger is all that’s driving us. That’s why I think it helps often for us to trace our anger back to grief, as Father Richard often says, and then to trace our grief to love. It’s because we love something that we feel grief when it’s threatened. In fact, one of my favorite definitions of grief is that grief is love persisting when what we love is passing away. What you love, you try to save, and that’s why so many of us see the natural world around us with such tenderness, with such grief, sometimes with such anger, because what we love is passing away. [1]  

Author Lydia Wylie-Kellermann describes her approach to helping her children fall in love with a place: 

When I think about parenting in this moment, I often think about the words from the Senegalese environmentalist Baba Dioum, who said, and I paraphrase, “You can’t save a place you don’t love. You can’t love a place you don’t know. And you can’t know a place you haven’t learned.” [2] 

I think that is some of the most important and radical work we can do as parents of young kids: help them learn the land that holds them. By doing so we are nurturing them to fall in love with this place—and ultimately that love may lead to imagination and action for climate justice….  

So we lie down on our bellies and watch the milkweed disappear as the caterpillar grows fat. We wander the neighborhood in search of snacks in the form of wild grape vines, tiger lilies, and the roots of Queen Anne’s lace. We throw lavish funerals for the fallen sparrow and delight when the opossum comes to visit…. We let mud get between our toes and we climb the apple trees. With each moment, we are learning this place. We are all falling in love….  

Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit peace activist now a beloved ancestor, once said “Don’t just do something. Stand there.” Standing in one place and not moving is a part of the work. And a beautiful piece that leads to knowledge and intimacy and relationship. Resistance to climate destruction can be slow work of being present to a place in the face of a transient, fast-paced world.  

Fall in love.  

None of us are going to save this planet alone. But we can shift patterns of destruction in our own ecosystem. If we learn the place and fall madly in love, how could we not interfere in the destruction and make change? [3] 

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Sarah Young Jesus Calling

Do everything in dependence on Me. The desire to act independently–apart from Me–springs from the root of pride. Self-sufficiency is subtle, insinuating its way into your thoughts and actions without your realizing it. But apart from Me, you can do nothing; that is, nothing of eternal value. My deepest desire for you is that you learn to depend on Me in every situation. I move heaven and earth to accomplish this purpose, but you must collaborate with Me in this training. Teaching you would be simple if I negated your free will or overwhelmed you with My Power. However, I love you too much to withdraw the godlike privilege I bestowed on you as My image-bearer. Use your freedom wisely, by relying on Me constantly. Thus you enjoy My Presence and My Peace.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

John 15:5 (NLT)
5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

Additional insight regarding John 15:5: “Fruit” is not limited to soul winning. In this chapter, answer prayer, joy, and love are mentioned as fruit (John 15:7, 11, 12). Galatians 5:22-24 and 2nd Peter 1:5-8 describe additional fruit: qualities of Christian character. Remaining in Christ means (1) believing that he is God’s Son, (2) receiving him as Savior and Lord, (3) doing what God says, (4) continuing to believe in the Good News, and (5) relating in love to the community of believers, Christ’s body.

Ephesians 6:10 (NLT)
10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Additional insight regarding Ephesians 6:10: In the Christian life we battle against rulers and authorities (the powerful evil forces of fallen angels headed by the devil, who is a vicious fighter, see 1st Peter 5:8). To withstand their attacks, we must depend on God’s strength and use every piece of his armor. Paul is not only giving his counsel to the church, the body of Christ, but to all individuals within the church. The whole body needs to be armed. As you do battle against “mighty powers in this dark world,” fight in the strength of the church, whose power comes from the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 1:26-27 (NLT)
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27 So God created human beings in his own image.
    In the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

Additional insight regarding Genesis 1:27: God made both man and woman in his image. Neither man nor woman is made more in the image of God than the other. From the beginning, the Bible places man and woman at the pinnacle of God’s creation. Neither sex is exalted, and neither is depreciated.

We were lovers who … decided to make the world a better place by slowing down long enough to pay for its improvement—by paying attention, the reverent, even holy attention of love. —Brian McLaren, The Galápagos Islands 

Brian McLaren considers how paying attention to tortoises is a form of love:   

At each place, [my companions and I] experienced sustained moments of shared, focused attention, so shared and so focused that we forgot ourselves. For significant periods of time, we were drawn out of ourselves into the observation of another, as in another species.  

We were thoroughly engrossed by tortoises….   

There they were—there we were. Intrigued. Drawn in. Enchanted. For minutes, even hours at a time. Whether in the wild or in a breeding center, we surrendered ourselves to them, to their habits, their pace, their well-being, to seeing the world in light of their needs and interests.  

We had given our hearts to these unique creatures that are unique features of this unique world.   

The great novelist Marilynne Robinson was once asked by an interviewer, “What single thing would make the world in general a better place?”  

She replied, “Loving it more.” [1] 

And then the revelation comes: in loving these unique creatures that are unique features of this unique world, we were making the world better. 

I do not doubt this in even one neural synapse of my brain….

Our attentive experience of self-forgetfulness and whole-hearted tortoise observation was, in a real way, ecstatic. We were taken out of ourselves in the contemplation of a creature so different from us in many ways, yet like us in others. We had fallen out of our normal concerns and into love, you might say. Or risen into love. Or embarked upon it. Or leapt into it.   

Perhaps the old phrase (thanks, Kierkegaard!) “leap of faith” … would be better rendered a leap of love.   

I know that both Jesus and Saint Paul said that our faith would save us. And I get that. But I wonder if it is equally true to say that if we are to be saved, it will not be by faith alone but by love as well. After all, didn’t Jesus say that love is the one greatest command, and didn’t Paul say that without love, nothing else we have (including faith that moves mountains) amounts to a hill of beans?… Maybe love includes as a given the kind of faith that really matters. That would certainly be the case if another voice in the New Testament was correct when he said, without qualification, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them” (1 John 4:16).   

Could that be why … [many people] join one another, and perhaps even join their Creator, in loving these creations, these tortoises…?   

I gaze with human benevolence and with a deeper human awareness … of our profound, inescapable kinship.  

I gaze with love.  

And somehow, the world is made a little better.   

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Sarah Young Jesus Calling

Do everything in dependence on Me. The desire to act independently–apart from Me–springs from the root of pride. Self-sufficiency is subtle, insinuating its way into your thoughts and actions without your realizing it. But apart from Me, you can do nothing; that is, nothing of eternal value. My deepest desire for you is that you learn to depend on Me in every situation. I move heaven and earth to accomplish this purpose, but you must collaborate with Me in this training. Teaching you would be simple if I negated your free will or overwhelmed you with My Power. However, I love you too much to withdraw the godlike privilege I bestowed on you as My image-bearer. Use your freedom wisely, by relying on Me constantly. Thus you enjoy My Presence and My Peace.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

John 15:5 (NLT)
5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

Additional insight regarding John 15:5: “Fruit” is not limited to soul winning. In this chapter, answer prayer, joy, and love are mentioned as fruit (John 15:7, 11, 12). Galatians 5:22-24 and 2nd Peter 1:5-8 describe additional fruit: qualities of Christian character. Remaining in Christ means (1) believing that he is God’s Son, (2) receiving him as Savior and Lord, (3) doing what God says, (4) continuing to believe in the Good News, and (5) relating in love to the community of believers, Christ’s body.

Ephesians 6:10 (NLT)
10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Additional insight regarding Ephesians 6:10: In the Christian life we battle against rulers and authorities (the powerful evil forces of fallen angels headed by the devil, who is a vicious fighter, see 1st Peter 5:8). To withstand their attacks, we must depend on God’s strength and use every piece of his armor. Paul is not only giving his counsel to the church, the body of Christ, but to all individuals within the church. The whole body needs to be armed. As you do battle against “mighty powers in this dark world,” fight in the strength of the church, whose power comes from the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 1:26-27 (NLT)
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27 So God created human beings in his own image.
    In the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

Additional insight regarding Genesis 1:27: God made both man and woman in his image. Neither man nor woman is made more in the image of God than the other. From the beginning, the Bible places man and woman at the pinnacle of God’s creation. Neither sex is exalted, and neither is depreciated.

Author bell hooks (1952–2021) describes how her childhood in the Kentucky hills instructed her in the spiritual lesson of interbeing: 

Growing up in a world where my grandparents did not hold regular jobs but made their living digging and selling fishing worms, growing food, raising chickens, I was ever mindful of an alternative to the capitalist system that destroyed nature’s abundance. In that world I learned experientially the concept of interbeing, which Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh talks about as that recognition of the connectedness of all human life.   

That sense of interbeing was once intimately understood by black folks in the agrarian South. Nowadays it is only those who maintain our bonds to the land, to nature, who keep our vows of living in harmony with the environment, who draw spiritual strength from nature…. It is nature that reminds time and time again that “this too will pass.” To look upon a tree, or a hilly waterfall, that has stood the test of time can renew the spirit. To watch plants rise from the earth with no special tending reawakens our sense of awe and wonder. [1]  

Writer Felicia Murrell describes her connection with the earth, which began in childhood: 

I grew up in the south, in rural North Carolina, in a place that had red dirt…. My mom used to tell stories of me eating the red clay…. I feel the ground very deeply and intimately…. When I get burdened with the cares of the world, I often share those with the earth. One of my practices is to go find green space and kneel on the ground. I think that connection to the earth made me care about it in a very deep way. I care about the water sources. I care about the land. So often we can just think about ourselves as humans and how things serve us, but I think there’s a beautiful invitation in the circle of life to see how we’re all joined together…. When we see, just like with people, the sacred dignity, inherent worth, and beauty of something, we hold it with a lot more care, tenderness, and compassion. [2] 

hooks names how the practice of noticing brings her hope and peace:  

When I leave my small flat in an urban world where nature has been so relentlessly assaulted that it is easy to forget to look at a tree, a sky, a flower emerging in a sea of trash, and go to the country, I seek renewal. To live in communion with the earth fully acknowledging nature’s power with humility and grace is a practice of spiritual mindfulness that heals and restores. Making peace with the earth we make the world a place where we can be one with nature. We create and sustain environments where we can come back to ourselves, where we can return home, stand on solid ground, and be a true witness. [3]  

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This is from Andrew Lang…….

Today’s focus is on a concept used in family systems therapy known as the “transitional character.”

This is someone who becomes a change-maker in their family lineage by refusing to pass down intergenerational trauma that was handed to them. Their presence and actions mark a transition as formerly operating cycles of violence or abuse come to an end.

A transitional character is someone who is handed a script, but through their own process of healing and ways of moving in the world, creates the conditions for themselves and future generations to move beyond it.

Prentis Hemphill writes:

We become who we are in part because of the family system that shaped us, but we can become even more of who we are when we resist, when we take a look at where we’re from, where we want to go, and then begin to transform our future.

In their beautiful book What It Takes to Heal, Hemphill shares we can all be transitional characters in our communities.

A few months back, I shared a framework known as sites of shaping/sites of change that emphasizes six areas of our life: 

• individual, 
• family/intimate network,
• community,
• institution,
• social norms/historical forces, and
• spirit/landscape.

In each of these areas, not just in our families, we have the opportunity to become transitional characters. Through our own commitment to healing and justice and our active participation with those around us, we are invited to take a long, honest look at the status quo and declare:

What has been does not have to continue to be.

In our workplaces, this might look like challenging “norms” that have harmed employees and former employees over time. In our faith communities, this might mean questioning how power has been used and working to co-create a new way forward. In our broader context, this might take the form of working alongside others to change how our cities and states are approaching the threat of climate change.

But it always begins with our own processing, noticing, and reflecting.

So this week, I invite you to think about the different areas of your life and how you might become, or continue to be, a transitional character within the spaces and communities you move.

​

❓ Questions

1. If you were a transitional character in this space, what changes would be possible?
2. What would need to change in you for you to be a transitional character in this space?

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way…. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion—all in one.  
—John Ruskin, Works, vol. 5 

In season six of the podcast Learning How to See, CAC Dean of Faculty Brian McLaren describes how contemplative spirituality supported his love for God in nature’s depth and beauty:  

I was taught to see the natural world as God’s creation. But largely, nature was only important because it either proved how great God was to make it, or it was a battleground in the culture war between evolutionism and creationism. It felt like heaven and hell were the only important items in the universe. Compared to heaven and hell, a red eft, or a fossil in a rock, or a crayfish were not so important.  

I remember a song I really loved to sing in church. It was called “Fairest Lord Jesus.” One of the verses said, “Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands robed in the blooming garb of spring.” Those lines really rang true for me. Of course, what came next was, “Jesus shines fairer. Jesus shines purer.” I remember thinking, “Well, it’s nice that we at least acknowledged how beautiful the meadows, woodlands, and springtime can be, even though we needed then to demote them in a way by contrasting their fairness with Jesus.”  

Years later, I came upon another song called “Have You Seen Jesus My Lord?” In that song there was a verse that said, “Have you ever stood at the ocean with a white foam at your feet, felt the endless thundering motion? Then I say you’ve seen Jesus my Lord.” Instead of putting Jesus and nature in competition, saying that Jesus was fairer, or better, this song said, “The same beauty that you love and are drawn to in nature is the beauty that’s in Jesus.” 

I think in part that is what attracted me to contemplative spirituality. Instead of dismissing the natural world, contemplative spirituality invited me to see the divine in the natural world, to enjoy it for its endless depth of meaning and insight. 

McLaren invites listeners to recall looking at nature through a “child’s eyes” and what those experiences revealed:   

It might’ve been being at the beach and seeing a flock of seagulls in flight that suddenly made you aware of beauty in a way you’d never felt it before, or it may have been the first dog that you really knew, loved, and connected with. It helped you think of intelligence that was different than your own, and beautiful in its own unique way. It might’ve been some other scene where you felt sacredness, and holiness, and depth in the natural world. It’s easy for us … to forget that childlike wonder at this beautiful world. We don’t need to put God and nature in competition. Nature is God’s original self-expression.