Living life with steps of faith

I think about my faith as something that is lived out, explored, and formed through passionate discussion. I suspect some of it comes from my denominational affiliation – we like to have disagreement - part of unity for us is to have diversity. If we don’t have diversity then we aren’t truly unified. When we meet as a national association, we do not come to agreement on much, but we do agree to worship together. It is in and through our corporate worship, the recognition of those around us and their diversity, and the focus on our one God and our Savior Lord Jesus Christ, that we find unity. Our intellects don’t have to be in complete conformity and in fact conformity would be seen as interfering with the true practice of faith, but our worship must recognize the diversity. As a result, conformity in a church raises my pulse. It makes me uncomfortable. I want to run and flee when I hear a sermon that shouts “You must believe this” or I look around and everyone looks alike. I wa...

“Ready or not, here I come.” I sat silently in the bedroom closet waiting for my friend to come and find me. She entered the room, looked around, lifted up the bed skirt on her bed and looked underneath, shuffled a couple of objects and then left the room. It wasn’t until she had left the room and my attention turned away from her and towards the closet space in which I had chosen to hide that I realized that I was not alone. “Hi!” the voice whispered. “Hi!” I whispered back, “Who else is in here?” “I am. My name is Rebecca.” Rebecca was another child invited to the birthday party. We hadn’t yet met, because the party had just begun. We quickly introduced ourselves by sharing our name, our age, the school we attended, and how we knew the hostess. Then for some reason our conversation turned to confession. In that dark quiet closet we both began admitting to each other sins we had committed that we were too embarrassed t...

"God ordered all things to be produced so that there would be common food for all, and so that the earth would be the common inheritance of all. Thus, nature has produced a common right, but greed has made it the right of a few." - Ambrose of Milan

There are moments in life when you realize how much you really care for someone and often those moments occur when you think you've lost or nearly lost that person. Tonight I had such a moment. I was talking on my cell phone while working on my laptop in my room. My boyfriend was on the other end, talking through an earpiece, while he drove home from work. We were nearing the end of our conversation. You know that time when a couple just hangs out on the phone, not saying much, but avoiding the "good-bye" or "I'll talk to you later." ***CRASH*** Pause. You realize that the phone is silent. You say your loved one's name. Silence. Then you become conciously aware enough to internally verbalize what you just heard - "that was the sound of a car accident." You begin to say your loved one's name over and over and over again. Just hoping for a reply, hoping that your imagining things. "Maybe he lost his signal" you think. Ye...

2 Quotes from class for me to meditate on: “If you board the wrong train you can walk down the aisle in the opposite direction and still arrive at the wrong destination.” – Deitrich Bonhoeffner. “You can not use the master’s tools to destroy the master’s house.” – Audre Lorde The Bonhoeffner quote is in the context of a minister who planned to join the "Christian Nazi" party in order to infiltrate and bring change from the "inside."

There have been many times in my life when I have thought of myself as a saint, as one of those strangely holy humans who have graced this planet with their presence. And I have thought of this arrogance as acceptable, because it took true humility to be willing to recognize oneself as righteous and called to be an example that would be an affront to many. Crazy thinking, huh? This sense of "holiness" has many times kept me from being open to new ideas and new ways of experiencing God. If I experienced God in a unique way that could seem theologically off-beat to someone else, I thought of myself as an exception, because I was doing or thinking or hearing the "right" way. In my life it has been hard for me to accept being "normal" and to accept my humanity and everything it means to be human. My spiritual existence has come more naturally to me. Every day I learn more and more about my humanity, about my place in this mix of a universe, and how limited...

Check out this article aboout the propositions on state ballots this election: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/october/20.31.html

As I am reading various texts for my New Testament class, I am reminded both of God's instruction to the Hebrews to regularly forgive debt and the Israelites recognition of calamity as a message requesting repentance. I wonder how the Hebrew Word of God speaks to our contemporary situation. I also wonder how the words of Jesus spoken to people living in a possibly similar time of economic crisis and empire rule speak to us today. For one, I wonder why we are taking out more loans in order to "cure" our economic ill. Is there a way that we could make a move of debt forgiveness? What would happen, if, the President or Congress announced that every single debt held within the U.S. is forgiven and that all the books need to be cleared and new books created? I recognize that there are a lot of challenges to this proposal, specifically because our money has become electronic. But, is there some way that this principal of forgiveness could be applied to our current situatio...

The world belongs to God. All that is in the created world belongs to God. It all belongs to God, because He is the Creator. God is not only the Creator of the world, but also its Founder, and the One who Establishes. The world was founded on water. The world was established on rivers. Water is a basic substance to God's creative activity. Water seems to have been his clay of sorts. What does science have to say about this? All who live in the world also belong to God. What does this mean for or say about those who do not recognize that they are God's? The earth is associated with all of God's creation. The world is associated with God's living creation. The earth belongs to God. God created the earth. Is there a difference between the earth and created non-breathing matter and the world and breathing, living things of the flesh? NRSV - "The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and...

NRSV - "The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it." We as humans were put in our earthly home in order to care for it. Are we doing our job?

God spoke not only to Noah, but also to the sons of Noah who were present with Noah. the covenant belongs to God The establishment of the covenant is initiated by God and is an act of God. How many generations qualify as the "descendants" of Noah and his sons? The covenant was not only established with Noah and his sons, but also with all living creatures that were with these men. Every "living creature" is identified with birds, domestic animals, and every animal on earth with Noah and his sons. The covenant is established with all those living creatures, humans included, that came out of the ark. The Covenant = "never again all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood." More of the Covenant = "never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." All future generations are included in this covenant. A bow set in the clouds is the sign or the testimony of the covenant between God and all living creatures that are with humanity. The sign of ...

My heart breaks when I am gathered with other Christians in worship. It breaks for those who are absent. More specifically it breaks for those who seem to be uninvited.