presence
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A Prison of Isolation
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6 min read
15. Nor is freedom from people anything but a prison of isolation. We sat in Joe’s arguing over greasy food in a debate over which is more important. Deep down, I knew Jen and I didn’t disagree. Not really. The argument wasn’t real. It was semantic. The heat generated from the friction of our altruism. The…
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God is active with us
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5 min read
8. When we feed the multitudes, welcome the stranger, and heal the sick, we are also with Jesus. There are essentially two ways Christians speak about the material of their faith. We can speak literally or metaphorically. And for those outside the faith, it can be really hard to tell the difference between the two. Just…
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To Create Withness
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3 min read
7. But in Jesus, we are given human responsibility to create withness with one another. The nature of God is withness. From the divine dance of the Holy Trinity to the very withness of Jesus, all of God’s glory is withness. What I mean by “withness” is presence–the eternal and constant being with someone. And this idea of…
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When a name is about us
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5 min read
5. Even the name given to Moses expresses “withness” saying I will be there howsoever I will be. One of the worst kept secrets in the world is that God’s name isn’t “God.” It’s like the town drunk who we we all know [wink, wink] doesn’t have a problem. We all agree to pretend like it is…
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With them in the desert
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6 min read
4. God promised to be with the Hebrew people in liberation from Egypt and desert wandering. For years, I’ve been drawn to the wanderings and grumblings text in Exodus. I love it as a story all by itself. But read up against the story which immediately precedes it, It plays like absurdist drama. Imagine growing…