Peace to you, and God's blessings.
Howdy, y'all.
It has been some time since my last entry, and before that, far longer. It is difficult to believe that I have had this blog since 2011. Interestingly enough, it was during the Advent season that I started writing. Perhaps there is something about this season that compels me to turn to this medium to reflect upon the different experiences that I have. In this instance, I have been inspired to write because I recently read a post from a friend's blog. In her message, she wrote about the discipline of keeping a blog and expressed her experience of being a "child of God together." I found it quite interesting to read her thoughts and I was reminded of my own call to be a "together" person in my ministry and in my life. As an introvert, I have often found that being together is somewhat precarious. As an 8 on the Enneagram, being "together" is a scary thing because the Enneagram 8 is a Lone Ranger type of person, the champion, always on the forefront of the task at hand. The thought of togetherness is scary, not because we have to join with others, but because it risks the danger of having to be vulnerable with others. For an Enneagram 8, this is truly a frightening thing! Eek!
All that aside, the thought of being children of God together makes absolute sense and serves as an invitation to risk the possibility of encountering God's love through others. As I have found it, whether it is a brief encounter or a life-long one, being children of God together is a gift that can leave one in awe and even speechless as we come to realize the great gift that it is to encounter the love of God as it is shared in community.
This is something else that I have come to consider recently, salvation isn't something that is a one-time thing like some pixie dust sprinkled upon us to change us, no, salvation is something we live into. It is something that is revealed little by little through the experiences we share with one another. These encounters tend to change us, something that we may not consider at the time, but without a doubt, something that does indeed happen and has the ability to bring us to a place where we are made more into who God has always known us to be. Like a stone being polished in a tumbler, we are changed sometimes subtly and over time, but changed nonetheless. In some ways, I believe that this is also a brief glimpse of the redeeming love of Christ who has brought forth and new heaven and a new earth. In our togetherness, this gift of love brings us to a place where the possibility of swords being turned into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks isn't a dream, but a hopeful reality that is experienced as we come to see in each other the presence of the All Holy. This togetherness as children of God creates a place where the lion is able to rest with the lamb and the adder with a baby and in a more practical sense, perhaps this togetherness also allows each of us to look at each other and see beyond the preconceived notions that we may have about each other and see the dignity that is inherently ours as children of God. Togetherness as children of God is not an easy task, if it were the world would be a very different place. No, it isn't easy, but perhaps it isn't impossible and maybe that is the greatest gift that our being children of God together will offer us, a look in love beyond the fears that can so easily choke us.
I have sometimes been accused of being "good hearted," not because I have a good heart, but because in their own way, those who have said this to me were too polite to call me pollyannish, and perhaps this true, but what if we all risked loving one another and celebrating our oneness as children of God, maybe then we can see the world changed, one heart at at time, in Christ, truly a new heaven and a new earth. I hope. Amen.
As always, remember that you are beautiful, and you are loved. God bless you.
