Here I Stand ~ Statements of Faith

 

One more set of questions today as you consider your theology and how you have witnessed the with-ness of God in your life:

 

What are my strengths?

Who are the role models and mentors who inspire me?

What practices and exercises will I employ in my everyday life?

What communities can I participate in and accompany?

What do I want to give back to the world?

 

The above questions invite you to explore the mystery of your one wild and precious life.  Please remember, you don’t have to answer every question.  There is no turning this in as an assignment.  Of course, if you want to talk about these questions, I welcome conversation and connection with you.  I also encourage you to give thought to any resistance or reluctance you have to these questions.  Sometimes the very questions we want to take a hard pass, refuse, refute, or call “silly” are the very questions where we discover the Divine in a new way.  God is not just some Genie in a bottle here to grant your every wish and make your dreams come true.  God stretches us in sacred ways and into sacred shapes.  To be clear, not every experience I have had is saturated in the holy.  Some experiences are drenched in humanness that drain me.  Yet God can be there even in brokenness and in moments I wish had never happened.  This is what makes faith endlessly fascinating and (honestly) frustrating.  Faith is not math to be solved, but a poem, a prayer, a praise to enter fully with our whole lives.   This week, we have paused to look at our lives.  Who is God, who is the other, and who am I?  Jot down thoughts today on this, and then, maybe at the end of December, make a cup of hot cocoa and review these questions and your thoughts.  In a few weeks, go back and notice what is shifting and what is stable, persisting.  May you and I continue to let loose your inner theologian, for the world needs to hear how God is at work in your heart/life ~ and we need to hear from each other.  Amen.