Wednesday, January 12, 2011

God and Life

*I believe that God is making all things new. I believe that Christ overcame death and that pattern is apparent all through life and history: life from death, water from a stone, redemption from failure, connection from alienation. I believe that suffering is part of the narrative, and that nothing really good gets built when everything is easy. I believe that loss and emptiness and confusion often give way to new fullness and wisdom.*
*I believe that faith is less like following a GPS through a grid of city blocks, and more like being out at sea: a tricky journey, nonlinear and winding, the wind kicking up and then stalling.*
*The world is changing all the time, at every moment. Someone is falling in love right now, and someone is being born. A dream is coming true in some city or small town, and right at the same moment, another dream is crashing and crumbling. A marriage is ending somewhere, and it's somebody's wedding day, maybe even right in the same town. It's all happening.*
*Unclench your fists, unlock your knees and also the door to your heart, take a deep breath, and begin to swim. Begin to let the waves do their work in you and trust in God.*
*Fear is like a hand grenade: surprisingly powerful and surprisingly destructive.*
*It's easy to believe that having a child is as simple as growing tomatoes: you do the right things, you take your prenatal vitamins and avoid caffeine and nitrates, and the universe hands you a perfect life, right on schedule. But if you've ever tried to grow anything--a tomato plant, a baby, anything--you know it's more mysterious and more treacherous than that.*
*I love the illusion of being able to do it all, and I'm fascinated with people who seem to do that, who have challenging careers, beautiful homes, vibrant minds and well-tended abs. Throw in polite children and a garden, and I'm coming over for lessons.*
*Time is finite, as is energy. One day I will stand before God and account for what I did with my life. There is work that is only mine to do; a child that is mine to raise, stories that are mine to tell, friends that are mine to walk with. The grandest seduction of all is the myth that DOING EVERYTHING BETTER gets us where we want to be. It gets us somewhere, certainly, but not anywhere worth being.*
*If arithmetic is numbers, and if algebra is numbers and letters, then grace is numbers, letters, sounds, tears, feelings and dreams. Grace is smashing the calculator and using all the broken buttons and pieces to make a mosaic.*
*Grace is when you finally stop keeping score and when you realize that God never was, that his game is a different one entirely. Grade is when the silence is so complete that you can hear your own heartbeat, and right within your ribs, God's beating heart, too.*
*Age, like numbers on a scale and letters on a report card, tells us very little of who we are. You decide every year exactly how young and how old you want to be.*
*I believe deeply that God does his best work in our lives during times of great heartbreak and loss, and I believe that much of that rich work is done by the hands of people who love us, who dive into the wreckage with us and show us who God is, over and over and over.*

No comments:

Post a Comment