The Living Word

I realized that in the face of doubt the things that lead me back to God, and my sweet Jesus as His son, are not the scriptures. He is the living Word. Living in the mountains of Iceland, the jungles of Costa Rica, the streets of south central L.A, within the bark of the redwoods. His power tosses me and overcomes me amongst the waves of the West coast ocean, His peace blows through me in the Manitoulin wind, His joy is found in the deep Quebec woods, His passion is in the moments of intimacy between my husband and I, His beauty is in a Feist song, and His grace lives in the people I get to serve everyday.  

Jacobs alter was found in the wilderness, not the four walls of a sanctuary. The living Christ is in the miracles we overlook. The miracle of a bird flying through the mountains with perfect precision, the miracle of someone in a wheelchair learning to take one extra shaky step, and the miracle of laughter. Even larger than this, the living Christ is in me. So is undeniable broken humanity. Henri Nouwen says "In the hands of the oppressed we can see our own hands. In the faces of the oppressors we can see our own faces." To Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh this is called "inter-being." We are compelled to compassion because we see ourselves as the broken, the enslaved, the impoverished, and the oppressed and we are compelled to grace because we see ourselves as the warlords, the ugly, the sinful, and the oppressors. This realization of inter-being, this realization of the living Christ not boxed, not compressed but in the world (the wilderness) and in all things fuels us to a place where we desire understanding. We can no longer simply look at something or someone. We must look deeply. Deeply enough to see histories, God and ourselves. There is no them and there is no us. God is amongst.
 This changes everything. This calls you into action. This dissolves fear of the uncomfortable, of the different and of the other. "Jesus' message comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable," the saying goes. We are called to community. Global community where we get rid of us and them. Global community where we see ourselves as those we formerly called different. We don't need to protect, to isolate, to save, and to collect.  We don't need to protect because we see goodness in others, and we see our own responsibility in perpetuating violence in our own anger. We don't need to isolate because fear dissolves and we see we are better together. We don't need to save and collect because we see ourselves in the poor- we see how our pursuit for comfort drives others into discomfort our pursuit of the American Dream oppresses nations of people. We see we don't need violence and war. We need only to kill the ugliness in ourselves, we need only to practice non-violence within ourselves. We need only to focus on the living Christ in ourselves and on the living Christ in others and on the living Christ in the world. Heaven is in the moments we look deeply on this living Christ and choose life instead of death. Peace instead of violence. Community instead of isolation. Adventure instead of safety. Love instead of fear.