You are deeply loved and God is not worried about you. You can rest and abide in that Love even as you throw a few things into the fire.
— Sarah Bessey, Field Notes for the Wilderness, p. 18
Photo: Sunrise, South Riding, Virginia, January 3, 2025
It may now be safe to say that our God does not need to be calmed down, nor is ever irate nor filled with wrath. All the mystics have come to see this. Julian of Norwich knows that she’s been told constantly of this angry Divine One but just can’t “find this God” in her experience. We still can’t shake the narrative of the God who seeks our measuring up and demands some high level of performance. We don’t measure up to this God; we just show up. We allow this Tender One to fill us extravagantly, then we go into the world and speak the whole language of it, unrestricted, openhearted, and loyally dedicated to its entirety. Tender glance meets tender glance. Behold the One beholding you and smiling.
For the Tender One, it’s simply never about worthiness. But, I’m afraid for us, it’s ONLY about worthiness. The centurion wants Jesus to cure his servant and humbly tells him: “Say but the word . . .” “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof . . .” The centurion feels unworthy. But Jesus just wants to notice and connect to him. He pays attention to him. We stare at the cure and the faith of the guy, but Jesus wants us to look at how false our sense of unworthiness is. In the face of this tender glance, we find a God quite speechless — too in love with us to chitchat.
— Gregory Boyle, The Whole Language, p. 11
Photo: Sunrise over lake, South Riding, Virginia, January 18, 2024
Art, music, hospitality, gardening, cooking, writing, storytelling, mathematics, programming . . . creating of any kind imitates God! You fill the earth by doing anything that adds beauty and life and fullness to the world around you, whether you prepare a simple meal, start a business, or create a work of art. The job of an image bearer is to use your gifts to mimic the passionate, creative work of God.
— Elizabeth Garn, Freedom to Flourish, p. 58
Photo: “FIND JOY!!!” Shadow Scarf
Now I don’t mean to start some kind of prooftexting war, as if arguing over theology were just a matter of slapping more verses down on the table than the other guy. I admit that one can seem to find an eternity of pain and abandonment all over the Bible – if that’s what one is looking for. And I suppose there are some evangelicals who would happily squint their eyes and apply some kind of strained interpretation to the verses I quote above to make the case that “all” never actually means “all” when talking about salvation. I used to do the same thing myself. But after years studying the Bible and the traditions of Christianity, I’ve finally given up. At some point, Christians have to stop defending the indefensible and accept the very thing that Christ came to earth to teach us: that God will always come down to us. God will never leave us abandoned. God will never leave us to face the darkness alone, no matter how deep it may be. At some point, we have to admit that, like it or not, “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).
— Derek Ryan Kubilus, Holy Hell, p. 68
Photo: South Riding, Virginia, January 18, 2025
The Bible is not a car manual. You not gon’ be able to search in the back for just any topic and find the chapter and verse to answer every question under the sun. Doing theology requires critical thinking skills.
— Trey Ferguson, Theologizin’ Bigger, p. 14
Photo: Madenburg, Germany, June 20, 2024
But if we look at the life and teachings of Jesus we see a vastly different image of God. We see a God of love and peace, who freely forgives sin without first balancing the cosmic accounts. As the fullest revelation of God, Jesus never demands retribution. He never talks about his offended honor. He forgives and heals and saves unconditionally. He is the Prince of Peace who reveals to us the true nature of God and tells us so when he says, “whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
— Sharon L. Baker, Executing God, p. 73
Photo: View from Burg Montfort, Germany, June 19, 2024
The cross is not what God inflicts in order to forgive; the cross is what God in Christ endures as he forgives. This is an essential and enormous clarification! At the cross the Son does not act as an agent of change upon the Father. Orthodox theology has always insisted that God is not subject to change or mutation. Rather, God is immutable. Thus the cross is not where Jesus changes God but where Jesus reveals God. On Good Friday Jesus does not save us from God; Jesus reveals God as Savior! We don’t have to imagine the Son pacifying an angry Father in order to understand Good Friday as the epicenter of forgiveness.
— Brian Zahnd, The Wood Between the Worlds, p. 16
Photo: South Riding, Virginia, January 20, 2025
As Paul says, “He has not left himself without witness.” God’s voice is heard in the rain and in the harvest. God is close where there is good food and the laughter of friends. God has been with you this entire time, declares Paul, “filling your hearts with joy.” Start with joy if you’re looking for enchantment. Let gladness be your guide to the gateway of heaven.
— Richard Beck, Hunting Magic Eels, p. 90
Photo: South Riding, Virginia, January 11, 2025
If Jesus did not intend for us to take this command completely literally, then how are we to take it? I think he’s saying, You don’t need most of what you want or already have. Simplify. Stop being driven by the acquisition of more. It is a false god. Your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions. You cannot serve both God and money, so choose God instead of money. To whom much is given, much more is expected. God expects you to be generous. Give and it will be given to you, pressed down, shaken together, and running over — the blessings of God come when you are generous toward others. And, perhaps most important, you are the means by which God lifts up the lowly and ensures the hungry go home full.
— Adam Hamilton, Luke: Jesus and the Outsiders, Outcasts, and Outlaws, p. 86
Photo: Zweibrücken Rosengarten, June 18, 2024
If God desires to continue the work of reconciliation up to the last second, how can we protest? A sermon I heard as a new Christian put forth one of my favorite images of God as a God of second chances, a God who never gives up on us, who pursues us like a hound of heaven, always offering opportunities for repentance and reconciliation. Why wouldn’t God offer that same invitation on that final day? Why would God’s work of salvation end just because someone’s body dies? The work of Jesus must still be effective after the end of time or even after time runs out.
— Sharon L. Baker, Razing Hell, p. 123
Photo: Iggelbach, Germany, June 20, 2024