Across Church Street
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The Lord's prayer and our participation require child-like faith.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. — Matthew 6:10
If it's what we pray for, it's what we should want and work for. So, how is it in heaven? We need imagination for that, something God gave us the capacity for. Most of us were best at it when we were children. Dependency, trust, and imagination: is this what it means to have child-like faith?
Seek, Dwell, Gaze, Seek
A king, a man after God's own heart.
One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. — Psalm 27:4
This is the invitation to people who like action words. It's pursuit, and desire, and wonder that fuels faithful participation with God, even when participation looks like repentance.
Curiosity, Discovery, and Creativity
This is the world of a little child. And I never outgrew it. Some have tried to reform me, failed, and benefited from their failure. I like turning over rocks. Under one, I found something that saved my employer $20 million/year! (Impractical?) There is a whole world, a whole universe, still to be discovered. It's a cosmos full of interesting people, places, cultures, and things. And God is bigger still!
- love
- Holy Spirit
- humility
- church
- poverty & mercy
- politics & society
- mission & witness
- holiness
- parable & metaphor
- identity
- eternal life
- doubt & deconstruction
- leadership
- grace
- justice
- scripture
- spiritual life
- advent & christmas
- imagination & creativity
- technology & AI
- knowing God
- human dignity
- faith & trust
- incarnation & cross
- kingdom of God
- community
- reconciliation
- spiritual formation
- epistemology
- prayer
- gratitude
- culture
- creation & nature
- discipleship
I practice the spiritual discipline of rescuing earthworms on paved surfaces. It's a reminder to me that I can pause what I'm doing, get a little dirty, and help. Also, that I've been given the responsibility to care.