The time will come when, with elation,

You will greet yourself arriving

at your own door,

in your own mirror,

And each will smile

at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here, Eat.

You will love again the stranger

who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread.

Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger

who has loved you all your life,

whom you ignored for another,

who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters

from the bookshelf,

the photographs,

the desperate notes,

Peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life

(Derek Wolcott, "Love After Love," Collected Poems, Noonday Press, 328)

Church is a circle of community and a space to meet ourselves -- and God in us. Church is a circle of smaller "circles of trust" (from Parker Palmer's A Hidden Wholeness) to awaken our shared life within the life of God. We cannot change the world unless we willing to be changed ourselves, until we listen to the Spirit, our inner teacher, until we treat our inner journey with respect. We will change the world by sharing the fruit of our life as community with those around us and those in front of us.

Church is a common commitment to change the world according to the vision of shalom, peace, ubuntu, wholeness, salaam. We can change the world, but not by coercion or force -- only by example, prayer, and cooperative action. Church happens in many places and with many identities including organized religious ones!

The Spirit is awakening life all around us. We need eyes to see it and ears to hear it happening. We need to wake up to that life-giving activity of the Spirit so we don't miss it. There is no magic except the mystical magic of love, patience, courage, and trust. This is the journey of our lives.

Thanks for continuing to bless me as we journey together.
  
Jack Price

FYI - Jack has published several articles at: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jack_F_Price

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