Life is a journey--from birth to death to rebirth; from being young to being old to perhaps being young again. It is a journey of exploration and discovery-- a spiritual journey. This life journey a process we enter through questioning and seeking. It is a place where people explore understanding their faith in an atmosphere of trust and safety. Faith can be a shared journey on which people ask hard questions in love and share their differing understandings. The result of doing this can be an integration of one's beliefs and actions.

            Our identity as people of faith is not found in a set of doctrines. All the teachings of the Bible--from the Ten Commandments to the ancient prophets, from the beatitudes of Jesus to the letters of the Apostle Paul--reveal to us how people, inspired and guided by God's Spirit, have come to understand God's own hopes and dreams for their lives. As we walk along this journey, we come to discover and embrace the reality that the God we perceive in the Hebrew Bible is the same God we perceive in the New Testament and in the Quran; the same God we see throughout history, and the same God we perceive now in our lives!

            The journey of faith includes exploring our theological understanding. But theological exploration done with integrity must be life exploration. Too often theological conflict is really just a mask for life conflict. On my journey, I have come to believe that faith is both relationship and belief, but it is more relationship than belief. Faith is both trust and insight, but it is more trust than insight. Faith is both letting go of the familiar and taking on new understandings and directions, but it is more letting go than taking on. Communities of faith exist to support us on this journey: to hold us accountable on this journey and to keep us focused on this journey as our first priority.

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

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