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For many people of faith, the Bible's teachings are instructions to be obeyed. When the Bible tells us (in Micah 6:8) to "do justice and to love kindness," it means that's exactly what we're supposed to do. "To walk humbly with God" is a command for us to be grounded in connection with God. For other people of faith, such passages become like a mirror to hold up to God and to ourselves for deepening our understanding. They can prompt questions for us and become keys to discovering what life is all about--what lies at the heart of the universe. One such question might be, "What does the core of biblical truth teach us about God?" I have found that the Bible teaches us what it looks like to be in synch with God-to be one with God. It also teaches us what makes God joyful. Another question might be, "What do these biblical teachings demand from us? An answer might be that Micah 6:8, for instance, shows what things in life we need to put first. The first priority is that we act with and for justice in every aspect of our lives, that we love kindness and mercy with all our being, and that we seek and embrace a oneness with God that grounds us. The final outcome of taking these biblical truths seriously is that we act on them. This is true whether we take them as commands to be obeyed or as a means of deepening our understanding of God and ourselves. If they are commands, then obedience equals faith. If they are mirrors, then we must choose to live our lives in faith that these biblical passages are absolutely true in what they tell us about God and ourselves. One of the possibilities of approaching faith with questions and a desire to understand more deeply is that we can discover the God-presence in each of us. We can learn that God enters the world through us--through the words we say and the energy we give out. We can learn that God heals creation and all creatures through us, through the church, and through all the ways people gather to mediate the divine presence. When we embrace and act on such learning, then God is more present in the world and divine healing is more available. One of the exciting possibilities of our faith journey is to discover for ourselves that God's life is happening in us: that God actually becomes more visible in the world because of us, and that the Holy Spirit is given to others through our words and our actions. When we live in synch with this truth, we can begin to discover that we are becoming living words.
Thanks for continuing
to bless me as we journey together. |
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