Tuesday, December 31, 2019

You Are A Problem

All this is to say, if your present community sees your spiritual journey as a problem because you are wandering off their beach blanket, it may be time to find another community.  One should never do that impulsively.  But, if after a time you are sensing that you do not belong, that you are a problem to be corrected rather than a valued member of the community, maybe God is calling you elsewhere and to find for yourself that 'they' aren't so bad after all.

-- Peter Enns

As another year comes to a close, and I reflect back on the beginning of 2019, I couldn't anticipate what all would happen, especially when it included a very personal experience of the above.   But, the truth is, pain is often a kind of soil.  So, I am eager for what will grow out of it and am grateful that there are so many people, in many different kinds of community, who want to do the same.

While it is often true that hard things tend to dominate the scene, there were many significant things about 2019 that weren’t painful. We participated in so much goodness, experienced many joys, and were more alive than ever.

In other words, while we may have been ‘a problem’ for some, we know in fresh ways that we are more than that, too.  Thank God for his unending invitation to being more than we, or others, think we are.