Yes, I Exist
I awoke to claims of my non-existence earlier today. I am not sure how I managed that, since liberal christians are not supposed to exist, but then the Holy is merciful and amazing that way, bigger than we can, and often do, imagine.
How people can be tossed out of the single body of Love continues to amaze me. But then, living in amazement is part of my spiritual practice. This life is so full of wonders. The Holy is awesome. Every day, even without contributing to reasons to amaze, we can meet and dance in wonderment and mystery.
From that dance with wonderment, our spirits are renewed, strengthened for compassion, open in generosity and loving-kindness, full of courage for what is needful.
Religious people can and do disagree on how to live faithfully. But that does not mean we deny each others’ existences. Denying existence makes it so much easier to deny other things, like humanity, finding ways to be good neighbors, discovering how to work together for a common good, meeting with wonder and awe the ways that we know and are touched by the Holy.
Love calls us to something risky and astounding: to humbly work together with all our differences, all our gifts, all our wisdom, and all our unknowing.
As christians - liberal, moderate, free, progressive, conservative, and every other label we can imagine - turn toward Easter, we will see lots of divisions in how we celebrate, how we observe, what practices we take on and even if we take them on (yes, not all christians observe Lent, and the Eastern and Western Christian calendars differ on when that is).
We need all the mercy and steadfast love we can muster as we follow the way, in all our amazing diversity, of the One that is Love.
We need all the mercy and steadfast love we can create, with Holy help and with our neighbors of every faith and no faith in particular, to tend the suffering, to bring hope where it is hard to find, and to grow in wonder and in love right here and right now.
