Often uncomfortable and disquieting, feeling upside down can have its advantages. One is that it can uncover potential elements of the heart that need dislodging and to be swept away. PC: unknown
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“God isn’t trying to interfere with our sexuality. He is, rather, pulling people out of prisons and into freedom, out of deception into truth, out of illusions and into reality. He has all intel and knows what is best for us and what creates human flourishing. His ways will bring peace, joy, and love. He opposes the disintegration that comes with disparities between mind and body.” Brandon McGuire Paraphrased from commentary by Brandon McGuire @ Daily Dose of Wisdom on YouTube: https://youtu.be/m-mYqTKTFYU?si=IcjxvN2FIOIKoLrE photo credit: Maranda Blumenthal, dancer: Rachel Bruce Johnson, She Drew A Picture of a Whale, Exchange Dance Festival 2009
More and more I hear that love is the ultimate goal yet it is reserved for a selected few. More and more there are shouts of tolerance yet they grow louder and louder until those shouts become screams for silence. Hurts become demands; pain begets pain. Claims of compassion and self-righteousness backbite and kick against the goads, making all hypocrites. There is only so much one can do when others hearts turns to stone. *image found some place on Facebook
It makes no difference how "in love with Jesus" we are, if we continually disparage His Church, we are missing a large part of what it means to love Jesus. That is not to say that there is no room for healthy critique of the Church and the individual Christian's behavior within a church. It's arguably needed. In Christianity, Christ is calling His Bride to Himself. How are we to be apart of His vision if we can't stand His people? Can we love Christ well, when we don't love His Bride? Can we truly love God but ignore the ways we fall short of loving people? Does it even occur to us that a Christian's mandate to love people means loving God's people, whom we are purportedly now in familial relationship? Are we a part of His Body in a healthy way if we are unable to be in healthy relationship with other believers and talk about the things of God? It starts with imagining what loving the family of God might look and feel like. Loving the Church might mean confronting individuals, exposing lies, being gracious in discipleship, asking meaningful questions, and waiting patiently. These are things that are on my mind of late.
I am reading to be a better parent and am discovering that I have lost some resiliency of my own. Here’s to recovering it. “[People] who manage their feelings well have emotional resiliency. They won’t be afraid to laugh and cry with people. Depression, stress, and anxiety won’t overwhelm them typically or last as long. They won’t all ow themselves to be defined by negative experiences or interactions. Resiliency is strong protection against mental health struggles.”
PC: Nikki Riggs, from a promotional photo shoot with Out on a Limb Dance Company, show: Gobsmacked, Artistic Director, L. Brooke Schlecte, 2020.
One of the hardest aspects of grief is the collateral damage of a significant loss. In addition to the person who died, some people lose cursory relationships such as mutual friends of your loved one, couple friends that don’t know how to move on with only you and not your spouse, the widow of the parent you lost, or even whole groups of, what I call, “club friends”. These may be acquaintances that you run into frequently simply because you have children in the same grade or always talk to before church. Club friends often have no idea how to include you or check on you while you're still sad. That’s ok, though shallow and often unhelpful in any real sense. These periphery losses can affect the way you grieve and whether the process is overall healthy. While this is simply a reflection of personal observations, it acknowledges the non-linear messiness of grief. This is not a way to stoke the embers of grief to keep it alive, as if to wallow in the pain and define oneself by sadness. It’s an acknowledgment; a virtual nod of real experience, a lingering look, and a decided exhale before stepping on down the path, a warm glow of sunset on the back.
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photo by Jeanne S. Mam-Luft
AuthorI'm a Christ-follower, passionate about moving in truth/love and intellectual rigor through all things faith + art. A professional Dance Artist and fancying myself an amateur Christian Apologist, I’m committed to moving in the liminal space between catastrophic reverence of God and a quaking humility that intentionally keeps the tremors of Grace close at hand. Archives
April 2024
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