Unfolding Light

Here comes the Fourth of July, when too many confuse God with America, is if God weren’t the God of every nation, every planet in every galaxy in the universe. Preachers say we’re a Christian nation but can’t name a single teaching of Jesus we embody. But let’s do. Let’s become a Christian nation, a people of mercy and compassion, generosity and forgiveness. Let&#8217...

You are doing nothing in particular, but very much so, gazing at the trickle in the gutter, or maybe watching someone lost in what they’re doing, a mother nuzzling her baby, a kid finger painting— and for a moment the world bursts from its seed, everything that is exceeds, teeming with itself, brimming. Words fall open like hands that spill what they can’t hold. A superabundance of bei...

           I do not do the good I want,           but the evil I do not want is what I do.           Now if I do what I do not want,           it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me...

            I do not understand my own actions.            For I do not do what I want,            but I do the very thing I hate.            It is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.            Who will rescue me from this body of death?            Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Chief!                        —from Romans 7.15-25 Our sin isn’t that we’re bad...

What if in the end there is no law-giver demanding obedience but a life-giver offering life? What if there is no seer dispensing secret wisdom but a friend, offering companionship? What if there is no messiah leading a crusade but a presence who delights in you? What if there is no savior rescuing us from hell, but a fellow traveler offering help? What if there is no journey, no trial, no mountain...

While you are worrying about the state of the world they are walking, while you are doing the dishes, driving on the Interstate, unseen, hand in hand, generations of them, singing in so many languages, as you sleep, when you carry the little package on its bothersome errand, they are all walking, bearing their bundles of goodness and wisdom, their powerful prayers, their scattered blessings, as yo...

You can be a flower by the side of the road. You can be a fountain for whoever passes by. You can be a lighthouse where the coast is uncertain. You can be a handrail, a park bench, an umbrella. You can be the voice that does not jeer, that calms, encourages, or thanks. “Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones will not lose their reward.” (Mt. 10.42) _____________________...

As evening fell, an earthquake struck, buildings toppled, and all through the city people were crushed and maimed. Into the streets came a medic, even as the light failed, moving among the fallen, through the evening and into the night. He blessed the dead and tended the wounded, giving his care, mending as he could. In such deep and frightening darkness by what light was he able to do such healin...

           God said, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”           God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love,           and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering           on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”                        —Genesis 22.1-2 Maybe it’s a story about God testing Abraham, to see if he’ll be so loyal that&#82...

I hear Dark and Light split up, went their separate ways. Apparently Light had a thing going with God and Dark was insanely jealous. He said, “I thought God and I were close. I mean, we knew each other long before she came along.” Dark got kind of stormy, slunk off to make his own way in noir movies and caverns and moody restaurants. Light painted a sunnier picture, and found solace in deserts and...

You are freer than you think. Some are less free than you, and you know it. Some are less free, and you don’t know. Someone sees how you are not as free as you think. Not yet. Somewhere someone is just now becoming free. Our freedom is linked, all of us. One’s freedom frees all; one’s oppression chains all. We have more choices than we think. God is the freedom that allows others...

           Those who find their life will lose it,           and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.                        —Matthew 10.39 A girl surmounts her fear of shame and failure and finds herself singing. What you cling to is your burden. A fellow gives away his lunch, and then his superiority, and is strangely satisfied. Ask the drunk: what you know you can’t live wi...

           Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?           Yet not one of them will fall to the ground           apart from your Abba God.           And even the hairs of your head are all counted.           So do not be afraid;           you are of more value than many sparrows.                                             —Matthew 10.29-31 They do fall. But into the hands of God, out of the sky...

           I have not come to bring peace but a sword.                       —Matthew 10.34 The blade is not violence, but discernment, separating truth from desire, refusing to “go along to get along.” The gospel of peace disturbs the powerful. Someone will object. But you needn’t thrust. You already have, with your upsetting mercy. Be careful: how smoothly the knives come out! It’s s...

Maybe the sin wasn’t tasting but possessing. Adam had named everything, everything in his own tongue. He had a handle on it. Except that one thing that wasn’t for him. All that goodness piling up around them— maybe wasn’t enough. Somehow instead of deep trust they learned to want everything. Kept picking bananas, among bananas going soft. In the distance, mountains unclimbed, unc...