Liminality

It seems everywhere I turn I am surrounded by another couple with a new born baby. Today I ate lunch at Cracker Barrel. Next to me was a two year old-curly brown hair-blue eyed girl. She was beautiful. Her baby teeth were coming in and she didn’t know how not to smile. Sitting forward in a high chair made no sense to her. She kept turning around and high fiving me at my table. Who am I to say no to such as request?! Sitting next to her made me start thinking about how simple yet freeing this child’s outlook on life was. I immediately thought about my six month old nephew and how he sees and interprets life. Children dream big. They live life big. They are completely submissive to their parents because they don’t have the ability to function appropriately to sustain their life, yet in the midst of their dependency they still find time to dream big. I guess it is because they have not learned to view life as scenery – as a simple back-drop while moving from one object to ...

The baptism of Jesus symbolized a new beginning. The world was forever changed and it was about to get a big dose of God for the next three years of ministry. But this baptism is so much more than a baptism; it is the blessing of a father and the pronouncement of Jesus as a child of God. When thinking about Jesus’ baptism, I have always wondered about this comment of a dove. This God-like Spirit. Honestly, I think it is strange. I believe this could be a reference to another popular story in the Bible – Noah. This dove symbolizes what was once chaos is now orderly. A new beginning is emerging. God is at work in the world and that which was chaotic is now being put to order. The baptism of Jesus fits this theme. A new order is at hand. The old way of doing life is radically changing. A new way of life is here. This is the same for you and for me. What was once a chaotic time in our lives is now being put to order. When we emerge out of the baptismal waters as full...

My last blog presupposes that we have all been disillusioned with whom God is and it gives steps to help cope with that. The big question raised and the question that I want to further here is, “Who is God?” My personal testimony has always clung nearly to God. I realized from an early age the importance of cultivating that relationship, and my life’s journey has been moving in that direction ever since. I went to youth group, on mission trips, FCA, etc. I was a camp pastor at age 20, youth minister at 21, seminary student at age 22 and pastor at age 23. It is hard for me not to notice that God is moving me along. But wait, wasn’t I supposed to have a wife by now? Didn’t God promise, if I follow as closely as I have, that I could experience love? Speaking of falling in love, I have made several friends along the way that share a strikingly similar testimony - not to mine but to one another. I have had both men and women look me in the face and tell me that they are wai...