“And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person at that gate seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies Not everything is lost.”
These four terms – Christian, Anglican, Episcopalian, and post-theist – are how I describe my religious identity. I choose which term(s) to use on a particular occasion depending upon context and what I want to communicate about myself.
Christian formation and identity for me were shaped not just by difference, but by contradiction and conflict. From my own earliest experience of church community, my family was out of sync with people in our church that we loved.
Grief is heavy. It drags one down like a burlap bag of scrap metal over one’s shoulder – it weighs down, heavy, and sharp metal ends – jagged, rusty tear-stained bits poke through the burlap and then the shirt into one’s fleshy back.
No matter how thorny your situation is, there is a way out. By looking in the high places, going where others do not go, and by observing whatever is around you… maybe just sheep and some scrub brushes… you can find an answer. Listen, can you hear it?