Can we make the case that recreation is good for our soul? That a change of scene rejuvenates us? Strengthening family relationships while vacationing builds strong bonds? We can demonstrate and spread our faith elsewhere? We can establish Christian community in other places?
THE MAGAZINE Several years ago, I read a piece in a major daily publication about the reemergence of excommunication among mainline Protestant denominations. “Thank
Like a Chinese inside-painting bottle, we humans hold the Holy Spirit inside us as individual temples. We each have this beautiful image being painted inside of us by God and spirit. And in a way, the painting is being painted backwards because what one first sees in an encounter with any human being is only the tip of the beauty-iceberg, only the few first strokes of a detailed painting God is working out by applying layer after layer of paint, in thousands of colors, one hair-stroke at a time, backwards.
But sometimes He is just the God of carrying on. It’s the work of the saints, and of sinners like us. It is the heroic work of following Jesus to bear our scars and to carry on.