Life's Mysteries

Tonight I had a fabulous dinner with a fabulous new friend (don't you love those new friendships where you can't get enough conversation into each breath?)...and she is struggling with the life questions that the rest of the world struggles with whether they have the audacity to sit and face it or not. She is facing them head on and feels bad about talking to me about it. Are you kidding me? I love to talk about this stuff!! Questions like: Why the hell am I here? What should I be doing if things don't work out as I planned? Is there A Plan? How do I get to be a part of a community? How do I follow God's call if I don't know what it is and am fairly convinced God has become mute? These are the questions that we don't ask enough while staring at our face in the mirror- and even less often enough in a community.

I loved my friend Kelly's insight when she basically put together the idea of a community with her search for direction- or calling- whatever you might call it. She recognized that she needed people around her to encourage her, to help her and to support her in her search and struggle. It felt like the right question. I think (I'm getting all Jesus freak people now) that Jesus was less about the right answers and more about the right questions. There are so many instances in the bible when Jesus responds to a question with a question- which I'm sure was super annoying... but I think he was trying to reframe the situation. The question: "what is my purpose?" may not be as appropriate as "Who do I travel with?" Or maybe "Whose am I?"

So this conversation with Kelly really inspired me to dig out those life mystery questions and think out loud, on paper about them. So we'll see how long this lasts- but this is what I can get excited about. It's not my own answers to the questions that I love- but the questions I discover hidden beneath the big questions. On this blog I'll express my opinion, but I hope that the compelling part will be that I thought about something, named it, circled it and swam through it. I hope the inspiring part will be that I came up with something that I can call my own and that it will be valid- not because it is "right"- but because I am a child of God and what I think and feel and believe are valid experiences through my relationship with God. No one may agree with me and everyone may agree with me... the exciting part will be- are we still asking?

One of my favorite tag-lines about God comes from the United Church of Christ's ad campaign that "God is still speaking." I freakin love this idea. God is still speaking. The bible is not a dead fish, my brain is not a library for resources, people are not voids to fill with information- God is still speaking-creating-loving-relating-being with us. That should rock my world. Kelly inspired me to let it again.

This is what she was getting to about community- people can inspire you or be the catalyst for something greater that you wouldn't have done on your own. That's why Jesus kept rambling about this body of christ community mumbo-jumbo. It's like- one of the best ideas ever. Marriage, friendship, book clubs, ladies night and festivals- these are all snapshots big and small of what God is going for in the church, and man does the church suck at it lots of times- but when the church rises to the occasion of being The Church- it is one of the most inspiring and beautiful things. Kind of like that kick-ass rainbow Kelly and I saw outside that seriously made a full arch- we could see the leprachaun and pot of gold.

I love me some good Jesus chatting. So here we go- hopefully I'll write a little each day about what I think (it's all about me in this blog apparently) about life's mysteries.... community, church, calling, jesus, the whole crucifixion thing, etc. Prepare to ask questions with me.