On coming face to face with the Bible

standing naked

it happens sometimes

you read

and prepare

the manuscript is there

the pulpit too

thank God

something to hide behind

but there you are

standing naked

with nothing to say

with everything to say

planned words meaningless and blurred

upon the page

(it really is time to get new glasses)

But more than that

faith blurred

spirit torn

no big reason

perhaps

just a week of talking faith

with people struggling with faith

walking with people through self-talk

so defeating

they can barely take another step

and there

in front of me

a book

“The Book”

so full of things that don’t make sense

love and fear

punishment and forgiveness

the good, bad, and the ugly

all mixed together

a person fully human fully sacred

one can get lost in those pages

and perhaps one’s faith too

in the end

I spoke

standing naked

and just said

"it doesn't make sense

the way of the spiritual

just doesn’t make sense

Its backwards, upside down

flat out weird

sacred and human together

win by dying...

this God, who the way presented

must have some sort of dissociative identify disorder

I don't understand it all

I can’t reconcile all the stuff in "this book"

But I do know

what I have learned is this

faith is about the experience we have of the Sacred

in us

flowing through us

it is about being connected with something, someone ???

big

something that is love

and it is about knowing that something is in me

and in those I meet

and it is about letting that something

shape the way I see

the way I act

and live

it is about letting the God (Spirit) in me

lead me

into ways of living and loving

that seem

perhaps

a little crazy

a little odd

happy are the poor?

happy are the mournful?

death is the way to life?

Yes,

Yes

somehow there is truth here

The book shares the story

our story

with all the confusion 

and 

at times immaturity

that comes with being human

the book shares the story

of a search for this something

someone

we call God

 

it wanders and meanders

sometimes it pulls us into the muck

sometimes it carries us to the heights

 the book is 

us standing naked before God

seeking to find

"the way"

but we will never find it with our heads

only our hearts

only our hearts

as we meet

as we experience

unconditional love

radical grace

at the center 

of who we are