The Dangerous Taste of Hope.

"Signs of Emergence" continued.

...if we are seeking the new, then what we were practicing was the old, and therefore God was not in what we were doing anymore.

Such a divine departure is rightly shocking to us. We see an example of it described in Ezekiel 10: God ups and leaves the temple. "No temple, no place, no people, no box, no church, not agenda, no theological position will ever require me to stay where I am don't want, be co-opted into something I only half agree with, be pressed into the service of some cause you made up because I am who I am."

We believe that there is no box that God fits all nice and tidy into...There Is No Box!

To admit that God can and will leave is to allow the dangerous taste of hope into otherwise stagnant waters. It is to admit that the life of the disciples is not sedentary but nomadic - moving on to where sustenance lies, not staying where sustenance once was. It is to appreciate that the journey of faith is not a static conversion but an evolution of the Spirit. The very fact that God can move on means that hope is possible. That we are not stuck with what we have. That this isn't it.

We are beginning to move on, to let go of the side of the pool, to wade into the deep. We at times seems to live, move and be in this place between where sustenance was and where sustenance is. We must keep moving forward rather than lunging back in times of uncertainty. Aren't you glad that in all areas of life, that this isn't it.