New questions!

 I had a surprising conversation earlier in the year in which God was blamed for taking everything away. Now I've since grappled with a Brueggemann book about psalms, and am a believer in the importance of lament, and know that God's shoulders are big enough for whatever we heap on them. So in many ways it is fine to blame God and maybe less damaging than blaming people or understandably easier than owning our own responsibility. But I still don't think that God is the cause of, or requires, our losses.

And so it was with much joy yesterday that I listened to someone much more knowledgeable than I describe 'listening theologically' and pose the question how might we know what is of God? The whole module was great and got me thinking about how our bodies might reflect inner thoughts, and how it's important to listen for the gaps in what people share. What resonated for me about my summer conversation tho was how we might discern if what is revealed sounds like God or not. If we believe that perfect love casts out fear, then is what is being claimed to be of God, speaking of love or fear? Is it offering liberation or bondage? Now of course losses can liberate, and spring from love, so God may well be calling us to let go. I see that differently than God taking from us.

And so I'm excited by new questions instead of my usual "where is God in this?" Or "what might God be saying?":

Where is love at work here?

What might freedom look like?

And I should probably get and read everything I can by Jane Leach whose wisdom I enjoy so much :)

You are/ I am enough

I've oh so nearly finished the Brene Brown book that's been competing for my attention for so long now. Just a few pages to go but each paragraph is so good I'm not managing to finish it as I keep wanting to reflect on what she's saying on shame resilience. The book is entitled 

I thought it was just me (but it isn't): making the journey from " what will people think?" To " I am enough"

Basically this is my wish for every human being - that they knew and trusted they were good enough and loveable. Brene's core message is that "we cannot change and grow when we are in shame and we can't use shame to change ourselves or others". Only when we are in touch with our self worth do we have the capacity and confidence to address whatever it is we'd like to work on in ourselves. Building our resilience to shame means we can be our more authentic selves, not needing to change how we present ourselves to the different people in our lives as we are instead content to be who we are wherever we are and who we are with. 

Imagine a world full of such contented people! So at home in their own skin and delighted with who they are, that there was no need for defensiveness. Such delight/ contentedness doesn't mean we don't still want to grow - there's always room for growth - but that springs from a place of self belief rather than self doubt.

Give me just a little more time and then if you want me to post you the book, let me know!