Uneasy with Easy Answers

For me, these days:
Being a Christian, is a
Challenge.

Not that my faith wavers.
But that my faith takes me to strange places.

To read the Bible with a critical eye.
Because parts of it were written by the winners.
Those who trounced others.
Who believed that some lives didn't matter.

To follow Christ into the world.
And Paul, too.
Both lived and died for the sake of freedom.
Truth and justice.
The qualities and goodness of love.

Jesus cared about people.
All of them.
So did Paul.
Paul understood Jesus:
A barrier-breaker.
No wall builder.

Paul understood that power is weakness.
A strange notion.
Power in the cross.
Power in self-emptying ...

Even as I write these phrases, they seem strange.
Because power as in Christ.
Is not how we we define it.
So, a challenge, for sure.

Day by day.
To live in Christ.
To ponder and to think.
Uneasy with the easy answers.
Troubled by harsh rhetoric.
Wary of those who too easily wear the Christian moniker.

Eager to learn.
To give heed to the news, for there, too, is God's hand.
To think justice, with the Prophets.
To care for water, air and earth.
The primal gifts of God.
To see all the Pharaohs for what they are.
To think globally.
To learn from others.
Creeds, traditions and faiths.

So, every day.
A challenge.
To be faithful.

To God.
To God's earth.
To God's history.
To the people.