We continue our slow walk through Samaria this week and will discuss our union with God Almighty more. We previously discussed how sin is "missing the mark," and—said another way—"the mark" (or the bullseye) is union with God.
Last time we were together [Yeah, I know, it's been a minute. Welcome to my life of being inconsistently consistent.], we stretched ourselves to read with curiosity, a Christ-centered justice, and the desire to courageously co-create beauty with Him. We focused less on "the answer" and more on considering perspectives and then aligning those perspectives with what we know about the character of God. We are practicing this because, too often in Christianity, we are told what to think instead of how to think. We rush to the conclusion and application and don't appreciate the journey.
I've wrestled with this text. Not just these few verses but trying to keep the narrative together while still calling out the essence of John's viewpoint in small snippets so we can meditate on it.
I recently wrote a blog entitled The God of Darkness. When I hit "publish," I knew it was from the depths of my soul. I wrote it "from the other side" after a long season of disorientation. It was also one of the few blogs where I received an unusual amount of emails and texts in response because some of those individuals who read it had been or were going through a similar season.
These last couple of years have been what I would describe as a "dark night of the soul." It has other words, although none were in my vocabulary during this season: Disorientation. Deconstruction of faith (not my belief in Jesus). Darkness. Disruption. It isn't depression in the emotional sense; it is spiritual, and I've found it quite common in believers who seek Him.
I shared some reflections a few weeks ago. Although I've been a Bible learner and disciple of Christ for many years, I do not yet have this walk figured out. It's filled with missteps and mistakes, and even when I re-read some of my prior posts, I can see how I could have represented the truth more fully and adequately. It is humbling to know that God still brings truth even in our tiny bit of understanding.