Today I wrote in an email response to someone about the first day of summer – “Time is flying by this year, but I’m enjoying allllll the daylight today.” And I am. I sure do love all the daylight of the first day of summer. As much as I hate losing an hour in the spring when we spring forward for daylight savings, I love when my evenings are well-lit with the beautiful sun (even if it might come with a 92-degree day). I love light. I love the light-heartedness of a bright evening (and in West Michigan it’s light very late into the day and that is awesome).
Some thoughts on this fantastic day full of alllll the daylight:
The perspective on the passage of the mustard seed shared in a sermon by #nadiabolzweber titled “It’s a Low Bar (thank God).” Tears may have started streaming down my face as I was reading her sermon. When she picked apart the Greek of the text it made me feel less inadequate compared to the years I had heard that passage before. I grew up thinking it always meant that I didn’t have enough faith. I have spent decades beating myself up for believing that I constantly didn’t have enough faith. But when you read the Greek, and look deeper than the English language, you get a deeper and more accurate meaning. A meaning that actually helps a person see themselves the way that God sees a person. It helps that person see themselves as adequate. It’s rather refreshing.
I have been trying to articulate the following thoughts for a while, and these thoughts finally formed into the shape of words and I wanted to write them out. Several people in my life, mostly the conservative evangelical type who feel all uncomfortable when something is out of their evangelical norm, question my faith. But I will say this… beyond a shadow of a doubt, my faith goes deep. My faith goes deep; even when people who disagree with my gay life might think that my faith isn’t big enough, or that my faith doesn’t exist anymore or at all. My faith goes deep when I think of my life journey these past several years when I was trying to figure out if God loved me anymore when I fell in love with the incredible human who is now my wife. My faith goes deep when I realize God absolutely loves me to my core and God makes me adequate. And no matter who might think that I have walked away from God, or walked away from my faith because of who I am, who I am married to, or what I believe… those people cannot be further from the truth. I know what I know. I know what my heart and my gut know. The peace that passes all understanding resides in my soul. Joy and contentment abound. It’s rather refreshing.
Two bright spots today that are as gorgeous as the sun on this first day of summer…
1. My faith goes deep.
2. I am adequate.
Onward.
According to Jolly 