“I Don’t Believe in God” and Other Engaging Posts From the Web This Week

2051842109Some of the good stuff I enjoyed on the internet this week:

* * * * *

I’m not blind to the hubris of comparing ourselves to Abraham and Sarah, but isn’t this in a sense, what scripture asks us to do; to enter into our own adventure, our own “wild dancing” with our untamed God, taking solace and courage in these ancients who are at once both our guides and companions?

* * * * *

I awoke in the middle of the night last week, restless after another trip down the hall to a child’s bedroom, my body rhythms out of sync for most of this year. I wasn’t thinking about anything coherent, was probably loosely formulating the next day’s schedule or replaying an earlier moment, when a thought dropped heavily as if from the roof and down through the ceiling fan:

I don’t believe in God.

* * * * *
It’s strange, how this all came at me. It came out of nowhere, like usual. And I’m just saying, it was strange, the whole thing. It happened at work, the place where so much of life does. And I wasn’t looking for it at all. I can’t tell you how much I wasn’t looking for it. I’ve been pretty comfortable all around, lately, telling you how free I am. And how free it all felt, what I’ve found.

* * * * *

When I got the email that she was gone, that the brain tumor she’d lived with for the past ten years had finally taken her, I was walking to the coffee shop where I write on Thursdays, my little boys dressed in their Halloween costumes, safe with their babysitter in my apartment. And I walked right past the coffee shop, straight to the park. I didn’t even think of climbing the tree. I just sat for two hours. I just sat in the rare San Franciscan sunshine and I thought about my friend. God, I prayed, open up the Great Hope to her. Right now. And I imagined what mystery my friend Elissa may have entered into. The sun shining down on me, the day before All Saints Day. The day we celebrate the ones who have already gone away from us, I sat in the sunshine and prayed for light.

* * * * *

Pastors, preachers, bloggers, professors, students, random questions from the audience, interviewers, friends, readers, reporters, podcasters, they want to know: how can I – me, who knows better! who hears the truth every day! who is the target of a lot of vitriol and push-back at times! –  possibly still be hopeful?

* * * * *

Finally, this: A lot of our churches, like Italy, aren’t growing. That is, they are not getting numerically larger. That’s a cause for some hand-wringing on our side of the ocean as well. But maybe, just maybe, we can learn a little something from the Italians about life at a slower pace and about accepting the hand we’ve been dealt.

* * * * *

You are nearing the light now, Nora.
Barely a woman when you brought
my father into this world. I wonder if
you wonder where oh where did my life
go? How did we all grow up so fast?
 
* * * * *
Anything get your attention on the internet this week?