If There's Any Place Where

Our Tendency In The Midst Of Suffering Is To Turn On God. To Get Angry And Bitter And Shake Our Fist At The Sky And Say, "god, You Don't Know What It's Like! You Don't Understand! You Have No Idea What I'm Going Through. You Don't Have A Clue How Much This Hurts." The Cross Is God's Way Of Taking Away All Of Our Accusations, Excuses, And Arguments. The Cross Is God Taking On Flesh And Blood And Saying, "me Too.

To Elevate Abstract Doctrines And Dogmas Over Living, Breathing, Embodied Experiences Of God's Love And Grace, Then, Is Going The Wrong Direction. It's Taking Flesh And Turning It Back Into Words.

If Anybody Didn't Have A Messiah Complex, It Was Jesus.

You Can Be Very Religious And Invoke The Name Of God And Be Able To Quote Lots Of Verses And Be Well Versed In Complicated Theological Systems And Yet Not Be A Person Who Sees. It’s One Thing To Sing About God And Recite Quotes About God And Invoke God’s Name; It’s Another Be Aware Of The Presence In Every Taste, Touch, Sound, And Embrace. With Jesus, What We See Again And Again Is That It’s Never Just A Person, Or Just A Meal, Or Just An Event, Because There’s Always More Going On Just Below The Surface.

It's As If Thomas Kinkade And Dante Were At A Party, And One Turned To The Other Sometime After Midnight And Uttered That Classic Line "you Know, We Really Should Work Together Sometime.