About

For a long while life fit in a container, but then something curious started happening.

I began to see other people around me. Their circle was wider, their life experience different, and I wasn’t at the center of everything. Is that OK?

My container began to crack.

I saw people whose faith was different than mine, but the fruit of their faith smelled better.  With all this “Us” versus “Them”, maybe I was the outsider after all, instead of the people who didn’t look or believe like me.

Soon all the rebar in my concrete faith foundation was seemingly jackhammered out one by one: I was deconstructing.  A better name for it might be Unbundling (see why here).  

Casa de Maria, Montecito, CA, after the 2018 mudslides. Photo by the author.

I seemed to be entering what Richard Rohr calls the second half of life:  “Most people do not see things as they are, rather, they see things as they are.”   Whoa.  Then why is everyone acting like they have the sure explanation and ‘the others’ are wrong?  Where is the mystery, the nuance, the humility in all this certainty? (see Stained Glass)

I’m not searching for something new, but instead hoping to reignite something old. The Jesus I grew up hearing about was constantly challenging the religious establishment of the day, smashing containers, urging his beloved creation to open their eyes wider, and telling them that all the rules they fussed over could be summed up in two:  love God and love neighbor.

How did it all get so complicated?

Is it possible to find the joy of faith without becoming the religious establishment?

I could go on… and I am, that’s what this writing adventure is all about.

Looking for a place to start?

See Unbundling My Bias or  The Haircut