A priest in Lalibela (sacred site in Ethiopia), where art mingles with faith

Someone whose opinion means alot to me has challenged me a little (in a gentle, supportive way) , suggesting that perhaps in the initial writing of the contents of this site, I did not sufficiently acknowledge the place of God/Creator/Higher Power as the giver of all gifts. My first response to this person was “But I want this site to be a comfortable place where people of all faith perspectives (or lack of them) can feel comfortable exploring and sharing and engaging with each other. We are all uniquely gifted, whether we have faith or not. And besides… I’m a little jaded – and perhaps a little wounded – by some of the judgement and narrow-mindedness I’ve seen in some people who write about and/or talk about their versions of God, and I don’t want to be that person.” (The other thing is – just as my personal blog is called “fumbling for words”, I have on occasion referred to myself as “fumbling for faith”, so I don’t want to appear to be an expert on a topic that still puzzles me.)

After considering it for awhile, though, and engaging in a healthy back and forth with this person, I realized there was some wisdom in what was being said. Helpful critique is, after all, an important part of the creativity and “giving away” process.

So I went to the library one lunch hour to sort out my thoughts, and decided that I needed to explore how faith has impacted the shaping of this site. Because I want to be authentic here, in the end, I decided to “put myself out there” a little more.

This, then, is what I believe:

- I believe that there is a creator God who shaped us in his/her image to be creators and dreamers and seekers and lovers.  (Incidentally, I don’ t think this God can be narrowly defined by our understanding of gender – hence the his/her. I don’t know of a better way of saying it.)

- I believe that God is fundamentally a God of love and that in all we create and in all the ways we serve each other and make sacrifices for each other, love is to be at the centre. (And as an aside here… seriously? Can we quit all the arguing about who should be entitled to live in loving relationships and just get busy doing some radical, world-shaking loving already?)

- I believe that our creator God is also a God of beauty and justice (which are all part of love), and that we are called to seek, create, foster, and imagine a world where beauty and justice are evident everywhere. (Personally, I think God gets a little giddy when we honour our calling and beauty and justice emerge.)

- I believe that God is a little like a mountain – we may stand on different sides of that mountain and have quite different perspectives and beliefs, but that doesn’t change the mountain nor does it mean that one view is more right than the other. (I can’t take ownership for that analogy – when I lived in the mountains, a wise friend shared it with me and it has stuck with me since.)

- I believe that our creator God longs for us to live in greater harmony with all of creation and that to assume we have some kind of inherent right to destroy/pillage/abuse that creation just because we’re the “image-bearers” is just plain wrong.

- I believe that when we treat each other with love and respect and we honour and protect creation, we reflect the beauty of God into the world.

On this site, I am not asking you to believe in the God of my understanding, nor will I ever try to convince you that God exists, but I want to acknowledge that within my personal belief system, I am creative and gifted because I have been molded by a creative, giving God. I won’t apologize for that, but at the same time, I won’t reject your contribution to this site if your faith takes a different shape (unless your submission is somehow trying to convince us of the shape of your god).

Blessings to all of you fellow seekers on your journey.  Thank you for joining me in mine.

(For a little more about the “God of my understanding”, click here for a poem I wrote on the subject some time ago.)

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