I was in a session with my coach yesterday when these words came out of my mouth:
I am living slightly unprecedented and it feels so good.

Those words concerned me…

“I am enough” can be the verbal equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears and yelling “la la la la la… everything is fine!” while the house is on fire.  And, no matter how many daily affirmations you say to yourself in the mirror, those liabilities aren’t going away.  In that striving to convince ourselves and others that we are self-sufficient, we drive ourselves into physical and emotional sickness.   

It’s possible to take in soundwaves through your ear canal, have them register on your ear drum and never actually hear what another person is saying. So much of our breakdown today is this, not hearing one another. We then make up all kinds of things about the other person based on what we think we heard. Abracadabra – division.

It’s tempting to live life reacting to what you don’t want, but it will never actually get you to the destination you are called to. It’s like driving through live, but only looking in the rearview mirror - you are destined for an accident. Being certain about what you don’t want is not the same as being certain about where you are headed.

When things feel grey, out of our control or unpredictable, the human spirit works overtime to move us towards certainty. We would rather know the truth in its entirety and be absolutely unshaken in our version if reality than live in the tension of life. So we move to polarities: everything and everyone is either all good or all bad. Communities are categorized into predictable boxes, and are expected to stay there. We become experts on the experts and declare our version of expertise to be the real expertise.

For me, this season has been filled with moments of rage. Never before in my life have I been more explosive with my emotions and reactions. Big things, little things and everything in between set me off in ways that are completely new to me.

In many ways, this pandemic has just revealed a deeper internal yearning to live a life that is free. Masks, restaurants and gatherings are just external representations of what I believe is a core longing in humanity. I wonder what would happen if we started having a conversation about that before we debated how many should gather for Thanksgiving.

I believe one of our greatest spiritual abilities as human beings is to imagine. No other creature on the planet has this very unique attribute of God himself, and is part of what makes us Divine image bearers. 

To say that this political season has been tumultuous would be an understatement. I’ve watched families literally split apart over how they will be voting, and thanksgiving tables may hold a little less gratitude this year. Here are some thinking traps that you might find yourself easily ensnared in after this election.

I often resist the complexity and intricacies of life and relationships. It’s easier to live in the either/or. The fact is, “&” makes things complicated. It forces me to slow down, look, and take in all the nuances of who and what is out there.

If you hadn’t heard, there is an election happening in a few days. For many, it feels like the world has been spun into utter chaos with extreme opinions flying, heated social media wars, and families divided along political lines. How do we engage this moment as a community of faith? Here are four things to do before you vote.