Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come. – Song of Songs 2:11-12

After coming off a weekend that enabled me to be in communion with God, my brothers and sisters and creation in such a way I have not experienced in years, I determined that it was time to make some changes to this blog.

When I initially created it 16 months ago my focus was in a different place than it is now. I titled it “The Liminal Space” because that was in essence where my life was; hanging in the balance on a bunch of what ifs. Just read my first post and you’ll get a sense of where I was coming from. Truth be told my life was becoming a semblance of the title. Call me silly, but I believe that every time I looked at or posted on my blog, my subconscious was seeing “liminal space” and so I chose (without knowing it) to keep my life in that liminality. It was becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. I want to be clear and say again that liminal space is not a terrible place to be; it’s just that maybe its better to not spend one’s entire life there. At some point you have got to move on to a better place, I'm now choosing to no longer live in liminal space.

I have renamed this blog “Quest for Abundant Life” because it marks the transition in my thinking. My life is now all about that quest. It will consume my being. Anything that doesn’t allow me to truly feel alive will simply be abandoned and I will not exhaust my energy wrestling with those circumstances/folks any more. Jesus came to give us abundant life and I want to become alive again… maybe even for the first time.

But know this, that this aliveness in Jesus will look very different than North American Christianity, which is full of emptiness and fear. This aliveness will look more like indigenous and even non-Christian traditions, which we are beginning to understand are more rooted in the church than North American Christianity attempts to be. The best the North American Christian Church can do is imitate the secular, which feels like home because society has a firm grasp on the church. Which is why we must now walk away from it.

Liminal space is best illustrated as being in the hallway and not yet into the room that you want be in. The quest is illustrated as a roadway, it is a journey, which is the picture at the top of this blog best suits the new name. Maybe the self-fulfilling prophecy is true. Let the quest begin!

*Note: I will keep the site address the same to eliminate confusion; symbolically it may represent the transition from liminal space to abundant life. Also, note that sometimes the columns on the right may break as you scroll down the page. If this annoys you simply refresh the page or drag your pointer across the link. I decided that it too would be a reminder that we have to daily refresh our lives with the grace and mercy of Jesus.

Funny cough medicine faces... we all make them

When it comes to the church, have we offered a cure or relief? Do we want to be liberated or just medicated from our sleepwalking life? There has been some interesting comments on a post that I wrote a few weeks back. I hope more people can read it and join in the conversation. You can read the comments and post your own thoughts here.

Maybe these conversations will help us move from the realm of a medicated church, to an aliveness found in Jesus Christ. Oh man then maybe a conversion/transformation/healing/a cure could really start to happen. With God's help, of course.

The Happy Virus

I caught the happy virus last night

When I was out singing beneath the stars.

It is remarkably contagious-

So kiss me.

Maybe that's what our deepest felt experiences of God should be like.


- Selection is from The Subject Tonight is Love; 60 Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz. Transl. by Daniel Ladinsky.

A new way of living

“I long to be able to slow down. The pace of my life owns my life.”

“I long to be able to do something meaningful with my life, to make a difference.”

“I don’t want to be afraid any more - of what might happen, of what people think of me, of my life.”

“I long for a place where I truly belong, where I am loved and where I can love.”

It might be a common misconception but these longings are not necessarily satisfied within the context of the North American Christian Church. Otherwise, why would we continue to have these longings? If we’re honest we really aren’t free, we are slaves to the pace of our culture and the demands that it places on our lives. If we were free, we would be alive. This longing to become alive again is at the forefront of our being. Where will that desire interconnect with the world we live in? What is it that we long for? Where will we find it?

A Place Apart is a place where the new way of living,

the new way of being alive introduced by Jesus Christ

and empowered by the Holy Spirit

can be experienced and participated in.

My wife and I will be at Camp Mack this weekend to participate in an experience called A Place Apart. The weekend retreat is an immersion into what life at A Place Apart seeks to be. I plan to blog my experiences from each day once we get back on Sunday. May my longings be met in that space.

"We don't think ourselves into a new way of living,

We live ourselves into a new way of thinking."

- Richard Rohr