jamie's wanderings

 There is a woman, the first woman in the book of John, that speaks to Jesus as he sits by a well in the heat of the day. We find out she has had five husbands, and the man she is with isn't her husband at all. She realizes who Jesus is and she is changed then and there and forever in realizing He is the real Messiah. I used to think I couldn't identify with her. I don't have 5 past husbands. 5 failures. Who knows, was she like King Henry, divorced beheaded died divroced behaded survived? The weight of that trauma. That pain. And in an instant, she was seen loved forgiven. But as I've moved through life, I realize I have had pain. Death of family and friends. Death of relationships I thought would be forever. A constant thorn in my flesh as my body thinks kidney stones are fun. And now, a string of clients young and old desperate to leave their countries and find peace. Their trauma is heavy to hear and I'm here to help them as they unpack it. But for me to do so, I...

  I just helped a little family of three find a place to stay for a month until a more permament rental comes available. They are young, not yet 35 years old, and they come from a place that used to be safe, happy and free, and now they have come to make a new life, a fresh start here in the town I live in. Their small daughter danced around with glee in their new place and I could see the tired overtake their eyes as they finally found a place to find peace. The idea that salvation and redemption are spiritual concepts reserved for the next life to come are far too limiting. For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a person of faith, and I do believe that salvation and redemption are given to us from God as gifts, if we ask. And sometimes, even when we don't. Jesus walked through life on this planet, and showed people that they could be freed, healed, saved from themselves and their situations and it was all then and there. He spoke a new Kingdom, that didn't look...

 To reduce Jesus's act of love on the cross to a get out of hell ticket is to reduce this amazing, glorious moment that marks history to a lottery ticket for all. It was not just salvation for the next life. It was not just His sacrifice for his friends. It was not merely a satisfying of God's wrath on sin. His death wasn't just because empire demanded it. It wasn't just the religious leaders that demanded it. The crowd screamed Crucify. And empire bended to keep to the peace. He did it knowing, that without it, we would never fully understand love and the sacrifice it demands. And now, we have weaponized Christianity. We have adored the cross more than the man who died upon it. We have focused on what the death paid for, rather than the freedom we have, and the Kingdom HERE NOW. We still want a King that rules politically, and instead he came on a small donkey, crying for peace, weeping over Jerusalem, talking about a Kingdom that's here and now but doesn't loo...