Beliefs

An Expression of My Faith

When I was a child, the God I was able to conceptualize was based loosely upon the examples of caring and nurturing beings that I witnessed day to day. Growing up in the church, I was always told of God’s love and care for me. God was described to me as a father: one who might sit me down on his knee and tell me a story. That vision of God has stuck with me, especially the idea of God as a storyteller. I now see God simultaneously as a divine Mother and Father. My Mother wraps me in her arms and comforts me when I am stressed. She is the creator of all things and she calls me beautiful. My Father reminds me of the love I am extended through him and to express that love to everyone I meet. He is my sustainer and my solid ground. This parent God is one of great care and compassion. They* are powerful and mysterious. They are creative and transformative. They extended their love to me through the gift of a child: Jesus Christ.     

This wonderful God has told a beautiful story of humanity, sin, grace, redemption, and resurrection through their child, and I feel blessed that this story reaches my ears. I recognize and claim this story as one that belongs to me, as well as the rest of creation. As the waves on a sandy shore rush over my bare feet and tickle my toes, as I hear the melodious laughter of children running and jumping on the church playground, as I see an artist's brush sweep vibrant color over a blank canvas, as I inhale the aroma of freshly baked bread: I know that I am in the presence of God. I feel the story of God as I engage my senses: I breathe the Spirit in and out, I taste the holy communion that is Jesus, I touch God’s creation and am reminded that it is good. I am amazed at the ways in which God uses our bodies and all of creation to engage our souls and minds. I cannot separate our souls from our bodies, and I find Christ to be a beautiful example of how they are inextricably linked. Jesus was miraculously born in human form, taking on flesh to represent the divinity made personal and available to us. 

I believe that the Spirit of God also moves through community and connection. I have witnessed communities as good stewards of the Spirit, demonstrating that we belong to one another: creation, humans, and God. In hospital visits, prayer shawls, warm hugs, listening ears, fair trade fundraisers, communal hymns, black lives matter marches, community gardens, baptisms, shared tears, pride parades, and potluck dinners, I have felt the presence of the Spirit. Sometimes, though, it can be difficult to recognize God at work in the world. I have witnessed times when communities, and churches specifically, have not extended grace, mercy, and hospitality; but rather have exhibited judgement, condemnation, and discrimination. My heart is heavy with the weight of the brokenness: both mine and the world's. I believe in a God who is with us still, even in our brokenness, and loves us all the more. I feel called by this God to help our church and our world find justice and reconciliation through Christ, who was crucified and died to be transformed into pure love and grace for the world by his resurrection.
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My heart is moved towards unity for the church and world universal. One of the ways I believe we work towards unity is through the sacraments of baptism and communion. Water and food are powerful pieces of human existence and can be a bridge for the often divided human race. Reaching across cultures and borders, these sacraments serve as an external symbol of the grace extended to us all by a God abounding in steadfast love. I see these sacraments and scripture as a way to connect with our God, who loves us deeply and fully; even before we could begin to know this God and even when we cannot fathom their existence, they are with us. I believe these sacraments, as well as scripture, to still be relevant and important anchors of the Christian faith that ground us as we seek to understand God in the ways that they are still speaking to us now.
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​Faith, to me, is a never ending process of growth and transformation with the aim to pursue God's truth and righteousness, always. I believe that one of the best ways to follow God and seek God’s peace is to pay attention to the divine spark in all of us, for we were all made in the image of God and are eternally and unconditionally loved by them. Showing this love to one another is essential, even to those whom we may struggle to love. I believe that God created humanity all equal to one another, but that we fail each other by seeing some people as more valuable than others. I pray that as God’s great story unfolds, we will witness justice, peace, unity, and mercy for all people. In order for that prayer to be fully recognized, I strive for openness and imagination to the ways in which God may use me (and the church) to be a force for transformative, creative, and redemptive change.

*I choose to use the pronoun "they" for God because it is pronoun that I feel most closely resembles God. "They" can be used either as a non-binary first person pronoun or as a third person pronoun, just as God is both one whole being and is three distinctive entities. The expansive nature of this pronoun not only invites us into wonder and amazement at the complexities of God, but is inclusive to the complexities of humans as well - especially in relation to gender.