Stubborn In The Right Direction

I am stubborn. Always have been.
This has been a bane and boon.

At great cost to myself and those I love, I’ve continued when I should have quit; when I should have repented.
But when it comes to love, I have been stubborn in the right direction.

I have pioneered a worn path, a testimony of a bright future.

As this world becomes more complicated, my world grows simpler, kinder.
As this world grows fragile in trust, I march steadily toward reconciliation.

In a world of churning absolutes, love is my certainty
…it’s my repentance.

Love is my burning heart and the way in which I am learning to walk.
It’s my dictionary, my interpretation, the answer to the question.

Love is my approach to crisis, confusion, loss, need, brokenness; it’s how I navigate fear, guilt, shame, and every other fruit of missing the mark.

Love is the lens through which I define justice, hope, mercy, grace, and forgiveness.
And also, The Law, punishment, wrath, separation, and bitterness.

Love is my approach to heaven, now and later.
Love is my approach to hell, now and later.

Love is my certainty; and how I repent…

Love informs my education, information, knowledge, ideology, and systems.
Love is how I navigate the scholar, and the experienced, the spirit-filled, and the fundamentalist.

Love is my approach to scripture, my hermeneutic, my method of interpretation.

Love is the God-Man on a cross reconciling the world to Himself not counting Adam’s or my delusions against us.

“Father forgive,” is my certainty, and my inclusion…

Love inhabits my passions, promises, and desires.
And my wanderings, disappointments, and confusions.

Love is my childhood and my old age,
my art and my intellect,
my union.

Love is my certainty, and why I repent…

Love is how I address politics, religion, culture, the news cycle, nationalism, the United Nations, COVID, Vaccines, flat earthers, and misplaced trust in corporations and government.
Love is my interaction with gun enthusiasts and gay rights activists, black lives matter, and all lives matter.
Love is my answer for the sarcastic cynic, the cruel hypocrite, the preacher, and the comic, the Church and Hollywood, the ‘for’ and the ‘against.’

Love is my certainty… when I repent…

Love defines my King as the greatest servant of all, and His Kingdom in the context of family and friendship.
Love defines my Master as the humblest of slaves, and His obedience as an obligation to kindness.
Love is my empathy and my compassion.

Love IS the balance,
it is my certainty,
it is my repentance…

Love is stubborn in the right direction.

Excerpted from my forthcoming book, Leaving and finding Jesus
CLICK HERE to Pre-

Dear, Desperately Seeking…

Earlier this week I received an email with a subject line reading, Desperately Seeking… I have received several emails in the last weeks like this one; full of questions about God and life and so, I posted this article with the questions and my response.

Good morning Jason,

I was introduced to your podcast by a mutual friend, _______, and I am absolutely loving it. However, I am more confused now than I was before I started and the questions are relentless as well as never-ending.

I will forewarn you this email will be abundant with questions…

Here goes nothing…

Why do we believe the Bible, how do you view and read the Bible, why are there so many different religions that seem to have similar ideas, do you believe in hell, what is it, who goes there, why do some oppose your ideas and why don’t they see it the same way, who’s right, who’s wrong, what and who should I believe. How about psychics who believe in Jesus, aren’t they similar to prophets, what’s the difference, how about the LGBTQ community, are they sinners and why aren’t they included in the kingdom, and the list goes on and on…

My apologies in advance for the questions, but I’m a seeker and need help with the answers, so I thought it best to go to the source. I belong to a non-denominational church that believes in heaven and hell and that no one can get to the Father except through Jesus and if you don’t (believe this), you are not saved. Those are the people who go to hell.

I love my church and my church family, and a lot of what they preach makes sense, but on the other hand, not so much.

I am grateful for your podcast and raising these questions, but I would love nothing more than guidance and direction to find the answers.

P.S. I am in the middle of reading your book, God Is Not In Control and it’s helping.

Thank you,

_________

Hey, _______. Great to meet you!

I love your pursuit of understanding, your search for Truth!

I have had many a conversation with folks over the years, fellow travelers who are chasing down the love of God, freedom, trust, and fulfillment. It’s good to be on the journey with you.

First, this isn’t an “answers” response, I don’t know that I could answer all your questions or that my answers would satisfy you if I could.

This is an, “I’m on the faith journey with you,” response.

Second, I think there are lots of great conversations on our podcast and great books written by the guests that would be helpful (as you have already mentioned). But as that is already available, I thought I’d share how I personally navigate the questions in my own life in hopes that will encourage.

I am convinced God is love, always good, looks like Jesus, and my only responsibility in this life is to grow surer in His love.

All my faith (belief/trust when I don’t have an answer) is placed in the perfection of Love; specifically, the self-giving love revealed by Jesus on a cross.

Any answers I do get along the way, or any resets of my theological thinking, have been the fruit of this one conviction.

God is love, always good (looks like Jesus reconciling the world) and I exist to grow sure.

This has empowered me to live often without answers to my questions. Or at least, without immediate answers.

The phrase I often use on the podcast, “I don’t know, but God is good,” is not just a clever statement of faith for me, it has often been a life and death statement of trust; especially when life’s disappointments, sorrows, and trials, or the anger and fear of peoples hate, weighs me down.

I am convinced God is love, always good, and my only responsibility is to grow sure in His affection. And I have learned that love is the long game, that all questions are answered, over time, through a greater revelation.

With that as my foundational starting place, my only certainty, and in light of some of your questions, I have learned that…

– over time, I can greatly value and read scripture without fear of finding an angry, disappointed, or condemning God within its pages. Instead, I have discovered Jesus in its pages. Because of my certainty, I am discovering a reconciling love that confronts any interpretation that is not about reconciliation. Along the way, God has introduced me to amazing friends, fathers and mothers, forefathers, and foremothers, who also approach scripture through the hermeneutic of Jesus and reconciling love.

– over time, I can trust that Jesus is able to step inside any belief system and reveal Himself; He is able to communicate His love in the language of our understanding. Therefore I don’t have to defend him, I can simply further discover and trust He is revealing Himself through me and His creation.

– over time, I can look at doctrines on subjects that once unsettled me, like eternal conscious torment, and discover God isn’t punitive, nor is He restricted by time and space, and nothing separates us from his love. Therefore I can live confident that hell isn’t some form of cosmic punishment. The more personally sure I am in the perfection of Jesus’ love, the more I discover God is reconciling all things, and while I may not know the answers to what happens after we die, I can be sure nonetheless in the perfection of Gods nature to work all things into good.

– over time, I can discover that I am not playing the “right or wrong” game, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the dualistic thinking game, No, I am playing the self-giving love game, the union game, the oneness, intimate confident hope game.

– over time, I can recognize what is true regardless of the systems, or the beliefs through which it is presented. Self-giving love is what is true, it is pure. Self-giving love cannot be confused or compromised, it is life and wholeness and righteousness itself. Self-giving love is the measureless revelation by which everything is measured.

– over time, I can love people regardless of how they identify. In Christ, I am not sin conscious, I am Jesus (reconciling, transforming, redeeming, freeing, love) conscious.

These thoughts may feel unsatisfying, naive, or even not fully developed, but my heart is you would daily discover the perfection of how He feels about you. I am convinced this will settle every desperation you feel. And along the way, you will discover life-giving answers.

As to knowledge, keep learning from those who are confident in the reconciling nature of love. I would recommend those we’ve had on the podcast, but I am especially fond of my dad, Lloyd Clark, Baxter Kruger, Brad Jersak, and Francis du Toit.

Blessings

Jason

Questioning My Answers / A Manifesto for Spiritual Searchers

A Manifesto for Spiritual Searchers by RANDALL WORLEY

This is the introduction to Randall Worley’s Book
Questioning Our Answers; A Manifesto for Spiritual Searchers.

You can download it for free at Randalls website HERE
You can learn more about Randall at www.randallworley.com

We also had Randall on our podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos

A MANIFESTO DEFINED

I am not going to assume that everyone reading this has a good understanding of what a manifesto is, so here is a working definition.

The word manifesto traces its roots to the Latin manifestum, which means clear or conspicuous. A manifesto is defined as a declaration of one’s beliefs, opinions, and motives. It is a document that an organization or person writes declaring what is important to them.

A manifesto functions as both a statement of principles and a bold, sometimes rebellious, call to action. By causing people to evaluate the gap between those principles and their current reality, the manifesto challenges assumptions and provokes change.

My Roots

I was born into the home of an Evangelical Pentecostal pastor. We were Evangelical because we believed in emphasizing the authority of the Bible, personal conversion, and the doctrine of salvation by faith in the Atonement. We were Pentecostal because we emphasized and practiced the gifts of the Spirit. My father was a devout and studious man and I owe so much to him for imprinting me with a love for the bible at a very early age. I want to be clear in the beginning, I will always have a deep appreciation for my heritage and still believe in the foundational truth I was taught. But even as a young man I had questions for which there was no forum. To raise questions in that culture about any of our beliefs would put you on a heresy list. So, for years I suppressed my questions.

Looking back, I realize that I have always had a nonconformist gene. I felt the “Go along to get along” and “don’t rock the boat” attitude was the dying whispers of complacent, compliant Christianity. I think Marshall McLuhan was right when he said, “every society honors its live conformist and its dead troublemakers.” I have been labeled over the years by some of my peers as a nonconformist and even a heretic because I have questioned many of the conventional ideas that I felt were sometimes mindlessly accepted. For a long time, I felt ostracized and insecure when labeled a heretic. Then one day I found encouragement after revisiting the definition of heresy. Simply put, the definition is, “an opinion that is profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted.” I felt that if everybody is saying the same thing then somebody is not thi9nking. Back then and now, my heart cry to the church I was a part of was, “Let my people think.”

Thought leader Seth Godin, in his bestselling book, “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us” said “Heretics are the new leaders. The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes and create new movements . . . Heretics are engaged, passionate, and more powerful and passionate than anyone else. Heretics are those who embrace an opinion, doctrine or practice contrary to generally accepted beliefs or standards.

It involves reaching out to others and putting your ideas on the line. (Or pinning your Ninety-Five Theses to the church door.)”

I have always loved progressive thinkers that challenge all I have thought to be true because they consistently reveal my unperceived bias. It may sound strange, but I’m learning to love discovering I have been wrong about some of my beliefs. Maybe one of the reasons we have trouble sometimes “getting our mind around” something is that our mindsets have been in the way. Is it possible we fear new experiences more than we fear anything because new experiences can displace so many old experiences?

I must confess, I have felt very alone for many years with my questions. Of late I am beginning to meet many that are tired of whispering about these issues. They have been waiting on someone to muster the courage to entertain them. Maybe you are among the searchers that feel you’ve lost your mind or even your faith. You’ve feared if you say what you really think you will be ostracized by your tribe. If so, you are reading the manifesto of someone that can empathize with you in your search…

This is the introduction to Randall Worley’s Book
Questioning Our Answers; A Manifesto for Spiritual Searchers.

You can download it for free at Randalls website HERE
You can learn more about Randall at www.randallworley.com

Free Download

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Randall Worley is an author, speaker, leadership consultant, and life coach. For 40 years he has traveled the world speaking in conferences, seminars, and schools inspiring his audiences to think progressively about the role of the kingdom of God in the world.

For more on Randall
www.randallworley.com