There is sometimes a lot of noise on these blogs.  Believers are always under attack from unbelievers. The ones who really attack are called atheists.  Angry atheists. Savage atheists.  Ones that are abusive and rude.  Who attack the One believers love.  And there is a line in the bible that gets used as the reason for “attacking back”:

A den of vipers.

Jesus said those four words – and Jesus is THE role model!  So what happens?  Believers become snake killers.  Believers enter the den to confront the vipers – to “call them out” (whatever that means).

Jesus said lots of things if I read my bible correctly.  But more than the saying was the healing.  Was the meeting each where they were right then.  Accepting that I am me and I will be whatever I choose to be, I will believe whatever I choose to believe.  And he invited those who were curious.  There were so many who were not “vipers”.  And even for those who were not interested he said something: “Shake the dust from you sandals and move on.”

And he connected me with one of those vipers this morning.

Author of Confusion, Vi Rose La Bianca.  A quiet viper.  A thoughtful viper.  A kind viper.  A viper not a viper at all.

Just another you or me.  A human being.  One of us.  Because we are all human beings.  Another human being who had no choice in whether or not she got God as a child.  Just as so many human beings as children get no choice in the God or no-God they get given.  And then spend an adulthood reclaiming themselves.  It’s called free-will – the choice to choose. It’s called living – it’s called, I think, finding a safe place called Love.

I am tired of the noise.  I am tired with the having to be right or having to defend why I am NOT wrong.  I am tired of being a human being who has to be a certain type of human being.  A human being who believes right for some and, therefore, believes wrong for others.  I am tired of being asked what I believe so I can be judged as this or that.

So he connected me with one of those vipers this morning.

Vi Rose La Bianca may not agree with that statement.  And that is okay.  Because reading her words I feel a peace.  I feel a space of peace and quiet.  I feel no need to defend myself.  I feel no need to convince her she is wrong.  I feel no need to do anything more than enjoy the stillness and quiet.

But I do feel the desire to share her words with you.  To invite you see another human being just like you and me – and you over there.

I think this “viper” is one of us.  A human being just like me.  I think we are all one of us.  And I am tired of being told I cannot be one of us.  That I must be one of you.  One of them.  One of “something” in which Love is in short supply and “being right” is the only currency worth having.

So over to you.  You have the link.

Me … ?  I found peace and quiet as I strolled slowly through her posts.  And it changed my beliefs not one bit.  That is what I call a “safe place”.  And that is all I seek.

I think it is all any of us seek.

Isn’t it?

Paul

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