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Each Wednesday I hop on a late-morning train and head to the office in central London.  It’s lazy commuting really.  A weekly keep-in-touch visit.  Relationship – even with colleagues – fades without face-face intimacy.

Born-again

The remit of the spiritual of faith.  All entwined with salvation, the gift of grace and eternal life in the company of all other believers – and God of course.

Someone mention my name … ?

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So that thought I just had – that “being-born again” happens to those who almost died … or did die and were brought back …  i.e. those whose life was cut-short except for “something” … how they seem to find a new enthusiasm and appreciation for life and living – an awareness of minutiae – a lack of sweating the small stuff – a connection with what we all regard as “mundane”.

And it crossed your mind that this all happens without the necessary mumbo-jumbo of religious “me and my kind”?  That being born-again is a universal – without having to say the right words or believe the right beliefs?

Yep.  And more than that – perhaps “being saved” is just that – a real connection and appreciation of being alive – being connected – being without fear – free of the usual worries and stresses – free to appreciate … everything!

And would it matter what I thought?  

Is it my seal of approval you desire?  That my saying “Yes Paul, you’re right.  Well done my good and faithful servant” makes your thinking okay?  Because if that is what you need of me – just how free are you?

You already know even without voicing your thought.  But as you have and I have joined in … What do you really think? 

That the words and beliefs are our creation. A mantra for our benefit – not yours. We need to believe because we believe that – on our own – we are not enough. All that self-absorbed “we are not worthy” stuff we teach in church.  A self-fulfilling prophecy.  A barrier to our own freedom – our own potential – our power of our own creation.
That “salvation” still leaves us bound and disabled – still not enough – still not worthy – still needing your grace freely given – needing your blood freely shed – still …

“Needy”.

Yet as a father I look at our children and simply want them to be free by whatever path they walk.  Now I am not so quick to judge – so ready to expect – now more happy to wait … Simply happy when they are so busy living they forget to keep in touch – happy that I am not their sole focus – that they are becoming “I am” – that we are family and will always be family.  Always connected through good times and bad – times of feast and famine – of need and of no need.  In fact – our family is “I am”.  And if I think that as a father of our own small brood – how can you not?

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Love you Paul.

Love you GSHJ.

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