what if God is real?
what if God created all that is?
what if God created humanity in order to be in relationship with us?
what if God really did walk with those first two humans in that first garden?
what if God came to earth through the womb of an unwed teenage girl and was born in an animal stall and was hustled back and forth over borders in order to escape genocide by those in power?
what if Jesus walked and talked with some of his society’s most marginalized people?
what if the unnamed woman in Luke 8:40-56 did touch Jesus in such a way that he felt power go out of him and she felt immediate healing?
what if that same power is available to us?
what if we can pray in such a way that Jesus is affected and we can be healed?
what if healing isn’t about the end of bodily disease or mental illness but rather can be manifested in inexplicable peace in our souls even though our bodies are still racked with all the things that bodies are racked with and our minds still move in ways that baffle and unsettle us?
what if soul care, soul healing, and soulful living are possible even though the earth around us is being tossed hither and yon by the winds of injustice and violence, fear and anxiety?
what if there are ways to find peace in the midst of the storms of life?
what if God is present with us in the valleys and shadows of life?
what if we are never, ever alone?
what if God is present with us, even when we have abandoned ourselves?
what if, at those moments when we are certain that we have been abandoned by God, what if we could turn to one another and ask to be carried and loved and cared for until our soul wounds can be tended enough and healed enough for us to carry, love, and care for ourselves in ways that give us new leases on hope?
what if we leaned ever more fully into creating a community that makes such trust and safety and vulnerability possible?
what if cultivating the quiet seeds of that kind of beloved community were a common goal that we all laid claim to for the remainder of this calendar year?
who could we become?
what could that kind of beloved belonging look like and feel like?
where do you see yourself involved in this endeavor?
when would this kind of intentional engagement be most needed?
how much more deeply could we be connected?
why not begin today?
what if???
