It almost doesn’t matter if that fire is going to judge and destroy or illuminate and reveal; it’s going to be hard either way.
What if we admitted we’re all afraid? It takes real courage to do this. It’s a radical move, which is why fear and not hate is the opposite of love.
“Get it straight, before the voice comes to your house and says, ‘you fool, tonight.’”
We pray in order to be, to be in the presence of God, being transformed into the likeness of Christ, and that the miracle we get from prayer is God’s presence and God’s hearing us, not a particular outcome. And though that understanding lives somewhere in my heart and in my soul and a big place in my mind, the truth is that prayer remains a mystery for me.
The kingdom of God is real. What if we choose this story? What if we tell this story to ourselves and to everyone we meet on the way, and to every house we enter, and at every meal we eat? What could it look like to live inside that story, to imagine a world where the harvest is plentiful, where we all get to be there, where the wolves and the lambs lie down together?