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October Thoughts

Take a hike. Take a walk this time of year. All those leaves that were way up there just days ago are now underfoot. Kick them. Pick up a handful and smell them. Smell the story they tell you of change that is coming whether you are ready for it or not.

Do you know any babies? Nephew, neighbour, daughter? Hold her in your arms. Feel the weight and the warmth. Feel the story she tells you of innocence, of trust, of fierce love and protection.

Go to the kitchen right now and bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I'll wait 'til you get back. Eat one while it is still warm and soft and messy. Taste the story it tells you of richness, of home, of comfort.

Pick up the phone and call your favourite person. Get the answering machine. Listen to that voice and hear the story it tells you of friendship and happiness and connection.

Look another person in the eye. Someone you like, or someone you don't. In that moment of shared recognition, see the story it tells you of laughter or fear or community or loneliness.

You and I and all of us are citizens of a world that tells us every day that there is more going on than our senses can ever know. More and more, our once scientific, Newtonian, empirical culture is being replaced by one that encourages us to recognize and pursue our spirituality.

Problem is, too many of us do this without learning the first things first. Without learning the truth behind the spirit.

God says this, "...For since the creation of the world (my) invisible qualities--(my) eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

God wants you to know him, so he's made the physical world, your physical senses in such a way that the eternal, invisible and divine resonate and ring within you as you interact with the world.

But we have to start with the first things. The truths. Not 'almost truth' or 'truth plus', which are not truth at all. But with the truth.

John was a guy who knew Jesus, in his earthly life, better than anybody. He had seen the community of Christ followers grow from 12 guys stumbling over rocks and themselves and each other and over truth, trying to keep up with Jesus, to I don't know how many people, how many churches meeting in how many homes in how many towns.

He had seen too many people trying to follow Jesus with 'almost truth'. He had seen too many people get buried under layers of 'truth plus'. So he wrote them a letter. Set out the basics. Got them back to truth.

Read 1 John. It's near the end of the Bible. Look for the places where he says, "This is..."

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