Rainy Day Reading

From Rick McKinley (pastor of Imago Dei in Portland--get the podcast at iTunes. You won't regret it) in his book Jesus in the Margins: Finding God in the Places We Ignore:

"When we have given up on the idea of being loved and accepted for who we are, we go after a generic brand of love--something to medicate the pain inside our hearts. We may try one-night stands, look for it in pornography, or pursue the fleeting freedom of alcohol or drugs. We may even use busyness to fill the void. Staying busy at church so we don't have to cope with lonliness is another way people in the margins polish up their pain so others will believe they have it all together...

...Jesus has been chasing after marginalized people like you and me for hundreds of years. His invitation is simple: 'Trust me when I tell you I love you and trust me to help you reimagine life in My love.'...

...The destructive power of the margins lies in their ability to convince us to be comfortable in our numbness. The margins weaken our desire for a better life. If we feed our love-hungry souls with those counterfeit vices, we're likely to stay put. C.S. Lewis observed that God finds our desires too weak, not too strong. We fool about with sex and drink while infinite love awaits us. We're like children in the ghetto making mud pies because we cannot fathom what a holiday at the sea would mean."

And I think about the ways I busy myself or escape for a while...
And I think about the ways I try to get others to believe I have it all together...
And I think about how I polish up my pain...

And then I try to re-imagine my life in His love...
And then, for today, I'll try to stop making mud pies and try to fathom what a holiday at the sea will mean.

I'm glad to be back in the reading saddle. I can tell you that.