<One of the essential paradoxes of Advent: that while we wait for God, we are with God all along, that while we need to be reassured of God’s arrival, or the arrival of our homecoming, we are already at home. While we wait, we have to trust, to have faith, but it is God’s grace that gives us that faith. As with all spiritual knowledge, two things are true, and equally true, at once. The mind can’t grasp paradox; it is the secret knowledge of the soul. - Michelle Blake, The Tentmaker>
<…I was raised in a church... where I was told to believe and pray. And if I was bad, I'd go to hell. If I was good, I'd go to heaven. And if I'd ask Jesus, he'd forgive me, and that was that. And here y'all saying ain't no hell... ain't... sure about heaven. And if you do something wrong, you got to figure it out yourself. And as far as God's concerned, it's your job to keep asking questions and to keep learning and to keep arguing. It's like a verb. It's like... you DO God. And that's a lot of work. [sighs] But I think I'm in, at least as far as I can see it. I mean, maybe I'll learn more... and say, "f*ck the whole thing." I mean … but I wanna learn more, and I think I gotta be IN it to do that. You know, does that make sense? sh1t, did I just talk myself out of it? f*ck.> <Ask me again.> <[sighs] Can I be a Jew?> and the rabbi says, “Yes.”
