“Know your role. Stay in your role. Star in your role.” (Doug Collins, American basketball player and coach

I’d like to share two conversations I recently had with the Spirit.

No, The Sacred Other and I don’t regularly sit around and chat, but I do pray and I often listen. And, when something comes from outside of yourself, a thought you wouldn’t have had on you own, I believe it’s Spirit.

Conversation One:

Over the last couple of years I have become friends with a fellow that reads the King James Bible exclusively. And I do mean exclusively. According to him, all other translations are potentially harmful and the KJV is the only true bible.

I on the other hand. believe the KJV is actually a pretty poor translation, and has some harmful cultural bias in it from the 1600’s. Not to mention the fact that it’s hard to read.

So, I was riding down the road the other day and I prayed, “Lord, how can I help Tommy? I don’t know what to say to him about his thing with the King James.”

And it came, “Why to you think you have to help him. I like him like he is.”

Conversation Two:

It likely comes as no surprise to anyone reading this that I am not President Trump’s biggest fan. In fact, I believe that whenever you see a list of things that Jesus tells us to beware of, Trump usually checks them all.

Because my feelings are no secret I got an email from another friend that is trying to organize a faith based response to MAGA. It read in part, “Folks, we really need to get together to talk about how to counter the messages of division and hate being sent by our neighbors and friends… I have tried to ask questions and reason with some of my more fundamentalist friends regarding their comments. I’ve made little or no headway.”

So, I was walking down a mountain trail the other day and I prayed, “Lord, what would you have me tell my MAGA friends?” And it came, “Tell them I love them.”

Hopefully y’all are picking up on this not being a “Here’s what you need to do,” essay. It’s me putting it out there that I’m getting in my lane, and I want to do my best to star in my role. Sharing God’s love.

James Finley of the Center for Action and Contemplation teaches a concept that I find extremely helpful. He says that if we could be interiorly awakened so that we could see what Jesus saw, we’d see God all around us because Jesus saw God in all that he saw. It didn’t matter whether he saw the joy of those gathered at a wedding or the sorrow of those gathered at the burial of a loved one. It didn’t matter whether he saw his own mother or a prostitute, whether he saw his disciples or his executioners or a bird or a flower. He saw God in all, in everything.

So, as Bob Marley said, this is my message for you. Those of you that read the KJV exclusively, and those who are biblical scholars. It’s my message for Proud Boys and Democratic Socialists. It’s for those whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower, crossed the Bering Strait, endured the middle passage, or maybe they recently snuck across the Rio Grande. It’s for those who talk to Allah, those who are sure to end prayers “In Jesus name,” and those who have no intention of ever praying. It’s even for our four legged, no legged, and winged cousins.

God so loved the world. That’s you. And everyone else.

That said, I’ll leave it to y’all to figure out what you want to read and who you want to vote for.