What beauty the world has to offer,
I want to be in it
Not because the world is dangling some enticement for me to leave God
But because God has dangled herself
out there in the world
The landscape that does not always make its way into the sanctuary
The air that is blocked due to the stained glass windows, which muralize God but hinders
our view of that which is living, breathing, suffering, hoping, looking up toward “us?”
“the church?” trying to find a way in,
God is out there
Even when I sit in my perfectly aligned pew or donned in the vestments of ritual and worship
God is multitasking, creating and creolizing, making things fungible, speaking mellifluously or thunderously
We need to experience God
that is not trapped in ritualistic rites
or portraits painted by one who
only sees God reflecting him
God in the world looks like me,
wide eyes of excitement and fear,
Outstretched hands helping and giving,
rushing from one thing to the next
From the balcony of South Carolina
