Day 30: A Great Cloud of Witnesses

This entry comes from Sleeper, Awake: 40 days of companionship for the deconstruction process.

While the faith journey often begins in community and is fed, formed, and nourished within it, each of us must face the “God issue” individually. It’s an intensely intimate undertaking, perhaps the most intimate of all: just you and the author of creation coming to grips with how your relationship will proceed.

It can be a lonely space, but in those moments of loneliness, try to remember you aren’t actually alone in the process of unlearning. The movement to reject limits on God is taking place across denominations and geographical boundaries.

Imagine for a moment that you are the one being searched for. Imagine if all those you loved cast off false impressions about you, and sought you earnestly with questions about what the truth might actually mean. How would you feel knowing a tsunami of beloveds were seeking to find you, to know you better, to love you without barriers?

I can only imagine how gloriously happy the creator must be that all this is happening.

You are a participant in that great cloud of humanity—past, present, and future—whose hearts yearn for more while fumbling through the details and questions. You’re not alone, and your questions have meaning.

The process of deconstruction must be engaged in individually, each of us grappling with our unique history and the individual wonderings of our hearts and minds. But there’s a cosmic quest underway, a consequential work of global magnitude.

And you’re part of it.

The sound of the genuine is flowing through you... Cultivate the discipline of listening to the sound of the genuine in yourself.

Howard Thurman