Simple Holy Conversations

Sometimes simple conversations are the most holy.
Recently, I met with people that I admire and respect. They are people who I have met with sporadically, and we have work and personal history together.
And it was decided we should talk about death. Might as well take on something light and airy.

It is hard to summarize everything, but some of the questions raised were:
– How do we keep our personal faith when the church and people in the church are messy?
– Is a burial site important, when we know that site will be soon forgotten?
– What is the purpose of a funeral service and how does it help families and friends?
– How do we leave a legacy?
– How do we deal with our own grief in the aging process?
– How do we reconcile God’s plan for our lives and that we’re not simply puppets acting out pre-written script?
– What happens at death and why is dedicating someone to God important?
– How does God feel about assisted deaths?
– Where is it that we’ve seen God in our lives?
– How has doubt helped and hindered our walk?
– What about our children who aren’t believers or don’t show interest in religion?

Some of our thoughts:
– Don’t let the church get in the way of our relationship with God.
– Many of us are grieving changes in our churches.
– There is a big difference in what people do and what Jesus would do.
– Things of God are good.
– Doubt will or can exist during our on-going relationship with God.
– Funeral services are for the grieving and allows families to hear impact stories and stories that family didn’t know.
– Incidents in our lives, good and bad, have shaped our relationship with God.
– We can’t and won’t understand everything about God and death.

At Chapel this week we sang the song Defender by Francesca Battistelli. I thought two parts of the song, fit our conversation.

Even when we doubt and walk away from God, we are welcomed back:

When I thought I lost me
You knew where I left me
You reintroduced me to Your love
You picked up all my pieces
Put me back together

Our role is to seek God, be open to God’s love, in un-extravagant ways:

And all I did was praise
All I did was worship
All I did was bow down
All I did was stay still

Holy conversations often come from simple conversations.

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