Why “Dances with a Limp?”

You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken.  And the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved.  But this is also the good news.  They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up.  And you come through.  It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly – that still hurts when the weather gets cold.  But you learn to dance with the limp.  – Anne Lamott

If you are looking for evidence of God’s sense of humor – you’ve landed in the right place.  Had I lived in Biblical times, you likely would have had an easier time finding me at the well than in the synagogue.  Frankly, there hasn’t been a less likely candidate to share the Word since Saul of Tarsus.  And, there is where the comparison between the Apostle Paul and me ends.

If you are looking for “answers,” you might have landed in the wrong place.  I’m still on this journey.  My faith is battle-tested and genuine, but it’s not perfected.  It’s what William James (author of The Varieties of Religious Experience) would refer to as “second-born.”  In other words, my faith has been challenged (more than once) and the “first-born” faith – that naïve faith that has only experienced the sunshine – has given way to something edgier and more reliable.  I’m not the stereotypical “Holy Roller” or “Jesus Freak,” but let there be no doubt that my faith is grounded in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Regardless of what has broken your heart, – child loss, divorce, job loss, caring for aging parents, addiction, or one of the countless other losses that break our hearts – the main purpose here is to learn to dance with our limps.  To prop each other up as we learn to put one foot in front of the other.  To catch each other should we stumble.  To rejoice when one of us takes a spin around the floor.

So, if you are looking for a place to explore the edges of faith and hope, stay a while.  Join in the conversation.  Ask questions that will push us all to the outer boundaries of faith so that we can expand our faith together.  And if you just need a laugh – come hang out.  God’s sense of humor and keen love of irony will be on full display