Previously posted with TinyLetter

“My fellow pilgrims,

I go back and forth on whether or not to continue talking, writing, thinking about deconstruction in terms of our faith. But I look at my subscriber list and cannot help but acknowledge many of us are on the same route. We may be at different points in our pilgrimage yet the hope is our ending is one of a collective sigh. So, I will continue to write on deconstruction and its many, many layers. 

At this point, it is no surprise that I’m a Disney/Pixar fan. In fact, in one small group, I made people sit through Inside Out because I was (and still am) convinced it is one of the greatest Pixar or cartoons ever created. Case in point, another re-watch (thanks to Declan) opened up my eyes to another layer of its ingenuity. In one scene, Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong are trying to cross over to Imagination Land. They decide to take a shortcut through “Abstract Thought” – a place with a sign: Danger. Stage Two of Four in Abstract Thought is Deconstruction. In it, the character’s body fragments into separate sections, breaks down, and begins to fall apart. Intense.


Often, for me, this is exactly what Deconstruction of faith feels like. For many of us, the idea that our faith lives could even have this kind of full-body impact might feel surprising. It still takes me by surprise. However, when I think of the ways God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have shaped me, I am reminded that the very sinews of my being are held together by this Love and Mystery. They are the only things to have ever made life make any kind of sense. This scattering of sorts, then, is disorienting. I know many of us are not Deconstructing from the Trinity itself but rather the Church. Though, I find myself having to meticulously pull apart the pieces that Church tried to shove together with the Trinity – harmful theology and toxic leadership. 

Then there are times I read beautiful words to help me make sense of it all and I feel a force of energy so strong pull me together just a little closer to myself…

“Perhaps, as [Alan] Roxburgh suggested, the Holy Spirit has been nudging and calling Christians ‘to embrace a new imagination, but the other one had to unravel for us to see it for what it was. In this sense the malaise of our churches has been the work of God.’ . . . A church that has been humbled by disruption and decline may be a less arrogant and presumptuous church. It may have fewer illusions about its own power and centrality. It may become curious. It may be less willing to ally with the empires and powers that have long defined it. It may finally admit how much it needs the true power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. That’s a church God can work with.”
– Stephanie Spellers

The really beautiful thing about a pilgrimage is how, along the way, you take breaks. You have to. The breaks to eat, rest, recoup, and gather the energy needed for your next day. My friends who have done the El Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) told me of the 5-week journey that it is the most exhausting and most fulfilling thing they could have ever done. That stretch of land and time where your body is completely broken down along the way is also a place of deep healing. The rest found in homes and churches along the way means rest is communal. 

That is the kind of rest I hope to have with you all along the way, too. A trusted place to welcome the questions, tears, frustrations, fears, cursing, and even laughter. So, until it feels like it’s time to stop, I’ll keep talking Deconstruction. And I hope that’s OK. 

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Recommendations:

1. PODCAST: The Daily: The Burning of Black Tulsa

2. PODCAST: On Being: Tech Shabbat for everyone? – I loved this book by Tiffany Shlain and even better to have her with Krista!

3. BOOK: The Dutch House

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Namaste and Bike rides
xo b