God of Paradox - Poem and Painting by Margot Jurgens

 This is part of an on going project to improve in both my painting skills and my poetry writing skills. I don't know if these will make it to prints on my new Website or not. I suppose if you are interested in seeing prints created let me know and I will happily add them for you. I am embracing imperfection and all of its interesting beauty. 

I've been working though a book called Writing the Sacred by Ray McGinnis. I am currently to chapter three. Where we are looking at Psalms of Thanksgiving and Praise. 

The first question is "How would you like to name God in your psalm?" 

I am currently mystified by the Paradox that I see all around. "a paradox is something that initially appears to be inconsistent or contradictory, but might not be a contradiction at all inside of a different frame or seen with a different eye." Richard Rohr from  The Naked Now - Learning to See as the Mystics See.  To say the book has been an eye opener would be an understatement.  I have also been listening to the podcast called Learning to See by Brian McLaren. 

After some thirty years of aligning myself solidly with in the Evangelical and Charismatic camps of Christianity I find myself looking for a broader more inclusive lens by with to see God and the world they the three in one lovingly created. I look to the Trinity as a key to this transformation. I look at paradox and rather than being so sure of everything I profess to believe I am choosing to simply follow in the footsteps of Jesus who gave sight to the blind and aligned himself with the marginalized.  To accept my humanness while walking in the Spirit. I'm sure a younger me would call the me of the present a heretic. Like the transformation of caterpillar to butterfly there is a stage of goo within the cocoon that is the unformed beauty of what will be.  I am choosing to echo Thomas Merton in his prayer that says "My Lord God, I have no idea where I am  going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And that you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, thought I many seem to be lost in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. "