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I Believe

The various historic creeds fascinate me, and I have preached countless sermons and written different documents and reflections based on them over the years, but I am very wary of seeing them as extended shibboleths, guaranteeing entry into the Christian club, comprehensive lists of essential beliefs or as in any way transformative. I see them rather as historic windows on specific issues within the family of faith at particular times. Useful but only to a limited degree. I suppose that was on my mind when I wrote this a couple of months ago, but I didn't publish it at the time and the moment passed. But I found it again today when I opened a notepad I was using for something else and it resonated again, perhaps because of a news story today that has Jim Bakker, that paragon of Christian orthodoxy stating, in a pushback to the recent editorial in Christianity Today, that if you don't love Trump you can't be saved... and that only "saved" people love Trump... An interesting logical fallacy, although Jesus did say something about loving your enemy...

 I believe
not in a creed
not in a list
but in a life
a story
a story that changes
other stories
other lives
my life
not at a point in the past
but every day
a presence in the present
I believe
in love
I believe
I'm loved
I believe
I'm called to love
I believe
Even in the midst
of my unbelief.

Selah
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