beginning thoughts

I've been thinking a lot about death and resurrection, how it lies at the heart of living. Of course you can point to all the natural illustrations, winter into spring, seeds into flowers, the death of an idea and the birth of a new one. But on another level human maturity comes at the death of certainty. We praise the simplistic solutions of youth, and they are inspiring with their clarity and simplicity, but we don't operate on that level because sooner or later we come to mistrust the simplicity--they don't encompass all the complexity of life. We would like to assume that with our increasing maturity we could handle the increasing complexity, but soon even that outstrips us. To imagine that we still control it all is illusion that sooner or later makes us out to be the fools we are. But to die to my own capacity is redeeming--it allows space for community, it allows room for honesty, and ultimately, it allows place in my life for the experience of God.