What’s left in your closet?
I've lost some weight this year. It's been mentally tiring because I've been examining my ideas about my body and my worth, and paying attention to what I fall back on in times of stress.
When I go to my closet I have two competing desires: 1) to pull out everything and stuff it into garbage bags; and 2) to hang onto the old clothes, "just in case."
Neither one's a very good idea, right? However satisfying it would be to just empty my closet and get it done, I'd wind up naked. And trying to wear clothes that don't fit is really uncomfortable.
Sound familiar?
The same thing can happen when you start dropping the weight of a religiously rigid upbringing. You start deconstructing your ideas (which can be both exhilarating and exhausting) and when you just can't anymore you grab them all up and throw them out.
It doesn't take long before you're standing in your birthday suit, staring at an empty faith closet, and asking yourself, "if none of the old stuff fits anymore (and I don't even know where to shop for what does), what do I believe?"
You have to treat ideas the way you do clothes: try on new ones with as much creativity and curiosity as you can, without jettisoning everything else too soon.
Coming this October, I’ll be teaching a course — live! — to help you do just that: try on your old ideas, see if they still fit, and offer others for you to test-wear.
Evolution and creation? Okay, let's see what happens.
Bible being true but not factual? Hmm ... maybe "the fall" makes more sense.
Gay okay to God? Huh ... that says a lot of other things too.
Registration for the course will open soon, but if you're in the midst of throwing everything out, or if you haven't started the process because you don't know how to begin, try this:
Imagine your effect on the world if you were clothed in well-fitting, life-giving ideas about God, yourself, and others.
You could be the glorious creature God intended you to be.
And I, for one, cannot wait to see that.