Go back to square one!

At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, “Who gets the highest rank in God’s kingdom?” For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will embrace the fullness of God’s kingdom.”

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It is no easy task to return to the simple and elemental, because we have sufficiently made things difficult and complicated. Start by connecting with what is real inside you. Pay attention to what rises up in you through your deepest feelings. It is not necessary to add a bunch of religious words and concepts to it. Express it in your own words. When the Spirit opens up inside us and we touch reality, it can almost seem a little silly when we put it in the most natural words in which we experience it. Say it anyway in YOUR words! Don’t edit it with the nice-sounding theological jargon. Say it like a child would – simple and elemental.

(Photo by Darla Winn)