Blog

Jesus did not protect God behind religious language, institutional power, or spiritual credentials. He communicated God in the open.

He spoke in stories pulled straight from ordinary life—farmers and seeds, women baking bread, laborers waiting for work, fathers and lost children. He refused to make God a technical subject that only trained professionals could interpret. Instead, he translated the deepest truth of God into the shared vocabulary of human need, joy, failure, hunger, grief, and hope.

In doing this, Jesus effectively “open-sourced” God.

No gatekeepers were required. No insider status was needed. No spiritual license had to be earned.

God was no longer controlled by temple systems, purity codes, elite theology, or moral ranking. God became accessible in public—in kitchens, fields, boats, street corners, dinner tables, and hospital rooms. Anyone could recognize God because Jesus described God in terms of what people already knew: forgiveness, welcome, repair, mercy, persistence, and joy.

Even more radically, Jesus did not only talk about God. He handed the work of God to ordinary people. “Heal the sick.” “Feed the hungry.” “Forgive one another.” “Love your enemies.” God’s life was no longer locked inside sacred buildings or authorized leaders. It was released into human relationships.

In Jesus, God is no longer a closed system.

God becomes participatory.

This is what makes the gospel so unsettling to religious power and so liberating to everyone else. If God can be encountered anywhere mercy is practiced, dignity is restored, and power is shared—then no institution can own God.

Jesus did not simplify God.

He made God shareable.

Walking humbly with God often involves active inaction … God show me how you wish me to be still that I might hear you and be guided by you 🙏 help me to know when inactivity is fear in disguise of prayer.

Help me to know when activity, doing and going are hubris and help each of us to know, especially help me to know when to move, how to move, where to move, that I might stay with you in thought, prayer and action. Thy will be done in me and through me 🙏

Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

There is no question that we are each beloved by God. The deeper question is whether we are brave enough—and humble enough—to receive such love from the Holy of Holies. Divine love does not arrive as flattery or reward; it comes as an unveiling. To accept it is to consent to being known beyond our defenses, beyond our striving, beyond the story we tell ourselves about worthiness.

The mystics remind us that God’s love is not earned but endured. As Julian of Norwich wrote, “The greatest honor we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love.” Yet this gladness requires courage, for love exposes us to transformation. Meister Eckhart speaks to this inner poverty when he says, “God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.” To receive God’s love, we must loosen our grip on control, achievement, and fear. Teresa of Ávila echoes this holy vulnerability: “The important thing is not to think much, but to love much.”

Scripture bears witness to this same paradox of bold humility. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18), not by overpowering us, but by inviting our consent. God’s nearness is not coercive; it waits at the door of the heart: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Revelation 3:20). And when we dare to open, we discover that love has always been seeking us first: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us” (1 John 4:10).

To accept divine love is an act of quiet heroism. It is the humility to stop proving, the bravery to remain open, and the faith to trust that being beloved is not a future achievement but a present truth. The Holy of Holies does not demand our perfection—only our willingness to receive.

Loving God, surround me now in my worry and wondering that I’m not enough, in my desire to achieve, in my wanting to have things certain ways… May I be transformed today, each day but especially today to open myself to the love you are pouring out for me and allow your love to guide my moments today to love others in the ways they need, the ways you will. Thy will be done, Thy will be done in me, through me, around me, until nothing is left but you! Amen.

A Check of the Heart

Leaders—and those who long to lead—are invited first to tend the soil of their motivations. What often begins as genuine service and love can quietly bend toward performance, recognition, and the hunger to be seen. Scripture gently interrupts this drift: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3).

Humility before God is not self-erasure, but honest alignment. It is the courage to lead without needing applause, to serve without keeping score, and to trust that God sees what remains hidden. When leadership flows from love rather than image, it becomes spacious and life-giving. In God’s presence, we release the burden of proving ourselves and rediscover the freedom of lifting others up.

Prayer:

God of truth and mercy, search my heart. Where service has become performance, gently realign me. Teach me the quiet strength of humility, that I may lead from love, honor others freely, and rest in being seen by You alone. Amen.

Loosening the Grip

Jesus reminds us that wealth can make the heart heavy—not because possessions are evil, but because they tempt us to trust power, status, and control rather than love. The kingdom of God opens when our grip loosens and our lives become lighter, more available to compassion and grace.

Ways to reorient the heart:

1. Practice hidden generosity – Give in ways that bring no recognition. Let generosity retrain the soul to trust God rather than abundance.

2. Listen to those who seem to have less – Spend time with those who have less power or voice. Let their stories disrupt political certainty and soften judgment.

3. Name your true security – When anxious, say aloud: “My life does not consist in what I own or influence.” Let Love redefine safety.

4. Fast from dominance – Step back from arguments, outrage cycles, or the need to be right.

5. Choose mercy over winning

6. Simplify one attachment – Release one habit, luxury, or control that quietly claims your allegiance.

A prayer:

God of love, free my heart from what weighs it down. Teach me to trust You more than what I possess, to love more than I control, and to follow the path of humility and compassion. Make my life light enough for Your kingdom. Amen.