thinking [not aloud]

you enter a term into a search engine

it does more than find

[Abraham]

it takes whatever you've asked and classifies it.

[Abraham] oh, interesting. This may be someone with an interest in Israel. Religion. Politics. Baby name. Surname.

[Abraham & Jesus] okay, so perhaps devotional, charismatic, meditational, historical. Humour. Expletive.

[congregation] right, so this is church, maybe Church of England, charismatic, denomination, location.

seeking can become a thorny issue

forcing default ways of thinking

ways that mean you need to become even more careful

because you could be misunderstood

if you asked that

be careful what you seek for

…

I read this morning in Psalm 72:2

Earnestly remember Your congregation which You have acquired of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage; remember Mount Zion where you have dwelt.

I started thinking about that word.

congregation

It got me thinking about Abraham

— the really ancient story of him being called away from everything, in faith, and then becoming the person whose faith becomes the seed of a really big story.

It got me thinking about how saying that aloud here could make this seem like a political statement.

I remember being told that being a Christian made me antisemitic.

Further back I remember when I made a LEGO flower,

which someone thought was a swastika.

And one way or another, I found myself not wanting to write this blog post.

Hmm.