There is not much here, today. As it turns out, I’m pretty sick and it’s possible I have been for quite some time. My doctor, the greatest doctor on earth, feels like the symptoms that have plagued me for several months might possibly be the same illness, sometimes more intense and sometimes less. Go figure.
This week, though, the looks of fear I saw as Angel and the boys helplessly watched me cough and cough finally convinced me and I made an appointment and now take a myriad of pills and inhalers (including a pill that’s so huge it must be for a giraffe.)
This morning, I wrote a lot on another site I have – it’s mostly for pop culture and whatever else that might not be Bridge material;) – It’s called lovewithacapitall.com and you might like it (or you might not.)
I’m going to use this as a space for some brief thoughts and ideas, considering we just had our manifesto and it’s fresh in my mind.
An addition to the manifesto this year was a section on our “strict commitment” to intolerance, and I felt like I should’ve given it a bit more space. That space was going to happen this week on a mid-week Facebook Live post. (We dipped our toes into this last year with a short mini-teaching from our trip to Canada.) This is something that has been marinating for some time, and would’ve happened Tuesday-ish…but I’m not exactly fit for something new. Maybe next week, keep your eyes open – when it happens, I’ll include it in the email.
I also want to encourage the interaction I mentioned last week. The Bridge began as a conversation, and moved into a more standard service-type structure. Obviously, I am not advocating screaming out mid-message (unless it is to express how much you like me or my sweater) or hi-jacking the time – like our friend who walked in and right down front – to pass out papers and opinions. What I do mean is through comments, notecards, email, photos (shared to a Bridge Google drive), prayer, studies, and on and on. There are so many ways. This is our community. As far as what I said before, if you want to scream out mid-message or pass out papers, there are ways to do that, too, that I would absolutely jump at the opportunity to provide to you. If you want to teach us how to cross-stitch or scrapbook or play the guitar…or you just wanted a time to play the guitar for everyone, the answer is usually Yes. We really like to say yes.
As a community that affirms the creative spark and unique gifting of the Spirit, we don’t do too many No’s.
So, what do you like to do? What’s important to you?
There’s always the chance you don’t know. First, breathe, say hello to you and spend a bit of time learning about you and who God made you to be. Trust me, you’re terrific. 2nd, in the very near future, we will be having a spiritual gift discussion that will include guidance towards discovering, or remembering, you and give you permission to dance.
The thing that makes the Bridge so great is… in fact, the things that make the Bridge at all are us. To paraphrase Thor:Ragnarok, “the Bridge isn’t a place, it’s a people.”
So, let’s kick off our shoes and dance a little.
The Bridge Faith Community 
As always thank you for sharing your thoughts. Know you are not alone being so sick . Get well soon. I am glad you mentioned talking about intolerance. I was going to text you asking for clarification on what it meant. Mike and I talked about that part of your message and both of us were unsure what you meant. I look forward to you touching on that subject.
This is JUST RIGHT!!! I’m so happy you reached out to continue this conversation. I’ll explain in more depth on the Facebook mini, but here’s a start: Tolerance is a conditional, behavior-based system (you could say theology, with the way it has become like a religion in our culture.) We are “tolerating” a behavior or belief or whatever. And the lie of it is that it is entirely conditional. We are “tolerant” of everything BUT intolerance, everything but difference. We are “tolerant” of only what we believe. And if one doesn’t, that one is judged closed-minded and not very welcome at all. (For example, the left-wing is tolerant of a great many behaviors…except conservatism, fundamentalism, Trump-ism. And this goes in reverse, as well.) It is an unsafe environment for genuine change. It is a great environment for reinforcing already held beliefs, as well as coercion or manipulation or control – assent or you will be asked to leave. It is simply the same old system in new, progressive clothes. We encourage love, instead. Not the kind of love in that, “I love my jeans,” because that is conditional as well. As long as my jeans are awesome, I love my jeans. Right? But Love, in the Godly, Jesus-love sense is essence-based, and that doesn’t change. You ARE made in the image of God, no matter what you do or do not do, it does not change your essence. You are still made in the image of God. We love for no other reason than that each of us is a human being, made in the image of God. We are not “tolerated” because of a shared belief, behavior, or identity. Sure, we mess up, our jeans aren’t always awesome, we can hold wildly different beliefs lightly, safely, respectfully, but we are still loved. We try to create environments of love, where all are welcome, and encouraged to work out “with fear and trembling” our beliefs, behaviors, and lives with the Holy Spirit.