Tag: love

Still Becoming: Renovation

Posted on by Michael Rose
Open and Relational Theology has been a life saver for me, To be able to engage God and the world in ways that are consistent with my experience and intuitive sense of the God-who-is-love via the new eyes of good history, scripture, anthropology, philosophy, science and cosmology. It is affording me a way towards a more whole, very human life in the ongoing journey of becoming love.
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The Heart is Deceitful? Not so Fast

Posted on by Michael Rose
The scriptures speak from many voices with different experiences and different contexts.  So we need to be careful when we build a cornerstone of our theological worldview on a single verse.  One such example is Jeremiah 17:9. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Is the heart deceitful?…
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Pluriform Love by Thomas Jay Oord

Pluriform Love – A Review

Posted on by Michael Rose
I enjoyed an advanced copy of Thomas Jay Oord’s latest book, Pluriform Love—a more academic read than Oord’s recent works, but that shouldn’t scare you off. Oord writes in such a way as to be accessible to a wide swath of interested readers.    In Pluriform Love, Oord pushes back on some well-entrenched theological sacred…
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Ditches of Religious Deconstruction

Posted on by Michael Rose
God takes us out via the desert to bring us into something new. For the love of God, don’t make your home in the spaces of transitions and aridity. Resist the urge to build your cottage industry ministry in the transitional spaces – because, truth be told; you will gather the lost, the bitter and the angry. And the only help you can be to them is being lost and angry together. All the while cheering each other on in self-righteous snark- throwing rocks as you cheer each other on.
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Dream a little Dream with Me

Posted on by Michael Rose
I have been asked, “Where are you coming from with IamSignificant.ca?  Is it self-help/ self-improvement? Or is it spiritual / faith stuff?  Grief/loss care?  What is it?”  I smile and say, “Yes, and more!“ I am coming from a place that mystic and monk Thomas Merton so aptly states – it’s all spiritual, or none…
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Careless Words – Stop the Carnage

Posted on by Michael Rose
My 12-year-old tells us of how at school there is a practice of “burns”.  Burns are insults intended (so they say) to be humorous.  They make a sharp comment, someone feels stupid, hurt or embarrassed and the other kids laugh saying ‘You just got burned!”  And sometimes, after a scathing burn, they follow up with “just…
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Freedom: Making Freer Choices

Posted on by Michael Rose
“If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.” – Jesus Who the Son sets free is free indeed!  I so love this scripture from John 8.  Christian freedom has been long explored,…
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Divine Love is… Free

Posted on by Michael Rose
  Freedom is the very nature of divine love, for it is when love is freely given and freely received that it is, in fact, healthy love.  As soon as we attach expectations and seek to meet those exceptions by use of coercion or manipulation love ceases to be truly life-giving. Consider these simple parables;…
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Love is… Generous

Posted on by Michael Rose
What is Love? Consider the tree.  The tree provides shade, respite from the blazing heat of the sun to everyone one with no expectation of return.  To this end, love is genuinely maturing when it loves with no strings attached and no expectation of  personal benefit.  When we love others, do we have an expectation…
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