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I am a pastor and a clinical psychotherapist. My life's passion is defining healthiness from a human perspective and paralleling it to the holiness of God, divine perspective. Shifting perspectives creates a paradigm that is alongside of rather than over and against. The parakalein of God and the paradoxes of humanity are redefined. Humanity is all about winning and yet we are losing ground everywhere. Divinity is all about letting go of the desire to win and the fear of loss. The Divine embraces the world with loving care regardless of anything.

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To Mold or to Model

Posted by Don Paine

As a Christian I tried to fit in the mold that I was presented. After a few years it seems that the mold that I was presented was too confining and restricting. I did not fit the mold so either the mold was wrong or I was wrong.

 Christianity like all groups tries to promote, protect, and propagate the truth that has set them free.   To do so they create a mold.  They codify and construct what helped them create inner peace and love that was liberating. "The truth" will set you free.  Yet when I say that the truth that set me free is the truth that has to set all people free, I ignore that the God of creation who creates all things with both the capacity to hold and to expand.  The mold of creation was not restrictive but expansive. As the universe is ever expanding yet held together I began to think that the mold was not designed to be restrictive even if my experience of it was restrictive.  I expanded my horizons and saw more not less.  I saw more of what was in me that caused me to be restricted rather than seeing external restrictions.  The "truth" that sets us free is not any particular truth of theology or ecclesiology but the truth that God is calling us to live from the inside out rather than from the outside in.

It is therefore the model of living freely and fully the expression of true faith that is more important than the mold.  We do not have to throw the mold out just not let it be restrictive. I realized that I need to model an expansive expression and experience of the freedom of the Spirit in the bond of Peace.

No matter what the religious mold I choose to identity with the real expression of faith is visible in my "modeling" the truth that has set me free.  Jesus broke the religious molds but lived the spiritual reality of being one with God.

"You shall know them by their love".  Some influential person said that, I simply pass it on.

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