A Lovable Feast (or what I learned at #Allume)

This morning, ProBlogger Darren Rowse shared a story that captivated my imagination. Which is to say, a story about chocolate.

Chocolate cake. Mudcake.

More specifically, being ONE with mudcake.

The dude was speaking my love language.

He went on to share how, with the proper use of a fork, he nibbled at a delicious mudcake he'd bought in a cafe. He was enjoying himself until he noticed a little girl seated in front of him--about to eat the same mudcake. The big difference? The child feasted on the mudcake. She plunged in with both hands and reveled in it.

Something about this story sank deep into me today. How often I've avoided truly feasting on my life because I'm so caught up with the proper use of knife and fork. How often I ignore the heart of the message because I'm distracted by the messenger. How often I neglect reaching across the aisle and befriending someone different from me because That's Just Not Done.

Yesterday, in my session, I spoke about courage and freedom. I spoke about making mistakes, leaning into pain in order to find the lesson of truth hiding behind the suffering.

And then I openly shared about how I found the love of God in the Catholic Church. To my great surprise, most of the questions following my session were all about Catholicism.

Here's what I'm sensing: Christians are living a Great Divorce. Our parents--Protestant & Catholic--divorced hundreds of years ago and we, their children, have been picking up the broken pieces.

It's time, I think, to remember what we already are: we are ONE in Christ.

As Thomas Merton once wrote:

“My dear Brothers, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to discover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”

--Thomas Merton, Seeds, pg. 65

This year, the Allume conference, was about becoming one. As long as we are trapped in comparisons, judgments, proof-texting, arguments--we cannot BE what we already are: community.

Insofar as we are only nibbling at community with a proper fork and knife, we deny ourselves the incomparable pleasure of feasting on it.

This weekend I've met evangelicals, Mennonites, Reformed, homeschoolers, Catholics, non-denominational Christians. And you know what I see?

I see Jesus.

I see Love.

And love conquers all. All of our divisions, all of our brokenness, all of our defenses, all of our walls. Love unites. Love heals.

It's time for us to feast on this love.

Love never fails.