That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

John had the privilege of experiencing Christ in his physical form. He had sat with, touched, ate with, lived with Jesus. His understanding of Christ was very experiential. But John also had another experience. He was the only disciple of Jesus who died naturally, and that meant he had the longest time of all the disciples to know Jesus in daily spiritual relationship. He did not see Jesus, but his relationship with him was as alive as it ever was. Jesus was not only a memory, but still the vibrant Christ that ruled his heart.

The same Jesus that lived in Judea and had that immediate, experiential, physical impact on the lives of many, still has the same relational, experiential hold on John. Jesus the Christ, his message, his Cross, his life… when our lives are found directly in his, then we truly have found life. Eternity begins not when we die, but eternal life in Christ begins when our lives are found in Christ’s.

God and his Son Jesus Christ, directly qualify and justify our fellowship. We gather together, live life together, come together…under the name of Christ. Under the name of Jesus we find true life. Everything comes under him. John is setting the record straight for the Christians he is speaking to. God is the only reason and purpose for which we gather. Our lives, our being and doing, our relationships, our interactions with the world, all come out of a life in God.

There is an invitation of true fellowship to all in John’s writing. Come and experience a life worth living. Life in Jesus fulfills beyond all things. You can search out the depths of Christ, and come up still gasping for more. You can go big and you can go small… God goes beyond anything and everything. So John invites the church of Jesus to true fellowship.

There is joy in bearing Christ’s message to his body. John experienced the joy of bearing the message of God to the Church.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

The message overflows and overwhelms John. He speaks a message that comes from the core of his being. It comes from his identity in God. The Jesus that he calls Lord, is the same Jesus he walked with, and now rules and reigns in his being. The work of the Holy Spirit in the life of John, brings him to a place of bringing God’s good news to people. He does not just bring a message; rather for John, his life in its entirety is the message. He does not merely bear the Good News; rather John has lived in such a way that incarnates the Good News.

The difference between Christianity as we think of it and following Christ as John sees it: fellowship with God, in the most fundamental sense. A life truly and utterly devoted to God, from the biggest thing to the smallest thing. Where love rules, justice prevails, where we forgive and love instead of judge and hate, where our inner lives practice what our outer lives proclaim, when the kingdom of God is made manifest.

A life in true fellowship with God is growing in how we relate to God, how we relate to ourselves, how we relate to each other in Christ’s body, and how we relate to the world. It also helps us see how we relate to our past, our present, and our future in God. A life in fellowship with God moves beyond a selfish motivation, and takes on a God-rooted motivation. It finds itself seeking to think the way God thinks, to love the way God loves, to forgive the way God forgives, to be the figurative and literal hands and feet of God in our world.

A life in fellowship with God requires our utmost honesty. It requires of us a submission to God that brings us to a place of honest assessment and acceptance that we are truly debtors to the infinite grace of God, that is available to us. When we hide ourselves from God’s light and choose, in our pride, to belittle the bounty of God’s goodness, we are really saying God is not faithful, and if He is not faithful He is a liar. True and honest submission to God requires of us a divine humility; for we are incapable of humanly being so honest and submissive. To receive God’s forgiveness and walk in intimacy with Him, requires of us true and honest submission. This requires the power of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives.

In Conclusion

May we experience God in our lives. In our going and coming, in all that we do and say, in all that we believe and hope for, may our revelation of Jesus transform us. May we experience life together with Christ’s body, his Church, in greater fellowship. May we center our lives around Jesus. May our lives incarnate the message of Jesus to the world around us. May we live out as citizens of God’s kingdom, we live what we proclaim. May our message always point to Jesus. May our dreams find it’s roots in God. May we love like Jesus loves, forgive like he forgives, serve selflessly as he served selflessly, and may our lives continue to tell God’s story.

Everything and yet nothing, something caught in the wrinkle of perspectives on either side of promises and hopes, a doctrinal corollary of holding to a status quo definition of morality. Contradictions face the human soul from all directions. There are too many questions that require too many answers, and to begin to account for the motivations of those asking or answering is completely beyond us.

Life is the unseen force that moves us in time, carries us with emotion, pushes us towards a certain awareness, and yet somehow is beyond us. We begin wide-eyed with wonder hoping to be and do something with our lives. We find ourselves in the latter part of our journeys, with a deeper awareness, being someone and doing something, and we are confounded by the journey. Somewhere in the middle of our journey we hope to find something of value to latch our hopes and dreams and our beliefs and aspirations towards.

We are grains of sand in the hour-glass of life. We find ourselves awaiting that exciting plunge or remembering it. Yet we are mere actors in the story that unfolds before us. We have our beliefs and convictions, those things we would give our lives for, but forget that maybe not everything we believe in is true and right. We become arrogant fools, so sure of perspectives on life that we wage meaningless battles with others around us. Sometimes though our beliefs and convictions are right and true and necessary. We become wizened sages in bringing a new perspective to something or someone that desperately needed a re-imagination. So we may be yet fools and sages. We are however most pretentious when we think we have understood the world completely. In so doing, we reveal ourselves to be prideful, unapproachable, and close-minded.

So what to do when hopes and dreams are a faint whisper silenced by the chorus of the way things are? I haven’t found an answer to that question yet, but I have a suspicion that it has more to do with how I affect change in my little corner of the world.

Sometimes we get to certain points in our lives when we have all the information, all the ideas, all the dreams, all the hopes…that we could possibly have. I for one process and think and ponder and philosophize with the best of them. The reality of thoughts and ideas however, is that they have no bearing or significance unless and until they are lived out in one’s life.

Truth is meaningless until the implications of that truth is evident in that truth-bearer’s life. Doctrine and Theology is meaningless until it becomes alive, as the hearer becomes the doer. In the same way, I am a bearer of ideas, hopes, dreams, passions, beliefs…etc. There have been times where I’ve talked to friends and they’ve told me, “Ashish, you need to step out and do what you’re talking about; stop talking about it and just do it.” This is the place of tension I find myself.

The content and passion of writing has brought me to this point, where my truth and belief with sorrow and imagination, must translate into my lifestyle in action and suffering. There is no point for me to write about Incarnational Christianity if I am not able to practice what I preach.

As Peter Rollins argues it, “I aspire to believing in God,” where the answer to the inherent question of one’s belief is presented not only in word but in deed, not only vague ideas and concepts, but in transformative action and suffering.

We must be the living epistles. There is an internalization of faith that affects us from the inside out.

I think this is why Paul routinely writes about Christ living in you…

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And John’s epistles also speak of this…

It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us…I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

And this is where I am at in my faith. I want to walk out and live out and illustrate the implications of life lived wholly for Christ. I don’t feel I have the right to keep writing about the transformative power of such a thing if I am not in some way aspiring to live this way.

So what I’m trying to say, in long-winded fashion, is that I want to live to make a difference. I don’t have to shout it from the rooftops; I just have to get out and live it.

As we embrace the stories we find ourselves in with sorrow and imagination, we are consumed with raw passion and energy. It is a change in our motivation and understanding. It leads us towards a response and protest that find identity in something well thought out and heartfelt. Response and protest are a fundamental part of both, embracing the story, as well as becoming a part of the story. Embracing the stories we find ourselves in has everything to do with us adapting. Becoming a part of the story however, has everything to do with how we create within our environments.

It is one thing to embrace the story we find ourselves in and understand the how, why, what, and even the when. It is quite another thing to speak out, create something, and provide something that is not already there. As we are affected the world we find ourselves in, we must also become a part of the story in our response and protest.

We must begin with sorrow and imagination, and from there we must move to action and suffering. Sorrow helps us understand the chaos and misunderstanding of the world; imagination gives us a hope in a future that is not present. Action is the fulfillment of understanding and motivation in response and protest. It is where we know who we are, why we are, and what we are supposed to do.

Action is when we move forward into the reality we find ourselves in. It is where we sorrow over a broken reality and imagine a new reality of something better and greater. Suffering is where action has taken you to the point of no return. Suffering is where you incarnate the outworking of sorrow and imagination in your given reality. Suffering bridges the world that was, the world that is, and the world that could be. Suffering is sacrifice for those who are vested in their current reality, but for those who respond to the current reality and protest towards an imagined reality, it is a joy and privilege.

The person who acts and is willing and ready to suffer, might become a catalyst for transformation. In many instances, transformation never happens because the environment it originates from reabsorbs it’s focus, it loses collective relevance and is wholly forgotten, or it becomes the seedbed for future transformation. However, if it is valid and it captures the sorrow and imagination of that environment, transformation is entirely possible. At that point however, there must be a guiding voice for it’s follow-through.

Transformation happens when the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of a collective environment find meaning and purpose. It is organic and miraculous, not constructed or distributed. It is caught and imparted, not learned or understood. Transformation drives at the underlying passions and dreams of the constituents of a given environment. Transformation is never easily understood, but it is easily observed. You realize when it comes and goes, and know when it is short-lived or long-lasting; but you cannot reproduce it’s process from one environment to the next. You can only observe and interpret the transformation in context.

We all see the world in a unique light. Our collective voices add depth, clarity, and beauty to our humanity. If we are ready to embrace the story we find ourselves in with sorrow and imagination, if we are ready to become a part of the story and create through action and suffering, we will transform our world and change it.

As we find ourselves embracing the story, we must find ourselves securely lodged in the moment. Instead of the transcendence of the grand narrative, we need to look closely at the numerous stories we find ourselves in. If we are caught up in the grand narrative of existence, we may become aloof and indifferent to the rise and fall of the immediate stories we find ourselves in. We become distant observers in a world that demands our being, doing, and relating. We become good at analyzing what was right and wrong; we work all the angles; yet something is missing in all of this. We slowly unlearn how to be, do, and relate in the here and now; there is no one, no thing, no cause, no passion that we put ourselves toward. We lose our ability to respond and protest because we do not wish to act. In all of this, we manage the stories we find ourselves in and fit them into our ‘greater-story’ paradigm. We lose touch with reality.

To fully engage the world around us, I would argue that we need to have sorrow and imagination. These should be our fundamental motivations in our response and protest.

Sorrow has a reactive power in that it empowers people to feel again. In some of the stories we find ourselves in, people have lost the ability to feel and criticize their present reality. Sorrow has a way of bringing to the surface the inherent emotion associated with pain and loss. Imagination is a proactive power in that it allows people to dream again. Sometimes we are too caught up in the realities we find ourselves in and cannot believe in an alternative reality, let alone believe it to be possible. Imagination has a way of building hope of a better tomorrow regardless of the present situation we find ourselves in. Sorrow and imagination require honesty.

There are too many who do not sorrow; they live in their world of indifference and positivity; they ignore pain and suffering whether it be their own, or it be someone else. When we do not sorrow, we are not honest, and when we are not honest we too easily deceive ourselves. There must be room for sorrow in our stories. It makes us human and allows us to align ourselves to a world in need of comfort and care. We are approachable when we are able to sorrow with another person.

There are many who do not imagine; they are stuck in their present reality; either they are satiated by their reality or they have become numb to the struggles and chaos they face daily. Imagination is only possible when one understands their present reality is not their home, but that they are constantly moving forward in time and space. Imagination allows you to adapt to a changing world. We must always have room for imagination in our stories; if not we get too easily caught up in the pain and suffering we encounter in our stories. Imagination allows you to see the impossible and move towards that reality.

A life without sorrow, is a life without honest emotion. A life without imagination, is a life without a futuring hope. Sorrow keeps us grounded while imagination keeps us on our toes. When sorrow and imagination work together, we find ourselves fully embracing the stories we find ourselves in.

There is a world in need of people who would bear Christ and his kingdom to the ends of the earth. To furthest corner of the nations of our world, to the forgotten corners of our cities and towns, Jesus is looking for a disciple willing to believe the unbelievable, attempt the unattainable, and achieve the unachievable. The Christ we follow is one of infinite, imaginative potential. His work, his Cross bears us up to go further than we’ve ever gone before. We can believe beyond a shadow of a doubt because it is the Maker of all Creation we’re talking about. Christ lives in us and moves in and through us; our lives must move with him. His heart beats for lost, the dying, the broken, the weary; our hearts must follow in tune. We must bear up this Christ to a world in desperate need.

To move beyond a shadow or a doubt, to believe in the God of all possibility, to take this hope we have in Christ to all… This is what we must seek to do with our lives. To be instruments in his kingdom, to be used as he so desires, to surrender our will to his will, to be consumed by this Jesus we profess. Where he is not just a thought or emotion, but is part of our very being, doing, and relating.

To be Christ’s hands and feet, to be Christ’s tears and comfort, to be willing vessels used for his honor and glory. There is a dying world pleading for Christ to be revealed, not just in thought, understanding, or kind words. No. This kingdom must be revealed to a broken world in humble power, incarnational truth, and redeeming love.

The world waits for us to move beyond the good ideas or random acts of kindness… It waits for us to live this transforming message of Christ and his Kingdom. It waits for the Christ-follower with redemptive sorrow, imagination, and action. The world waits for those who have awareness and humility.

There are countless stories being written of pain, loss, suffering, brokenness, and the brunt of human depravity. As recipients of Christ’s redeeming story, we must embrace the stories we find ourselves in. We must shine our little lights on the story Christ has written on our hearts, and in doing so point their stories to Christ’s story.

My heart is burdened for the weary and the broken… They are numerous in my city, lurking behind every frown or smile, attempting to live a full life, while running on empty. They are crying, desperate for the message of Christ.

Will we bear up Christ to our world?
Will we move beyond our comfort zones?
Will our lives speak of Christ and not ourselves?
Will we give it all for the sake of Christ?

If there were no roadblocks, what would we believe for?
What we would we attempt for the sake of Christ, if nothing stood in our way?

May we continue to sorrow, imagine, and suffer, as we bear up Christ to our world…

In finding meaning and purpose, we continually grasp at a greater story. Though in such quest, we might willingly ignore the story we find ourselves in. For each story is a single stroke in the masterpiece of the greater story. One must come to his senses in who he is and why he is. And he must seek to understand ‘who’ and ‘why’ in the greater context of ‘we’ and ‘us’. It is in this interaction that we be, do and relate. We respond and protest as we embrace our stories and the stories of those around us.

We encounter ignorance and misunderstanding as we be, do and relate. We see a world in need. There are too many who are ignored and misunderstood in every society. The voices of the ignored and misunderstood are eerily silent. Their stories are unknown or unsaid. They tend to retreat to the margins, stuck in the shadows, beyond thought or emotion. They silently cry out to be heard and understood.

Yet we do not respond to or protest the inhumanity of a world drenched in pain and suffering. We remain indifferent and our indifference leads to ignorance and misunderstanding. In most instances, this is borne out of a desire to remain an observer in the story. There is a desire to remain a safe distance away; this is because giving your attention to something implies that you could be affected by it; it also implies that you would be drawn to action. In our indifference we stay ‘safe’ within our walls of comfort and selfishness; this gives way to ignorance and misunderstanding.

The opposite of ignorance and misunderstanding are listening and understanding. Listening is more than just hearing a story. Listening to a story requires you to be fully engaged in mind, will, and emotions. Listening also gives a story a voice, which in turn brings revelation. Most people want to tell a story; the fact that their story is heard, gives it a sense of dignity. Understanding moves you to a place where you have processed the story; you are not just listening, but processing through emotions and thoughts associated with the story. Understanding means that you are affected by the story in your being, doing, and relating. Understanding also implies that you have more reason to act in response and protest.

If we are to embrace the story we find ourselves in as well as push towards the greater story, then we must enter that story. We must listen and understand. It is only when we have truly listened and understood, that we are able to respond and protest in awareness and humility. This is when our being, doing, and relating, have found meaning and purpose.

We live in a world of ignorance and misunderstanding. There are countless stories ignored and misunderstood; which lead to indifference and inaction, and could lead to ill-will and malice toward a certain story. In living in a world that is consumed with ignorance and misunderstanding, we must seek out the unsaid stories and give them a voice.

Response and protest help us come alive. It is that constant imbalance we find ourselves in with our environment. I would argue that response and protest must be married to awareness and humility. In our being, doing, and relating, as we respond and protest, we must be fully aware and willingly humble. Without this, response and protest become a discourse in apathy and arrogance. There are too many people who respond and protest in a way that shows how apathetic they are, and how arrogant they are.

To be fully aware requires us to throw ourselves into life. It requires of us a focus on ourselves, those immediately around us, those we influence, and the world that we find ourselves in. It requires of us to process the meaning of the past and the purpose of the future. There is a demand upon us in awareness that takes us from our self-absorption to a holistic self. Awareness may mean we are caught off guard by the circumstances of life, but it also means that we never ignore what life what brings our way. Awareness causes us to watch our steps, to be on our toes if you will, and to always be in step with the fluctuations of the circumstances of life.

Humility requires us to understand who we truly are. We are called to move beyond the vain imaginations that tempt us to lie to ourselves. Humility moves us to a place of honesty. We look at ourselves not through our masks and false selves. Humility allows us to be approachable and teachable in all that we do. Humility says we have not arrived, and that we are yet mouldable. Humility allows us to never stop learning, and to always ignore the false sense of mastery of life.

As we exist, we continue to find or produce meaning and purpose in all that we be, do, and relate. By meaning I speak of the reasons by which we have found ourselves in this present moment as we look to the past; by purpose I speak of the overwhelming desires of the soul and where direction pulls us as we look to the future from our present moment. Meaning is a response to the paths we have walked on, while purpose is a protest to the present as we walk towards our tomorrow. Meaning looks backward, while purpose looks forward. Response and protest are the constant flux we find ourselves in as we seek to exist. Organisms are in a constant state of imbalance in a given environment (that is what makes something ‘alive’), and our response and protest are what gives us humans the power to exist in our given environments.

In our existence we construct these realities. The response we come to might be deserved, imagined, false, or quite necessary. The protest we claim might be high-minded, self-seeking, humble, and maybe sacrificial. We come to these realities of meaning and purpose, or response and protest, in our lives through our being, doing, and relating.

Meaning and purpose find their hermeneutic in the human psyche. We seek to explain our reality, whether it be in our response or in protest, in each present moment. In a given moment we find ourselves responders to the immediate and distant past, and protesters to the immediate and distant future. There is immeasurable potential in each given moment. It is in a simple moment that we can respond and protest our existence.

What seems to be the constant problem with us humans is that we fail in our responding and protesting. In our responding we might respond to a thing not needing a response, or respond erroneously to something that required a response. In our protesting we might protest a thing was quite necessary in our lives, or fail to protest something that was never meant to be a part of our lives.

In our failures to respond and protest correctly we bear our greatest challenges, struggles, and burdens. It is the power of response and protest in a moment, and the effect of our collective responses and protests in our lifetime that define us. Specifically they affect our being, doing, and relating.

In the thick of all of this, I want to speak of peace and chaos. Peace is the reality of one’s correct responses and protests. Peace is where meaning and purpose have found its place in one’s life. Stating it another way, one may find peace in responding correctly to the past, and rightfully protesting the future. Peace is not a change of affairs. Peace cannot change the past, nor can it always bring about a desired future. Peace rather is a state of being, doing, and relating. Peace flows from within, though it is affected by what is from without. Chaos, contrary to peace, is the reality of one’s incorrect response and protests. Chaos implies that meaning and purpose have been displaced in a person’s life. Chaos in one’s life does not imply natural chaos. It is rather a state of being, doing, and relating. One can be in the calmest environment and still be in complete chaos, because he/she has responded incorrectly to the past and continues to incorrectly protest their future.

Our lives move between responding and protesting correctly or incorrectly. Though we may desire constant peace in our lives, it is hard to grasp. This is because there is always something that displaces our correct responses and protests. We are not perfect in this endeavour, though we may try.

I’m sitting here trying to understand the meaning of life, failing in my numerous attempts at a contrived sanity. I forget that all too often I try to fight off who I am in the moment. I pretend I am someone I am not, thinking that it is possible to believe myself into another person. The reality of it all hits me square in the chest. I am who I am, and I can only change who I am. I can only change who I am once I realize who I am. It’s this universal understanding of who you are and why you are the way you are.

If my aim is to understand the human psyche, I might begin with a journey into the metaphysical and spiritual. But in my estimation, we must begin in human suffering and misunderstanding. We see a world lost in the chaos of hurt and pain, confused in relationships, and lost in finding meaning and purpose. We could begin in the cold depths of the depravity of the human soul and then finally analyze the collective soul of humanity through the ages.

The funny thing is that while such grandiose desires reside within my being, I cannot escape the machinations of life itself. If I am hungry I grab a bite to eat or cook a meal. If I am tired I take a nap or take the day off. I cannot shed this ‘mortal coil’; it was bestowed at birth and will remain till death finds me. Our understanding of the human psyche first begins with us taking a look at ourselves.

I never tire of observation. I can criticize and analyze and philosophize and postulate, but the mystical enigma of it all is that I struggle with application. Being and doing; though we may think we are who we think we are, we really are not if there is no illustration of who we think we are. Though some would emphasize being above doing, I would argue that both are products of the other. Being necessitates that you are doing something with your being; and doing requires a being if it is to be genuine. You define yourself through your being, while others may define you by your doing.

I would propose that we need more people who believe in and accept one’s being and not question or attack one’s doing; this would allow many to grow in doing and consequently grow in their being. If we are to adapt and evolve holistically, we must acclimate who we are and why we are, to what we do and how we do it. Integrity with ourselves; we are to be whole in being and in doing. This is an enigma that confuses us. We are in this constant tide of change; our being adapts and grows and thus our doing responds in kind; our doing expands and matures and thus our being responds in kind. We humans are in constant emotive, social, psychological, mental, and physical adaptation. Our doing and being find themselves in such adaptation as well.

The sad reality of life remains that our being and doing remain out of sync. Something is always amiss in the circle we call existence. Questions that have plagued us all like: Do we live to eat, or eat to live? Are we the product of our environment, or were we born this way? Are we the center of our universe, or do we remain just a speck in the vastness of the time-space continuum?

When I look at the world and the infinite possibilities of questions that attack our being and doing, I am convinced that our answers continually fall short. We find solace in shallows answers to our deep and layered questions. We live too easily on noble ideas or meaningful principles, without ever wondering the cosmic ‘why’. We think we have it all figured out with our pat answers. We fool ourselves too easily with something that works instead of waiting and living for something that really matters.

The more we experience life and relationships, joys and sorrows, pain and pleasure, victories and loss, the more we realize how complicated life really is. We have the answers that satisfy our curiosity but only to the level our curiosity has taken us. We are pleased with the questions we ask but fail to realize that we usually ask questions that steer clear of our insecurities. We humans, with our being and doing, are as frail as ever. Some of us are less frail than others and it is thought to be strength. Some of us are more frail than others and it is thought to be weakness.

Life comes and goes at its own pace. We may love in one moment and hate in the next. We may sacrifice in one situation and be entirely selfish in another. We may do good to our neighbour if we think she is nice and may harm our neighbour if we think he seeks to hurt us. The constant in humanity is how inconsistent we truly are. You see a world where some line up on the side of saving the life of baby and others line up on the side of saving an endangered species. You see a world where oppressors lose touch with the humanity of those they oppress. You witness the brutalities of power and corruption as governments and businesses run over the people that got in their way. Humanity is a gamut of chaos and misunderstanding.

On the flip side, I would argue that humanity illustrates beauty and wonder as well. You see it in the eyes of both a newlywed couple and the aged grandparents; there is a beautiful bond that holds their love together. You notice it in the goodwill of one person to another. There is beauty in the seemingly underwhelming, where joy is found in the most simplest of ways. Wonder is seen in the happiness of a child as they receive a gift. This beauty and wonder is like a glimpse of the sun’s rays in the chaos and misunderstanding of a harsh thunderstorm. Then there of course is long-used argument that we would never know beauty without chaos and that we would never experience wonder without a taste of misunderstanding.

There must be something more, something that beckons us to greater or better. There must be a reality that sets itself apart from this one. This brings us back to being and doing. The ties that bind being and doing have everything to do with how we relate to ourselves. The ties that bind our collective being and doing have everything to do with how we relate to each other. This is why we run after things that help us relate better to ourselves and to others. It is as if doing and being is wrapped up in me, you, and all of us. It’s not just me, or just you, or just all of us; it’s all that. As we be and do, we also relate. We are constantly being, constantly doing, and constantly relating.