It's simple, really. The name reflects the desire and focal point of my heart. I've spent the better part of my life working with others in a quest to reconcile relationships, with God and with people. And God has allowed me to spend the bulk of my time in a cross-cultural environment, both in local urban settings and internationally. I've found that the Church has focused on helping people understand what it means to be reconciled with God. But we've not done nearly as well spelling out the need to be connected and at peace with each other, especially across racial, cultural, socio-economic or generational lines. We've too quickly and too easily separated ourselves according to color, class or interest, often disengaging with and disparaging those we deem not like us. We've focused on differences even as God has called us to focus on commonality.
You see, we're more closely connected than we might imagine. Trace the lineage of humankind and you find that we have common connections. All of us. In fact, go back far enough and you discover that we come from the same neighborhood- Eden. And in that first garden we see that this connection comes from the fact that we, through the first man, come from the same material, the dust of that ground- Eden's dust. This suggests (to me, at least) that we share more in common, a sort of initial DNA, than we might have ever considered.
What does that mean for us? That's why I'm writing. To reflect, reconsider and continue to engage this challenging prospect of connection- with our God and with each other- through the lens of nearly 40 years of involvement with it, lived out in the lives of people and situations I have encontered both locally and globally. Thanks for joining me on this journey.
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