I realised the other day, after reading a book about walking mindfully, that this is what I do most mornings. Yes it is a mix of pondering the day a head, chatting with other dog walkers, etc but also I am aware of God, nature, the Universe. And the words from Rich Mullins The Color Green always come into my head. I think it just says the amazingness of God and the complexity of the colour green. The above pictures of of various beautiful places in and around where I live and to me it is always the amazingness of the different greens. And God made all of them. Then it opens up to me how different we all are and how amazingly we are all made and how diverse. But also how if we show our true depth of God colours without our traumas, hurts, fears and needing to protect ourselves, how beautifully we would all look together, like the different colours green.
I decided google the song so I could listen to it again – as I seem to be listening to music again after a period of silence whilst I worked, played, etc. Listening to the song took me back to my early days of following Jesus – starting in 1992 and onwards. I had always been into music and used to organise venues for up and coming bands in my area so once I got into Jesus and God someone pointed me towards contemporary Christian music and Cross Rhythms.
Amazing how one song could lead to so many memories. I wonder if you are as old as me and if you know this song. If so I wonder where it takes you as you listen. What other songs do this for you?
Rich Mullins was an amazing influence in my Christian life. He challenged ideas that my small town, small charismatic church were teaching me. He was evangelistic, converted to Catholicism, worked with Native Americans, but then also was killed in a car accident because he wasn’t wearing a seat belt.
From him and many others that I came across via Cross Rhythms and others in the contemporary Christian circles I have also been challenging the things I am taught not just from the church pulpit, but within the books I read – both those that identify as Christian and those that don’t, the music I listen to, the conversations I hear around me, and even this relatively new concept of deconstruction one’s Christian faith. I’m not sure I’ve ever had one set in stone to deconstruct thanks to those like Rich Mullins, Cross Rhythms, Greenbelt and others. And that makes me so glad.
Aspirational Adventures 