the circle of life

No, not THAT circle. Not about birth and life and death. I'm not going all Disney and going to start singing The Lion King.

I'm talking about the important circle.

The circle in which we sit in God's presence. The circle in which we know Him, and feel His love, and Grace and Mercy. The circle in which we are protected. The circle in which we love and worship and develop our relationship with Him. The circle which we sometimes feel we might fall out of. The circle which we'd have to push pretty hard for God to allow us to fall out of. The circle which God wants us to be in, no matter how detached from Him we may feel. The circle which forms the basis for our lives, our purpose and our struggle. The circle which is at the core of our faith.

That circle.

Our second day on Social Policy laid bare the theology of CYM (Neo-Liberalism), and tied up many ends and unanswered questions on our course.

The bit that struck me most was when R spoke of how we all struggle, but that God's promise is actually within that struggle. His promise that He will show us His face. It is not our job to be perfect. I am not perfect. I should make my peace with that, and stay within the circle as an imperfect human.  God is in my struggle with me. His promise is in my struggle with me. He will protect me. He created me as I am. I am not, nor ever will be, perfect.

When he said that, I felt as though he (R) had punched me, so strong was my physical and psychological reaction. Finally, somebody has said something which is a handle for me to hold on to. We had a great talk later, to try to unpack that a bit (I can't believe I've just used the term 'unpack'. Sorry),  and R said he thinks I am a person of great integrity. He said that before I had told him what my struggle was with. Of course, I brushed it off, but still. Our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses. Put another way, our weaknesses are our strengths gone too far. It's certainly a thinker. He's going to come up with some books I can read which may help. I love R.

My photo today is not one I took. I tried, but I'm just not artistic enough.

 Satsumas. I love 'em. I ate about 9 today (how many is too many?). Full of vitamin C, low in calories, good for me and my skin.

And they're circular in shape.