The Great Separation

Loyalton, CA sunset (no filter)

I think that the term ‘sin’ is better put (in our modern context) as ‘separation.’ It is our separation from God, our ground of being. And therefore, it is separation from life itself.

Sin/separation consists of…

- Separation from self

- Separation from others

- Separation from the created world

- Separation from God

As our minds develop after we are born, separation becomes our default state. We aren’t even conscious of it. We become lost in this separation. We become steeped in it.

When we’re steeped in separation, it’s impossible to believe that we are beloved by anyone, let alone God.

But here’s another thing about ‘sin’… It is only real from the human side of things. Yes, it is a lived reality that all humans experience. For you and me, sin is as real as it gets.

However, it is an error. In Ultimate Reality, we can never become separate from God because God never separates from us.

It’s weird, right? We can never see God. A lot of that is because God doesn’t show up the way our separated egos would have God show up. God does not show up as Superman/woman. God does not show up to brutally abolish our enemies or make every problem go away.

God will not come in that form. Instead, God comes into human flesh as a vulnerable baby born of a woman in a rundown shack. He eats with separated humans, forgives them, and heals them of their illusory-but-real separation. And he dies to idolatry only to be resurrected anew so as to say…

You are forgiven. My love for you is more real than you’ll ever know.

God never separates from us. God never lets us go.

As I’ve seen put, God never promises to fix our messes.
God promises to resurrect us from the dead.

Even in death - the big one when our heart stops beating as well as the many little deaths we experience every day - God never separates from us.

In Comfort + Joy,
Jonas