good morning, dear sunshines! it's beautiful in the ohio valley today. yesterday (before seeing david sedaris) i got a massage from my friend sandie, and the phrase "reawakened hope" came to her, and that is what she prayed for me. sometimes talk of "prophetic words" scare me a little. (we didn't use language like that in my mennonite world!) but the actual word and concept of "reawaken" has been strong in my soul lately. (i know - i'm restating the obvious that i've been writing about lately.) it was just good to have it confirmed. another word swimming around in my head has been "radical," which also scares me a little. see, i have no problem with the ideal of attempting to live radically in terms of simplicity, service, working for peace and justice, etc. but when you start throwing the word around in church settings, i start to worry. the thing is, i love jesus. and to a lot of my friends, i'm a closet evangelical. but to the evangelicals, i'm sort of a closet liberal. i believe jesus is God. i believe that different people are gifted as prophets and healers and teachers, etc., and i even believe that i have a couple of those giftings, but when i start hearing that certain spiritual jargon floating around a room, i get an uneasy feeling in my gut. when someone says to me, "so, what has God been doing in your life this week?" the red flags start to go up. is this just my fear of my people, or of "radicalism"? or is it my own arrogance? hmm...a few things to think about today...