Recently, I read this about conviction:

            Conviction is not belief, but rather a profound inner knowing that supports us through times of challenge, a compassionate knowing that is steady and deep without being rigid or positional. The process of developing conviction is gradual and developmental. It happens invisibly as we practice consistently over time, and we cannot fast track it.

Christmas approaches and we may or we may not believe in actual angels and a virgin birth. What we SHARE is the conviction, the confidence that God’s eternity intersect our own time, repeatedly. What we SHARE is the conviction, the confidence that the Christ comes into the world over and over again, like the tidal forces of the ocean that cannot be stopped.

Deep down, we know that God is with us. We don’t need to be rigid about it or defend our position. Our position, our location is with God, in the fullness of time. We come to this position and fullness gradually over years of stretching our imagination into the imagination of God.

We are imagined by God as the image of God: imago Dei. We are God made flesh in our time so that Christ is born again and again in every generation, like tidal forces of the ocean that cannot be held back.

The love of God flows through your life and you are swept up in the great ocean current of God’s love made flesh with power. We SHARE this conviction, this confidence that we are invited by Christ to be the substance of God’s tidal forces of love and hope, peace and joy and we cannot be stopped.