“I’m sending your hammock… Do you want anything else?”

Because suitcases are only so big, there were some things I left behind, like my hammock; also a Bible, thinking it would be fine to read off my kindle, off my laptop, off my phone.

It’s fine, but not the same.

So with my hammock I asked if Mom would send me a paper Bible, an old NIV, the version we grew up with. (Turns out it’s important what you grow up with; it will seem solid later, and you’ll go back to find out.)

So that’s been nice to have. The Bible she sent used to be Geoff’s, and I’ve found little things underlined and a few notes jotted in it here and there in his handwriting. It adds to the comfort.

Colossians has always been a favorite, so the last couple of days I’ve found myself back there. Anyway, I came across these verses that I’d never thought much about before:

“I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Made me pause for a second because whatever Paul is talking about, whatever “complete understanding” he wanted them to have, it seems like exactly what everyone is shouting about and competing for but which seems more lacking now than ever.

Though there are so many ideas going around, ideas that seem really good, we’re just becoming more and more confused. Instead of being led to reason and understanding, it feels like we’re just becoming more and more conflicted.

It seems that there’s no place to put the ideas, and that what’s lacking is a framework, a common framework into which everything can be integrated so that it’s actually useful. It’s like… what? confusion is all the facts without a place to put them (otherwise it’s not confusion, just a lack of information, or, at least, unawareness), whereas understanding is having all the facts and ideas where you can use them for life, for moving forward.

Understanding is use-ability of information for the creation of life, something like that.

So anyway, it was interesting that Paul didn’t start with “riches of understanding” and “treasures of wisdom and knowledge“; rather he backed up a level and threw his efforts into building up the framework, the place in which the order of all things makes sense so that understanding and wisdom would be known there.

So what is it? What’s the framework? What’s before the so-that?

…Encouraged in heart and united in love.

It’s the state of a group of people.

If each part of the group doesn’t have the courage to move forward (to become and grow), if each part of the group isn’t acting for the thriving and fulfillment of the other individual members (which is what love is), something will be missing, wisdom and knowledge won’t grow there, and something essential to real life won’t be understood.

The way things have been made to function is to reflect God as Creator (“creation” being the bringing of good out of potential, etc.), and is seen in who Jesus is as the one who shows the way to unity by giving all in behalf of the others — namely, the one who lives as all should live, the one who loves.

These are only half-thoughts, but I think what Paul was saying here is that understanding life comes after living encouraged and loved, that only once we’ve lived aligned with the way things are ordered will we make any sense within the order of things.

This was so important to Paul that he was struggling for it, had made it his purpose to work toward, even for people whom he’d never personally met. He was visiting and writing to group after group of people, not only teaching them the best ideas or teaching them what to say, but teaching them to give each other courage and sacrifice for each other in order for there to be commonality and unity, knowing that there were riches and treasure and life on the other side of that.

So my notes on these verses are that no matter how wise-sounding any idea is, if the people who hold it aren’t heartened and aren’t giving each other the courage to make something good of their lives and live forward with what they’ve been given, that’s not where God is. And no matter how knowledgeable people are, if they don’t sacrifice and give on behalf of those who are connected to them, the Ultimate and Good won’t be found there either.

And it’s personal. If the people who are connected to me can’t find the heart to put the pieces of their lives together for good, God can’t be known in my life, no matter how smart my ideas sound. And if I’m not actually willing to give up anything for the good of those right around me — that is to say, if I don’t love — then I don’t really understand how life moves forward and I have nothing to say.

God grant that we give courage to the ones near us, that we all find in common a willingness to give up something for the well-being of each other,

so that…