(I’m sending this out as my Sunday lap-letter today, but I thought I’d also post it here for your convenience. I just wanted to preface it to you TLS members that this dream ended almost 30 years of theological and intellectual anxiety for me and brought a lasting peace that I enjoy to this day. I hope it helps you in your own journey. My goal this year is to write a book explaining this theory in more detail.)

In 2009 I had a dream that relieved my theological anxiety and brought peace:

“There is a huge waterfall. Oceans of water pour over the rim of the cliff. The water tumbles down and explodes at the bottom. The deluge spreads over the land covering and consuming everything.”

“There is a huge waterfall. Oceans of water pour over the rim of the cliff.”

We can’t see above the rim, but we can guess that it is an infinite source. There is no proof. Only evidence. We can’t even say it exists. We just know it must be. It is.

This is That-Which-We-Call-God, the Absolute, the Source, Wholly Other, Nirvana, Allah, Yahweh, the Unknowable, the Frontier, the closeted, the Undiscovered.

“The water tumbles down and explodes at the bottom.”

This is the evidence we have of what is above the rim. The infinite and invisible is now finite and visible. This is the revelation of the Wholly Other, the exposure, the incarnation of the mystery, the transmission of truth, the manifestation of the unknown, the discoveries of science. It is the encounter and reception of the unknown now known, the mysterious now perceived.

This is what we call the Christ, the Torah, the Buddha, scientific discovery, revelation, the condescension, the incarnation, the transmission, the embodiment, the coming down and the coming out.

“The deluge spreads out over the land covering and consuming everything.”

This is the realm of time, history and culture. This is where spirit and nature meet. It is the manifestation of the good in the muck of the human story. It is forgiveness, reconciliation and love that find expression in community. Where truth, justice and love abide, this is the working of spirit in the turmoil of history.

This is what we call the spirit, the application of the revelation, the discovery, and the made-known. This is the historical impact in the mess and beauty of this world. This is community, unity, peace and justice in the midst of suffering. Here scriptures are written that try to point to what’s been revealed and seen. It spreads throughout the earth filling and fulfilling all living things, binding all together as one.

This trinitarian structure describes reality that everyone shares. No one has exclusive rights. Though our language articulates our own vantage points, they all describe the same thing from a superficial to a complex level.