The Humble Presence of God - Thin Places-Faith, Family and Disability<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I just read a book by a pastor of ours from our college days, Ian Morgan Cron. It's a story of conversion to Christianity. It's a story of deep hurt and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thinplaces\/2011\/08\/the-humble-presence-of-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Humble Presence of God - Thin Places-Faith, Family and Disability\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I just read a book by a pastor of ours from our college days, Ian Morgan Cron. It's a story of conversion to Christianity. 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{"id":913,"date":"2011-08-19T06:18:29","date_gmt":"2011-08-19T12:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thinplaces\/?p=913"},"modified":"2011-08-19T06:18:29","modified_gmt":"2011-08-19T12:18:29","slug":"the-humble-presence-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thinplaces\/2011\/08\/the-humble-presence-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Humble Presence of God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I just read a book by a pastor of ours from our college days, Ian Morgan Cron<\/a>. It\u2019s a story of conversion to Christianity. It\u2019s a story of deep hurt and longing for an at times abusive, at times absent, father. It\u2019s a story of a little boy growing up. It\u2019s a story of God\u2019s faithfulness. And it\u2019s a story of God\u2019s humility. It\u2019s called Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me: A Memoir, of Sorts<\/a><\/em>. I recommend it.<\/p>\n

I recommend it for the good writing and the humor and poignancy of the narrative, but most of all because it is an honest story of the mysterious faithfulness of God. As a boy growing up in the Catholic church, God\u2019s presence was tangible, in the bread and the wine and in nature and also in this little boy\u2019s heart. But then God failed. God failed to protect this little one from the hurt of alcoholism and neglect, and as this little boy became a young man, he turned his back on God. He did so because it seemed obvious that God had turned His back first.<\/p>\n

Ian doesn\u2019t try to explain God\u2019s actions. From that boy\u2019s perspective, God turned away, and then God said, \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d Maybe it\u2019s impossible for God to say, \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d or maybe this is just one more example of God\u2019s love, God\u2019s faithfulness to us, God\u2019s own sorrow over the ruptures within our world. One more example of the ways in which God refuses to be constrained by theological propositions. The portrait we receive in this story is of a man in search of a father, and a God who gently, patiently, humbly receives his child.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"