Do you have a longing to belong? This is inherent in the human experience because I put it there. Have you found that you have to be selective in your associations? Have you ever joined a club or other organization and found that the demand for conformity was greater than the resulting sense of belonging? Have you found that even churches, or especially churches, impose severe demands as the price of belonging, even if the requirements are unspoken? Not every church is for you.

Everyone suffers wounds in the course of life, and not all are physical injuries. How do you handle yours? You have seen people defeated and embittered by the things they have suffered. Yet have you also seen people ennobled by their wounds? Do you know of anyone of noble character that hasn’t suffered to get there? So your response to your wounds makes a difference in the way they affect you. It is not too much to say that they can become sacred wounds. What effect do your wounds have on you? Do you have access to and apply a means for turning ordinary wounds into sacred wounds?

Do you associate with sinners? You could argue this point both ways from scriptures, and many positions in between. Come out from among them and be ye separate. But you are also to let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify me. Paul taught to make a distinction between those who identified as believers and those who did not. So is there a tension between maintaining purity in association and coming into contact with those who need the message you have? What example do you see in my life? Did I avoid contact with outsiders?

Do you think of me as a father? This image was common even during my time when my disciples asked me to show them the Father. This could be a favorable image for you or not depending on the relationship you had with your own father. I told my disciples that if they had seen me they had seen the Father, but I went beyond the conventional understanding of this concept by introducing the word Abba. This term for father elevated the concept to a higher level of intimacy. Have you heard me described in terms that are distant, austere, harsh, judgmental, and indifferent?