Suddenly summoned to witness something great and horrendous, we keep fighting not to reduce it to our own smallness.

I am nurtured within the womb of universal consciousness. It supports my developing awareness as I witness, engage, learn, create, exchange.

Delphine witnessed awful things occurring to other humans. Worse than that, she was powerless to alter their fate. It would be that way all her life--disasters, falling like chairs all around her, falling so close they disarranged her hair, but not touching her.

I don't believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.

When most major Protestant denominations have their annual councils, assemblies, or conventions, they make pronouncements on matters having to do with disarmament, federal aid to education, birth control, the United Nations, and any number of social and political issues. Very rarely are any resolutions passed that have to do with theredemptive witness of the Gospel.

While separation does not mean disengagement from the world, there are certain activities and places that God clearly wants us to avoid not only to protect ourselves from spiritual harm but so that the witness we have will not be tarnished.