Living Into the Kindom

By Mary Linda McKinney

A word on language before I jump in: I am setting aside my distaste for the “king” part of the phrase Kingdom of God. I prefer “Kindom of God” or God’s world or any number of other ways of expressing living into the perfection of God’s creation. If you are challenged by the language I use, please “listen in tongues” as you read.

I believe that we are each two people. As an example, I will say that I am both the cereal-eating, audio-book-listening person of my daily life and also the person God created me to be. I am always my funny, messy, curious self and I am always in the process of growing into my perfect self. I am me and I am becoming. Each of us is.

Similarly, I believe our world is two. It is the place full of roads and factories and books and peanut butter sandwiches that we humans have created and it is also the beautiful, perfect Earth that God created. One can live one’s whole life seeing only the mundane world but the perfection of God’s creation, both the perfection of the world and also the perfection of self are right here, available for us to live into when we have the eyes to see. I think this is what Jesus meant when he said the Kingdom of God is at hand, within us, hidden in plain view. I think he meant that there is always the opportunity to live in this world as if it is the Kingdom of God because it actually always is.

I am the biological parent of three adult people whom I love with all the love a mama can feel. I also have a whole bunch of children-of-my-heart whom I love in diverse and tender ways. Many of these dear people identify as Queer, some of them as Trans. About half of them have uteruses. Some of these loved ones suffer from mental illnesses or addictions. I also dearly love some people who were not born in the U.S. and care deeply for some who were born here with darker skin than mine. Some of these folks are Muslim or other non-Christian religions or no religion at all. The things that are happening or threatening to happen in our Country can fill me with fear. I am afraid for the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health of all the ones I care for and those I don’t know. I sometimes spiral into a panic of dread and despair as I think about the future of our society. 

But dwelling in worry and fear is not beneficial to the world, to my loved ones, or to myself. Instead, God has given me the stories of early Friends who followed their leadings even when being imprisoned was the result. They understood that caring for their fellow prisoners was also a part of how God was leading them to be in the world. 

What I learn from the examples of early Friends is that 

the Kindom of God is not contingent on the world already being harmonious and just.

God’s world is always available to us in every moment, no matter the circumstances around us. God’s kingdom is manifest when we look beyond the imperfection of this mundane world to see the world that God is inviting us to live in that which invites us to more fully become who God created us to be. Earlier Friends understood Gospel Order to be all things taking their rightful place. But we don’t have to wait on external circumstances for that to happen. In each moment we can choose to align ourselves with God’s loving presence and allow all the myriad aspects of our lives to take their rightful places. No matter the bleakness of the world around us, we can live in kinship with all of God’s creation and in doing so we will be helping to make God’s beautiful, perfect kin-dom a reality.