02/25/2026
Transformation Over Transaction. Across the biblical story — especially in the prophets — there’s a recurring tension: the quiet drift from inner transformation toward religious transaction.
About 600 years before Jesus, during King Josiah’s reign, a “book of the covenant” was rediscovered. Its words revealed how far the nation had drifted — even into practices like child sacrifice — that stood in stark contrast to covenant faithfulness. The rediscovery sparked reform and a turning away from those rituals.
Jeremiah spoke into that same moment, reminding Israel that God’s primary call was about relationship: “Obey my voice… and I will be your God”(Jeremiah 7:22–23).
Relationship over transaction.
Over time, people build structures meant to honor God. But slowly, those structures can begin replacing the encounter they were meant to support. Often it’s a subtle drift from presence — until life becomes shaped more by ritual than by awareness.
Jeremiah warned about trusting the Temple more than the transformation it symbolized. Centuries later, Jesus speaks in that same prophetic tone:
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
And when he says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” he seems to point us away from stone toward living presence — from external assurance toward embodied awareness.
I’m not anti-religion. I’m not anti-tradition. But I do grow concerned whenever practice becomes performance — whenever transaction replaces transformation.
And I find myself wondering how easily any of us could drift there. History suggests it happens more often than we think.
I’m sitting with that.
One In Love
