Of the Heart

Nobody gets paid. Let’s get that out of the way. A goodly number of us do commendable and even exhausting work on this now ten-year-old enterprise, but nobody gets a check. In fact, right now we write them.

Grievance politics seems about the only politics around these days, so I wanted to take care of that item first. We’d like you to contribute to the Reformed Journal, and we’d like you to do it monthly (easier for bookkeeping). But even before we ask, I thought I should tell you that nobody here makes money.

Don’t be mistaken. I’m not going all holier-than-thou. I’m guessing that we know more about total depravity than some random Calvinist off the street. Guilt, says Garrison Keillor, is the gift that goes on giving. And it’s fundamental in Calvinist circles.

What’s it about then, if money isn’t the heart of the enterprise? Why The Twelve? Why a Reformed Journal? What do we think we are doing?

I won’t try to answer for others, but I confess to suffer from whatever it is that makes me itch: CRT, for example, or complementarianism — I just don’t understand. Queer theory, grievance politics, creationism — but I try to. Good stories, bad stories, evil stories, moral stories, Christian stories, lovely stories and not-so lovelies — I want to hear ‘em, know ‘em, tell ‘em, share ‘em. I want them to fill up the holes in my heart and soul and mind, to prompt my human self to see and feel and hear, each day more, ever more, about the truly immense world a holy God created and so much loved he sent his Son.

I want to see and hear the big stories. Like everyone else beneath God’s great dome of sky, I want all of it to make sense in my mind and peace in my soul — and yours.

You may have seen the Zuni deer that adorns distinguished pottery originating in the pueblo. You’ll recognize that deer when you see the arrow that goes into his mouth and opens into his heart because the Zunis want to believe that everything out there has life and meaning and import, everything of the world is of the heart. Everything, you know, every last square inch.

When you begin to see that with us, we all get paid.

We so appreciate your support.