We use the language of promise to talk about covenant, but in reality they are subtly different from one another. CLF Learning Fellow Donté Hilliard asks us, “How do you understand the difference between covenant and a promise?”
Covenants With Yourself
Do you have any personal covenants with yourself? Are they major or minor? How do you restore covenant with yourself? -Katherine Hofmann (CLF)
What are the promises you have made to yourself?
Out of Our Separateness
“Covenantal promises are based not on certainties and specificities but on faithfulness to the love that calls each one of us out of our separateness to become a people.” -Victoria Weinsten
With whom have you connected deeply enough to become a people?
Living Aspiration
“A covenant is a living, breathing aspiration, made new every day. It can’t be enforced by consequences but it may be reinforced by forgiveness and by grace when we stumble, when we forget, when we mess up.” -Victoria Safford
How have you practiced forgiveness and grace in covenant?
Being Strong
“Being strong in covenant is not being certain of the destination toward which we are traveling or even the path that will take us there. Being strong in covenant is choosing to travel together despite all the uncertainties and maybe even because of them, unsure of where we are headed but knowing how much it matters that we are willing to move in directions we might not yet understand or predict.“-Mark Stringer
What are your experiences of being strong in your promise to travel together with someone?