Squinch – a blog site for me to explore one square inch of life. One of my spiritual forefathers, Abraham Kuyper, once famously said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” He was talking about the breadth and depth dimensions of the Christian faith; it’s not merely religious piety, a one-day-a-week faith or an insurance package for eternity. If it’s real at all, it better be a hugely expansive understanding of the world and a way of life that touches each dimension of existence.
But life is so full and rich that sometimes a square inch (or its metric equivalent) is all I can actually fully take in. I love the icon that writer Anne Lamott keeps on her desk to remind her of the writing task – a one-inch frame. Why? She writes: “It reminds me that all I have to do is to write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame. This is all I have to bite off for the time being.” In this blog I want to limit my gaze to one square inch, to be present to what’s right in front of me.
And then there are squinches, a structure that provides an architectural transition from one shape to another; for example, from a square to a polygon or say an octagon to a circular form like a dome. I’m convinced we’re in the midst of all sorts of cultural transitions and we’ll need cultural squinches to help us make the necessary shifts. Some of what I hope to do here is thinking and writing on spiritual and cultural squinches.
