We can't seem to know the good news that we are God's beloveds on our own. It has to be mirrored to us. We're essentially social beings. Another has to tell us we are beloved and good. Within contemplative prayer, we present ourselves for the ultimate gaze, the ultimate mirroring. Before this gaze of Love, we gradually disrobe and allow ourselves to be seen, to be known in every nook and cranny, nothing hidden, nothing denied, nothing disguised. It's like lovemaking. The wonderful thing is, after a while, we feel so safe that we know we don't have to pretend or disguise any more. We don't have to put on any kind of costume.
Letting your naked self be known by God is always to recognize your need for mercy and your own utter inadequacy and littleness. You realize that even the best things you've done have often been for mixed and selfish motives, not really for love. The saints often weep in the middle of prayer because they recognize how tiny they are in the presence of such Infinity. Your need for mercy draws you close to God. It's a wonderful and humiliating experience. Within contemplation, you stand under an immense waterfall of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.
Knowing your need for mercy opens you to receiving mercy. Knowing your intimate need for mercy is in great part what it means to know, need, or fall in love with God, because God is mercy itself and must be experienced as such! If you live like the Pharisee in Jesus' parable (Luke 18:9-14), where you do everything perfectly and you are never in need of mercy, then you will never know God! So don't be too good, even in your own eyes. Make sure you always and happily stand on the receiving end of God, just like the Three Persons of the Trinity do to one another, where self-emptying always precedes any new outpouring.
Frankly, it all comes down to this: God doesn't love you because you are good. God loves you because God is good!
-- Richard Rohr
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Saturday, July 30, 2016
The Church at Its Racial Turning Point
Friday, July 29, 2016
Time
In a 'yes to everything' culture, there is something powerful and respectful about saying, 'No'.
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What I choose to spend time on is what is important to me.
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We spend most of our time affecting over things that we think we know. And yet there is so much more that we don't know, than we do know. So, what are the implications of this on the way we spend so much of our time?
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Will personal drive always be at odds with contentment? Is peace the enemy of ambition?
-- Nathaniel Bellows
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What I choose to spend time on is what is important to me.
****
We spend most of our time affecting over things that we think we know. And yet there is so much more that we don't know, than we do know. So, what are the implications of this on the way we spend so much of our time?
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Will personal drive always be at odds with contentment? Is peace the enemy of ambition?
-- Nathaniel Bellows
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
I Used To Think: Evidence
I used to think...that I needed to dig for evidence. Now I know that it is better to let compassion surface.
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Monday, July 25, 2016
Advice to a Blue-Bird
'Poem selection' for the week -- "Advice to a Blue-Bird":
Who can make a delicate adventure
Of walking on the ground?
Who can make grass-blades
Arcades for pertly careless straying?
You alone, who skim against these leaves,
Turning all desire into light whips
Moulded by your deep blue wing-tips,
You who shrill your unconcern
Into the sternly antique sky.
You to whom all things
Hold an equal kiss of touch.
Mincing, wanton blue-bird,
Grimace at the hoofs of passing men.
You alone can lose yourself
Within a sky, and rob it of its blue!
-- Maxwell Bodenheim
Who can make a delicate adventure
Of walking on the ground?
Who can make grass-blades
Arcades for pertly careless straying?
You alone, who skim against these leaves,
Turning all desire into light whips
Moulded by your deep blue wing-tips,
You who shrill your unconcern
Into the sternly antique sky.
You to whom all things
Hold an equal kiss of touch.
Mincing, wanton blue-bird,
Grimace at the hoofs of passing men.
You alone can lose yourself
Within a sky, and rob it of its blue!
-- Maxwell Bodenheim
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Unbreakable Pledge
If Jesus Christ is, as we believe him to be, none other than God himself incarnate among us at work for us and for our salvation, then Jesus Christ, who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, is God’s unbreakable pledge that he will save and renew his creation, finally making all things new. If in Jesus Christ God has taken up our creaturely humanity into union with himself once and for all, then God can no more let us go to ruin and destruction than he can undo the Incarnation, go back upon His Word enacted in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ or contradict the Love which God himself eternally is, and which he has irreversibly incarnated in our human existence and destiny in Jesus Christ. That is the crucial point upon which Jesus Christ insisted when he declared that there is an identity of Word and Act between himself and God the Father, and went on to tell us that God has put everything into his hands, and no one can snatch us out of his grasp. That is surely a mighty Word of Christ to us today, when we seem to see human life and existence fragmenting and disintegrating all round us, and we quail in our innermost beings at the thought of fearful things that may overtake the life and destiny of mankind on earth. Let us put in the centre of all that the Word of Christ which cannot fail or pass away, for it is the Word of God eternal. Christ will bring about what he has promised, for his Word cannot pass away.
-- Thomas Torrance
My friend, Rujida, shared this with me...a fitting reminder for me tonight.
-- Thomas Torrance
My friend, Rujida, shared this with me...a fitting reminder for me tonight.
Saturday, July 23, 2016
Desire
With finally a period of undictated moments, I sat alone in my larger-than-needed house, without many of the discomforts that so many endure, reading. 'Keeping Faith', chapter 3 of the book, The Wounds of God, by Penelope Wilcock; my wife said I would love this book and she is right.
I am swollen with the tears of emotion over the love described in the lead character, the Abbot. So full, in part, I suspect because of the lack of such love, such strength, in me. Or, at the very least, the lack of recognition of it. It could, in fact, be there. But, what seems lacking, is a confidence that it is. Perhaps, that is not a necessary thing to have. Though, without it, I can be plagued at times by the insecurity of it.
Do others, in fact, possess something I simply do not? ...that certainly seems plausible. There are many things others have that I do not. What, then, is the point of the question? Would it not be something more akin to, is the something they have, something I, too, can acquire? If so, what is needed in me, to acquire it? And, is the answer to this question not nearly fully described in this very chapter?
We are all being given the opportunity to acquire something significant. What is it, then, that inhibits our acquisition? We might tend to think it is a matter of the will, or of the discipline needed. And, that may very well be true...Lord knows how weak our feigned attempts are. Is it endurance? Also, perhaps. But, I wonder more at what it is that fuels things like endurance, discipline, or will, which seem like important methods, but not inherent drivers.
Is it not the case that it is our desire which compels through things that inhibit us? What it is that we want, more than anything else, that moves us through or keeps us able to remain for something, even when all else simply seems to impede our ability to persist.
Desire, in fact, is what God uses, arouses even, in us to reveal to us who we really are. This alone is what changes us from being and pursuing a version of ourselves that is far less than we've imagined to be. The only thing, in the end, that can give us the ability to retain our sense of being, what we want and don't want, especially when the severity of circumstances abate or the natural comfort of things cause us to forget, is our truest desire.
I am swollen with the tears of emotion over the love described in the lead character, the Abbot. So full, in part, I suspect because of the lack of such love, such strength, in me. Or, at the very least, the lack of recognition of it. It could, in fact, be there. But, what seems lacking, is a confidence that it is. Perhaps, that is not a necessary thing to have. Though, without it, I can be plagued at times by the insecurity of it.
Do others, in fact, possess something I simply do not? ...that certainly seems plausible. There are many things others have that I do not. What, then, is the point of the question? Would it not be something more akin to, is the something they have, something I, too, can acquire? If so, what is needed in me, to acquire it? And, is the answer to this question not nearly fully described in this very chapter?
We are all being given the opportunity to acquire something significant. What is it, then, that inhibits our acquisition? We might tend to think it is a matter of the will, or of the discipline needed. And, that may very well be true...Lord knows how weak our feigned attempts are. Is it endurance? Also, perhaps. But, I wonder more at what it is that fuels things like endurance, discipline, or will, which seem like important methods, but not inherent drivers.
Is it not the case that it is our desire which compels through things that inhibit us? What it is that we want, more than anything else, that moves us through or keeps us able to remain for something, even when all else simply seems to impede our ability to persist.
Desire, in fact, is what God uses, arouses even, in us to reveal to us who we really are. This alone is what changes us from being and pursuing a version of ourselves that is far less than we've imagined to be. The only thing, in the end, that can give us the ability to retain our sense of being, what we want and don't want, especially when the severity of circumstances abate or the natural comfort of things cause us to forget, is our truest desire.
Friday, July 22, 2016
Civilizations Begin To Die...
Every observer of the grand sweep of history, from the prophets of Israel to the Islamic sage Ibn Khaldun, from Giambattista Vico to John Stuart Mill, and Bertrand Russell to Will Durant, has said essentially the same thing: that civilizations begin to die when they lose the moral passion that brought them into being in the first place. It happened to Greece and Rome, and it can happen to the West. The sure signs are these: a falling birthrate, moral decay, growing inequalities, a loss of trust in social institutions, self-indulgence on the part of the rich, hopelessness on the part of the poor, unintegrated minorities, a failure to make sacrifices in the present for the sake of the future, a loss of faith in old beliefs and no new vision to take their place. These are the danger signals and they are flashing now.
The alternative?
To become inner-directed again. This means recovering the moral dimension that links our welfare to the welfare of others, making us collectively responsible for the common good. It means recovering the spiritual dimension that helps us tell the difference between the value of things and their price. We are more than consumers and voters; our dignity transcends what we earn and own. It means remembering that what's important is not just satisfying our desires but also knowing which desires to satisfy. It means restraining ourselves in the present so that our children may have a viable future. It means reclaiming collective memory and identity so that society becomes less of a hotel and more of a home. Continue here....
-- Lord Jonathan Sacks
The alternative?
To become inner-directed again. This means recovering the moral dimension that links our welfare to the welfare of others, making us collectively responsible for the common good. It means recovering the spiritual dimension that helps us tell the difference between the value of things and their price. We are more than consumers and voters; our dignity transcends what we earn and own. It means remembering that what's important is not just satisfying our desires but also knowing which desires to satisfy. It means restraining ourselves in the present so that our children may have a viable future. It means reclaiming collective memory and identity so that society becomes less of a hotel and more of a home. Continue here....
-- Lord Jonathan Sacks
Thursday, July 21, 2016
No One Is Unreasonable
No one says, "I'm going to be unfair to this person today, brutal in fact, even though they don't deserve it or it's not helpful."
Few people say, "I know that this person signed the contract and did what they promised, but I'm going to rip them off, just because I can."
And it's quite rare to have someone say, "I'm a selfish narcissist, and everyone should revolve around me merely because I said so."
In fact, all of us have a narrative. It's the story we tell ourselves about how we got here, what we're building, what our urgencies are.
And within that narrative, we act in a way that seems reasonable.
To be clear, the narrative isn't true. It's merely our version, our self-talk about what's going on. It's the excuses, perceptions and history we've woven together to get through the world. It's our grievances and our perception of privilege, our grudges and our loves.
No one is unreasonable. Or to be more accurate, no one thinks that they are being unreasonable.
That's why we almost never respond well when someone points out how unreasonable we're being. We don't see it, because our narrative of the world around us won't allow us to. Our worldview makes it really difficult to be empathetic, because seeing the world through the eyes of someone else takes so much effort.
It's certainly possible to change someone's narrative, but it takes time and patience and leverage. Teaching a new narrative is hard work, essential work, but something that is difficult to do at scale.
In the short run, our ability to treat different people differently means that we can seek out people who have a narrative that causes them to engage with us in reasonable ways. When we open the door for these folks, we're far more likely to create the impact that we seek. No one thinks they're unreasonable, but you certainly don't have to work with the people who are.
And, if you're someone who finds that your narrative isn't helping you make the impact you seek, best to look hard at your narrative, the way you justify your unreasonableness, not the world outside.
-- Seth Godin
Few people say, "I know that this person signed the contract and did what they promised, but I'm going to rip them off, just because I can."
And it's quite rare to have someone say, "I'm a selfish narcissist, and everyone should revolve around me merely because I said so."
In fact, all of us have a narrative. It's the story we tell ourselves about how we got here, what we're building, what our urgencies are.
And within that narrative, we act in a way that seems reasonable.
To be clear, the narrative isn't true. It's merely our version, our self-talk about what's going on. It's the excuses, perceptions and history we've woven together to get through the world. It's our grievances and our perception of privilege, our grudges and our loves.
No one is unreasonable. Or to be more accurate, no one thinks that they are being unreasonable.
That's why we almost never respond well when someone points out how unreasonable we're being. We don't see it, because our narrative of the world around us won't allow us to. Our worldview makes it really difficult to be empathetic, because seeing the world through the eyes of someone else takes so much effort.
It's certainly possible to change someone's narrative, but it takes time and patience and leverage. Teaching a new narrative is hard work, essential work, but something that is difficult to do at scale.
In the short run, our ability to treat different people differently means that we can seek out people who have a narrative that causes them to engage with us in reasonable ways. When we open the door for these folks, we're far more likely to create the impact that we seek. No one thinks they're unreasonable, but you certainly don't have to work with the people who are.
And, if you're someone who finds that your narrative isn't helping you make the impact you seek, best to look hard at your narrative, the way you justify your unreasonableness, not the world outside.
-- Seth Godin
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
I've Noticed: Out Loud
I've noticed...that when I say things out loud, what I'm thinking about gets clarified. In other words, sometimes I need to hear it , to know more what I'm thinking. And, often times, by saying it aloud, the parts that don't 'ring true' are identified.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Monday, July 18, 2016
"When I Am Asked"
'Poem selection' for the week -- "When I Am Asked":
When I am asked
how I began writing poems,
I talk about the indifference of nature.
It was soon after my mother died,
a brilliant June day,
everything blooming.
I sat on a gray stone bench
in a lovingly planted garden,
but the day lilies were as deaf
as the ears of drunken sleepers,
and the roses curved inward.
Nothing was black or broken
and not a leaf fell
and the sun blared endless commercials
for summer holidays.
I sat on a gray stone bench
ringed with the ingenue faces
of pink and white impatiens
and placed my grief
in the mouth of language,
the only thing that would grieve with me.
-- Lisel Mueller
When I am asked
how I began writing poems,
I talk about the indifference of nature.
It was soon after my mother died,
a brilliant June day,
everything blooming.
I sat on a gray stone bench
in a lovingly planted garden,
but the day lilies were as deaf
as the ears of drunken sleepers,
and the roses curved inward.
Nothing was black or broken
and not a leaf fell
and the sun blared endless commercials
for summer holidays.
I sat on a gray stone bench
ringed with the ingenue faces
of pink and white impatiens
and placed my grief
in the mouth of language,
the only thing that would grieve with me.
-- Lisel Mueller
Sunday, July 17, 2016
So Strongly
...you can let go of and even easily "admit your wrongs." You are being held so strongly and so deeply that you can stop holding onto or defending yourself. God forever sees and loves Christ in you; it is only we who doubt our divine identity as children of God.
Yet the vast majority of Christians still believe in a punitive God and a pathetic notion of retributive justice, which is totally unworthy of God. This false and toxic image of God normally only recedes if we have an inner life of prayer.
What hope and joy a God of Infinite Love gives us all! Among many other things, it takes away all fear of admitting our wrongs to God, to ourselves, and to others.
-- Richard Rohr
Yet the vast majority of Christians still believe in a punitive God and a pathetic notion of retributive justice, which is totally unworthy of God. This false and toxic image of God normally only recedes if we have an inner life of prayer.
What hope and joy a God of Infinite Love gives us all! Among many other things, it takes away all fear of admitting our wrongs to God, to ourselves, and to others.
-- Richard Rohr
Saturday, July 16, 2016
SM Brunch 2: Share It, Face Alone, Be There, and Flat Screens
More 'Saturday Mornings Brunch':
Half (the better half) of something good is the ability to share it will someone else.
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You cannot face your fear alone.
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We can offer no solutions, no easy answers, to other people's tragedies. We can only be there.
-- Penelope Wilcock, The Wounds of God
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Flat screens can be a bane to our souls.
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Half (the better half) of something good is the ability to share it will someone else.
****
You cannot face your fear alone.
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We can offer no solutions, no easy answers, to other people's tragedies. We can only be there.
-- Penelope Wilcock, The Wounds of God
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Flat screens can be a bane to our souls.
****
Friday, July 15, 2016
FILL THE MALL - 7/16/16
After another night of even more tragedy, we seem to have burdens everywhere to lay down.
Might we join FILL THE MALL tomorrow by praying for our world, our own country, our neighbors? For ourselves?
It will be interesting to see whether or how the media covers this event, because as this article points out, the media has a significant role in all that is going on.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Compatibility
I read an article recently about marriage and the idea of finding the 'right' person as a spouse. This observation struck me:
The person who is best suited to us is not the person who shares our every taste (he or she doesn't exist), but the person who can negotiate differences in taste intelligently—, the person who is good at disagreement. Rather than some notional idea of perfect complementarity, it is the capacity to tolerate differences with generosity that is the true marker of the "not overly wrong" person (as opposed the "right person" we otherwise are taught to look for). Compatibility is an achievement of love; it must not be its precondition.
-- Alain de Botton
The person who is best suited to us is not the person who shares our every taste (he or she doesn't exist), but the person who can negotiate differences in taste intelligently—, the person who is good at disagreement. Rather than some notional idea of perfect complementarity, it is the capacity to tolerate differences with generosity that is the true marker of the "not overly wrong" person (as opposed the "right person" we otherwise are taught to look for). Compatibility is an achievement of love; it must not be its precondition.
-- Alain de Botton
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
I Used To Think: The Answer
I used to think...that what I needed was 'the answer', now I know that what I really need is 'the source'.
It is not getting beyond (past) something or even to something that is the most significant thing; it is what or who we learn to rely on that is...the significant thing. Life is life. It's not going to change that much. I, however, can change; becoming transformed, in how I relate to life.
It is not getting beyond (past) something or even to something that is the most significant thing; it is what or who we learn to rely on that is...the significant thing. Life is life. It's not going to change that much. I, however, can change; becoming transformed, in how I relate to life.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Monday, July 11, 2016
litany
'Poem selection' for the week -- "litany":
I wish I knew how
It would feel to be free
I wish I could break
All the chains holding me
— Nina Simone
today i am a black woman in america
& i am singing a melody ridden lullaby
it sounds like:
the gentrification of a brooklyn stoop
the rent raised three times my wages
the bodega and laundromat burned down on the corner
the people on the corner
each lock & key of their chromosomes
a note of ash & inquiry on their tongues
today i am a black woman in a hopeless state
i will apply for financial aid and food stamps
with the same mouth i spit poems from
i will ask the angels of a creative god to lessen
the blows
& i will beg for forgiveness when i curse
the rising sun
today, i am a black woman in a body of coal
i am always burning and no one knows my name
i am a nameless fury, i am a blues scratched from
the throat of ms. nina—i am always angry
i am always a bumble hive of hello
i love like this too loudly, my neighbors
think i am an unforgiving bitter
sometimes, i think my neighbors are right
most times i think my neighbors are nosey
today, i am a cold country, a storm
brewing, a heat wave of a woman wearing
red pumps to the funeral of my ex-lover’s
today, i am a woman, a brown and black &
brew woman dreaming of freedom
today, i am a mother, & my country is burning
and i forgot how to flee
from such a flamboyant backdraft
—i’m too in awe of how beautiful i look
on fire
-- Mahogany L. Browne
From the author:
“‘litany’ was written after the anniversary of ‘I Wish I Knew How It Felt to Be Free,’ made famous by Nina Simone. And I sat with what that meant, years later—when I am still wishing for a certain type of freedom. To think of the time passing but of senseless deaths of black and brown bodies remaining. The poem was a mulling of all that has changed and all that has not. Injustice has not changed. Poverty has not changed. The idea that I am writing from poem to check to mouth/house is no coincidence. And the building on my corner was most certainly burned to the ground, leaving folks homeless. Within two weeks there was talk of building condos. And my neighbors and I, free to watch, stood on the opposite corner of the destroyed building as contractors stomped in and out of the remains. Someone smiled loudly about the ‘new multimillion-dollar building plans.’ And it didn’t feel like freedom at all.”
I wish I knew how
It would feel to be free
I wish I could break
All the chains holding me
— Nina Simone
today i am a black woman in america
& i am singing a melody ridden lullaby
it sounds like:
the gentrification of a brooklyn stoop
the rent raised three times my wages
the bodega and laundromat burned down on the corner
the people on the corner
each lock & key of their chromosomes
a note of ash & inquiry on their tongues
today i am a black woman in a hopeless state
i will apply for financial aid and food stamps
with the same mouth i spit poems from
i will ask the angels of a creative god to lessen
the blows
& i will beg for forgiveness when i curse
the rising sun
today, i am a black woman in a body of coal
i am always burning and no one knows my name
i am a nameless fury, i am a blues scratched from
the throat of ms. nina—i am always angry
i am always a bumble hive of hello
i love like this too loudly, my neighbors
think i am an unforgiving bitter
sometimes, i think my neighbors are right
most times i think my neighbors are nosey
today, i am a cold country, a storm
brewing, a heat wave of a woman wearing
red pumps to the funeral of my ex-lover’s
today, i am a woman, a brown and black &
brew woman dreaming of freedom
today, i am a mother, & my country is burning
and i forgot how to flee
from such a flamboyant backdraft
—i’m too in awe of how beautiful i look
on fire
-- Mahogany L. Browne
From the author:
“‘litany’ was written after the anniversary of ‘I Wish I Knew How It Felt to Be Free,’ made famous by Nina Simone. And I sat with what that meant, years later—when I am still wishing for a certain type of freedom. To think of the time passing but of senseless deaths of black and brown bodies remaining. The poem was a mulling of all that has changed and all that has not. Injustice has not changed. Poverty has not changed. The idea that I am writing from poem to check to mouth/house is no coincidence. And the building on my corner was most certainly burned to the ground, leaving folks homeless. Within two weeks there was talk of building condos. And my neighbors and I, free to watch, stood on the opposite corner of the destroyed building as contractors stomped in and out of the remains. Someone smiled loudly about the ‘new multimillion-dollar building plans.’ And it didn’t feel like freedom at all.”
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Worry and Prayer
Pray, and let God worry.
-- William Law
-- William Law
It seems we often don't pray because we don't believe...that it will really leverage anything. Of course, this perspective nearly wholly misses the purpose of prayer, it is not primarily just to get something, it is to abide in something.
Saturday, July 09, 2016
Saturday Mornings Brunch
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Our inadequacy is not our problem; our fear is.
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We are prone to the method of self-chastisement -- why?
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In spite of what our culture says, we are not primarily sexual beings.
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...the severity of restraint and respect.
Friday, July 08, 2016
Preparation in Gentleness
There is one thing I must do here at my woodshed hermitage... and that is to prepare for my death. But that means a preparation in gentleness...
-- Thomas MertonWhat a great leap — from death to gentleness! So different from Dylan Thomas’s famous advice:
“Do not go gentle into that good night...Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”When I was 35, raging seemed right. But at 77, it’s Thomas Merton, not Dylan Thomas, who speaks to me.
The prospect of death — heightened by winter’s dark and cold, by solitude, silence, and age — makes it clear that my calling is to be gentle with the many expressions of life, old and new, that must be handled with care if they are to survive and thrive.
Sometimes, of course, that means becoming fierce in confronting the enemies of gentleness. If that’s a contradiction, so be it! As Merton said in The Sign of Jonas:
I find myself traveling toward my destiny in the belly of a paradox.-- Parker Palmer
Thursday, July 07, 2016
Wednesday, July 06, 2016
Tuesday, July 05, 2016
Kindness
'Poem selection' for the week -- "Kindness":
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
-- Naomi Shihab Nye
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
-- Naomi Shihab Nye
Monday, July 04, 2016
Sunday, July 03, 2016
Saturday, July 02, 2016
Impulse: Compare & Compete
The impulse to compare and compete does not always come from arrogance. Sometimes it comes from a frightened, lonely, shame-filled place where the only instinct is survival—like minnows swimming among sharks. No matter how athletic, slim, handsome or pretty, intelligent, well-read, respected, connected, funny, wealthy, or religious we are, if we anchor our worth in these things instead of in the smile of God over us, these things will eventually wreck us.
The only esteem that won’t abandon us is the esteem given to us by Jesus. Why? Because only in Jesus are we fully known and always loved, thoroughly exposed yet never rejected. Only Jesus will repeatedly forgive us when we fail him. Only Jesus will declare his affection for us when we are at our very worst as well as at our very best. Only in Jesus can we return to that blessed Edenic state of being naked and without shame...continue here.
-- Scott Sauls
Aim at heaven and you get earth thrown it. Aim at earth and you get neither.The quest for self-esteem is, deep down, an attempt to silence negative verdicts that assault us from the outside and from within.
-- C.S. Lewis
The only esteem that won’t abandon us is the esteem given to us by Jesus. Why? Because only in Jesus are we fully known and always loved, thoroughly exposed yet never rejected. Only Jesus will repeatedly forgive us when we fail him. Only Jesus will declare his affection for us when we are at our very worst as well as at our very best. Only in Jesus can we return to that blessed Edenic state of being naked and without shame...continue here.
-- Scott Sauls
Friday, July 01, 2016
For vs Against
Fight against something and we focus on the thing we hate. Fight for something and we focus on the thing we love.
-- Simon Sinek
-- Simon Sinek
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