What I really want to say is that my heart is full of gratitude for this ten-year chapter in my life.
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In these days when a quick text or an email that flies off our fingers (and thumbs) pulsing through space getting important messages across quickly, it’s good to also remember the art and science of writing.
I had a remarkable teacher many years ago, who taught a series of lessons he called “Simple Lessons, Easy to Forget.”
Long ago in a faraway place the good King Westerfal ruled his peaceful kingdom with kindness.
I am a collector of great quotes and phrases. I wish I could hire someone to go through all my notebooks, electronic files, and random pieces of paper to organize these jewels so I could more easily retrieve them instead of always having to search for them.
The first beatitude, “blessed are the poor” in Luke’s gospel, reads “blessed are the poor in spirit” in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus is not telling people to be poor, or poor in spirit so they can gain the kingdom of heaven. He’s making an announcement — God is for the poor. The question for the church is — who are we for?
For all the questions we may fairly ask about the story of Cain and Abel, there are a few critical issues that must not get lost in our questions about the text. What does it really mean to “be my brother (and sister)’s keeper? In the words of Elie Wiesel,”do your best.” Here’s a little bit more about how that might look in today’s world.
This past week I stood in the garden of a local church where eight of us gathered to remember the life of a man who lived homeless for the last several years. Within that space an exchange of honor and love reached through the normal walls of our lives.
Looking for someone to blame is only one of the ways that we can miss the main point. In times of stress it is easy to get off-track and lose focus. We are only human, after all, and we do not know how to do everything perfectly. But we are not alone. We live in God’s love, and we are in that love together.
Being afraid of something does not mitigate hope. We are human and we cannot be anything else. Any number of things can bring us to fear, and in humility we know that. And yet, hope survives and thrives alongside fear.