Lord, teach me. . . .

All you need is love. –The Beatles ( This week, Easter Week, I am turning this column over to the apostle Paul for an important reminder.  We know it better as 1 Corinthians 13, from Eugene Peterson's   The Message . ) If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always, “Me first,” Doesn’t fly...

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow. –G. K. Chesterton St. Patrick’s Day is one of the most popular holidays in the U.S. for a parade. My city of Cleveland knows how to do it right. This year, the estimate was that there would be around 10,000 people walking in the parade, and ten times as many watching! (Did you know? In Cleveland, you can pay $25 to be a “Guarantor.” That apparently means, no matter what, even if no one else shows up, those Guarantors will make sure there’s a parade.) We watched and cheered as firefighters, police, Irish dancers, and dozens of Guarantors marched proudly down Superior Avenue, celebrating our city and who we are. It was a gorgeous day, and a tremendous parade! About two thousand years ago, there was another parade, on the road to Jerusalem. At the beginning of the Passover celebration, here comes Jesus. As he arrives, the crowd, already caught up in the excitement of the Pas...

A family is a risky venture, because the greater the love, the greater the loss. . . . That’s the trade-off. But I’ll take it all. –Brad Pitt In our modern world, a family can take many different forms. What was once “traditionally” defined as a mother, father and 2.2 children is now much, much more. The intricate, colorful tapestry we weave with our lives becomes bolder and more brilliant, at once unique and diverse—and constantly changing. The cycle is remarkable, if we think about it. We come in to the world helpless and hungry, wriggling and wailing, completely dependent on a grownup for—well, for everything. Left to their own devices, infants don’t stand a chance. What matters? Love matters, because loving leads to caring. As that infant begins to grow, to change and spread her wings, her mantra becomes I can do it myself! Trials, successes—and failures—are daily occurrences. What matters? Love matters, love enough to let that child learn and grow (and fail), an...

We’re consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. . . . What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear. –Chuck Palahniuk It all happened so quickly. One minute, he was chatting on his cellphone with a friend, keys in one hand and Starbucks in the other, making plans for an upcoming retreat. The next minute, he was picking his way through shattered glass, struck dumb by a world turned on its head. His house had been broken into. Big time. The kitchen drawers had been pulled out and dumped. That shattered glass? It used to be the back door. Gone were the family’s three computers, the expensive bicycles, their iPods—even her purse, with her entire identity, was gone, along with the nearly-full jar of change and the neatly organized system for keeping track of cash. He could hardly believe his eyes. Police were called, credit cards cancelled. Neighbors’ interviews were taken. Amazing how isolated we can...