Lord, teach me. . . .

Spare me perfection. Give me instead the wholeness that comes from embracing the full reality of who I am, just as I am. –David G. Benner Some days it seems just about impossible to believe God can possibly love me. Seriously. I am very, very good at beating myself up over things that, in the grand scheme, don’t matter even a whit. But that doesn’t stop me from living and re-living my worst moments, over and over in my mind, blaming, excusing—and wishing things had turned out differently. I think that’s called being human , and I think we all do it, to one degree or another. The sad thing is, some days it also feels as if God operates the same way, keeping a list of everything we do and somehow charting our eternal destiny based on how short our personal Screw-Up List is when we die. That’s not Good News. I am here to remind you, in case you forgot: God is better and bigger than that. (Thank God.) God’s Love for each of us is beyond our imagining. Is God cra

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair of confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing . . . not healing, not curing . . . that is a friend who cares. –Henri Nouwen Maybe you have had an experience like this. Things are just not going as you would like. Maybe you’ve been sick, or a loved one is struggling with an illness. Maybe you’ve lost someone whose absence leaves a huge, gaping hole in your life. Or maybe it’s just been days or weeks of that "Tom Petty time," the time when the waiting is the hardest part. Into your life, out of nowhere, comes a total stranger, an unexpected presence bringing a taste of hope in the darkness. They may not even realize what’s happening—but you do. As they listen, or offer a hug or a prayer, you become aware that things are changing, ever so slightly. You are breathing more easily again. The rivers of tears have slowed to a trickle. As you think abou

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. –Lao Tzu The news continues to challenge its listeners, especially those of us who believe: 1) that God’s very nature is Love; and 2) that God is ever-present and all-knowing. Even aside from the horrible, newsworthy global events of recent weeks, there are a lot of things going on, right here in our own community, that are hard to understand. Children go to bed hungry. People turn angry and violent with one another. Young people become bullies, relentlessly picking on one another. The pain grows intolerable; a child (or adult) cannot take it anymore and ends his (or her) own life, too, too soon. We gasp; we blink; we weep. And in our confusion and anger, we begin to question: If God is ever-present and all-knowing, why does this God allow hunger in the world? If God’s nature is love, why is there so much disease and violence? Why? The answers are not mine t

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. –Desmond Tutu Something has to change. Somebody should do something. I can’t believe these awful things keep happening. Why doesn’t somebody do something? Well-meaning people say things like this all the time. When things are going badly, we don’t like standing idly by, but we don’t always have a clear idea of what to do. So we wring our hands and assume things will change, simply because we think they should. Or we assume someone else will do what we are afraid to do, or choose not to do. Someone else will surely pick up extra food for that Food Bank. Someone else will speak out against corruption and poverty. Someone else will surely write enough letters to Congress, that surely laws will change and the world will be a little safer tomorrow than

I have been asked by some, how I can be so certain of the existence of a good God, and I have asked them in return if they have eyes to see. –John Ortberg (Here is part of John Ortberg’s response to the question, from God Is Closer Than You Think .) God is as close as the bounding dog who knows and loves the voice of his Master. He is as close as the laughter of a joyful heart, close as the touch of a friend. Our God is not far away in some distant tower. He is, like Waldo, present on every single page, even when it’s hard for us to see him. He is present in the magnificent chapels that we build for him, and he is present in the most magnificent chapel of mountain and sea and earth and sky that he built for us. For his Spirit, like the wind, blows wherever it will and breathes life into anybody who will let it. He is present on “rainbow days,” when our breath gets sucked out of our bodies by his beauty and grace. He is present in the ordinary moments of