To pray...to listen to the voice of the One who calls us the "beloved," is to learn that voice excludes no one. Where I dwell, God dwells with me and where God dwells with me I find all my sisters and brothers.
03915 – Love is a Virtue
Love is a virtue and not a feeling. It is fed and fired by God--not by the favorable response of the beloved. Even when it doesn't seem to make a dime's worth of difference to the ones on whom it is lavished, it is still the most prized of all virtues because it is at...
03777 – Beautiful and Beloved
Far more people die of a withered heart than an inflated head. Never hold back from letting the people in your life know how beloved and beautiful they are.
03744 – Strongman vs. Scapegoat
Beware systems and identities that need: 1. A Strongmanand2. A Scapegoat There will be no end of violence when these two exist. They legitimate and fuel each other. Jesus demonstrates how demonically futile the Strongman/Scapegoat mechanism is in his death and...
02252 – Getting Ready for Jesus
When we read about John the Baptist during Advent, we sometimes mistakenly see him as the wild one preparing the way for the mild one, when what I think he may be actually saying is "get ready for one who is even wilder than I am--wilder for love, wilder for justice,...
02211 – Feelings Don’t Always Carry Truth
Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself: "These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious...
01912 – Hearing a Voice?
If you hear a voice over your shoulder talking about your biggest failure and it isn’t calling you ‘beloved,’ it isn’t Jesus talking.
01708 – Hate is as All-Absorbing as Love
Hate is as all-absorbing as love, as irrational, and in its own way as satisfying. As lovers thrive on the presence of the beloved, haters revel in encounters with the one they hate. They confirm him in all his darkest suspicions. They add fuel to all his most burning...
01391 – We are God’s Beloved Children
We are not what we do. We are not what we have. We are not what others think of us. Coming home is claiming the truth. I am the beloved child of a loving Creator. We no longer have to beg for permission from the world to exist.
01346 – Pain is Part of our Humanity
My own pain in life has taught me that the first step to healing is not a step away from the pain but a step toward it. When brokenness is, in fact, just as intimate a part of our being as our chosenness and our blessedness, we have to dare to overcome our fear and...