On a small scale, person-to-person, Jesus encountered the kinds of suffering common to all of us. And how did he respond? Avoiding philosophical theories and theological lessons he reached out with healing and compassion. He forgave sin, healed the afflicted, cast out...
To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
We all need hope. No sparkling promises or wishes. No well laid intentions or plans. Hope. Four letters. Four letters that carry the weight of our whole world and all of our life hidden in the depth of their meaning. Whether we are waiting on a check to arrive, a door...
If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.
As his ministry progresses, Jesus is attacked in ways that are both more persistent and more threatening. The attacks come from those who are comfortable with things as they are and do not want their own role as self-righteous judges to be subverted by this One whose...
To forgive is extraordinary. And divine. And uncommon--and not instinctive. In fact, forgiveness runs precisely counter to our instincts. It tugs us beyond the place where we would want to declare our pain, nurse our hurts and invoke sympathy. It encourages us to give...
Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn't know before you learned it.
We need some Christians who are as crazy as the Lord. Crazy enough to love like Jesus, to give like Jesus, to forgive like Jesus, to do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God--like Jesus. Crazy enough to dare to change the world from the nightmare it often is into...
Forgiving and being reconciled are not about pretending things are other than they are. It is not patting one another on the back and turning a blind eye to the wrong. True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the pain, the degradation, the truth. from No...
As you have often heard me say, if you do not transform your pain, you will most assuredly transmit it. Healthy religion on the practical level tells us what to do with our pain—because we will have pain. We can’t avoid it; it’s part of life. If we’re not...