We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection.
Christians are usually sincere and well-intentioned people until you get to any real issues of ego, control, power, money, pleasure, and security. Then they tend to be pretty much like everybody else. We often are given a bogus version of the Gospel, some fast-food...
Self-reflection is the journey to the authentic self...truly knowing who you are.
In A.D. 500, Augustine wrote: "How can you draw close to God when you are far from your own self?" In 1530, John Calvin wrote: "Our wisdom . . . consists almost entirely of two parts: knowledge of God and of ourselves." And Teresa of Avila wisely wrote: "Almost all...
As we prepare for the Lenten pilgrimage, we brace ourselves for what we might learn and experience through faithful practices that call us back to God. We begin with the smear of mortality on our foreheads, signifying that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Like...
Yearly reminder: There is no resolution that, if kept, will make you more worthy of love. You, as your actual self, and not as some made-up ideal, are already worthy.
Whether or not the call includes an outward journey, it always requires an inward one. We need to be delivered from all that binds and keeps the real self from breaking into music and becoming joy to the world. from Cry Pain, Cry Hope
Oftentimes it's the deepest pain which empowers you to grow into your highest self.
Jesus made it clear that the moral demands of the faith he taught centered on love, justice, and mercy. I believe that God is, here as everywhere, nudging Christians toward love—love for the Creator, love for other people, love for self, love for the world God has...
The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.