I often think about this when I am dealing with people,.. I like to remember that what I am seeing is not the whole person. There are histories and stories behind the person in front of me, things I can’t understand. And hopefully, I can find some compassion in that.
Whether you are facing life or death, there is something here for you. Either way, it is the path of surrender. Give up your life inside of time, give up your life when you step outside of time.
To linger is tempting. I know. I don’t want to give up anything, after all. But Lent is about more than giving something up. More, even, than taking something on. There are probably a thousand or more good things you could do for Lent, but unless you allow the light of the world to shine gently in your own life, you will not really be doing it right.
…the real reason I stick with Jesus is because he is a hand holder. He is not out there somewhere, and not high above us in the sky. Jesus – God with us – is beside us, holding our hands.
These are the demons of our own time. Most of us are ridiculously happy with things just the way they are. If we weren’t, then things would be different. Do we really want to be free?
…the kind of fishing that the disciples did was usually done at night or in the early hours of the morning when most people were sleeping. That’s a mysterious time when spirits might be about and the boundary between sleeping and wakefulness is thin.
In the meantime, you and I will encounter a lot of things we don’t understand. There will be miracles which challenge our scientific world views, and statements that leave us aghast that Jesus would say such a thing.
The bishops remained loyal to him, and the church grew in power because Sylvester allowed another to take the lead and receive the glory. Sylvester didn’t lose sight of the fact that to live a humble and holy life was more important than living a life of glorious successes.
On this long, dark, winter night as we wait for the light of the world to be born consider that the light might be in you and that you might be what the world most needs.
Jesus, of course, is an incarnation of God, an event I can barely even think about because my brain is not big enough. What an amazing thing that God became one of us. It’s astounding. It’s impossible to grasp. That is why we observe it mainly with silence, in the dark.