Author: Lowell Grisham

The same processes that are responsible for addiction to alcohol and narcotics are also responsible for addiction to ideas, work, relationships, power, moods, fantasies, and an endless variety of other things.

All of the readings today include some expression of judgment between “God’s people” and the “others.” The readings address these issues in very different ways, however.

There is an insight from F. D. Maurice (d. 1872) that is helpful during conversations between two of us who are half-blind: “A man is most often right in what he affirms and wrong in what he denies.”

There is something comforting about the example of the sower in the parable. The sower works with a relaxed extravagance, as if there is all the seed in the world.

There are holy places that seem to draw us toward the transcendent.

Today we read a story of Jesus’ breaking one of the Ten Commandments.

A pivotal a moment in the Christian journey happens when we realize that we are loved and accepted completely, just as we are. That is a moment of conversion. Conversion happens when we quit trying to earn love and simply accept it.

Sometimes I’ve wondered how I might have responded had I lived in Galilee during Jesus’ ministry. Would I have paid attention to him and to his movement? Would I have listened and responded?