“We can be fully present in all our glorious, horrible, loving, disgusting, terrifying, beautiful, regrettable, magnificent, pain-filled, transformative moments because we have absolutely nothing to fear.”
“Worship is expressed by the heart turned upward, but also by the life changed and committed to justice, by the way we treat others, our willingness to forgive, our desire to give.”
“It’s about showing up to the day eager to see what’s in store. Advent is about patiently waiting for God to burst into our lives over and over again.”
“We plunge in with Isaiah 5:8-12,18-23. Go ahead and buy more land, indulge in drink and revelry. Let’s see what you get. Go ahead and hasten the Lord God’s plan. Sarcasm isn’t new.”
“Prophecy is not a puzzle for us to figure out, it’s a poem that may lodge in our hearts and inspire something that we might not have imagined if it were all laid out for us. It’s a little riskier to read prophecy this way because it means that we won’t walk away from it with a definite idea of what the future holds, only the, sometimes vague, notion that God may be doing something.”
“This week may we all walk towards the light. May we all seek to be a light to others who may be walking in their own form of darkness.”
“Ambrose simply showed up hoping to prevent a riot. When he arrived, to his surprise the crowd started yelling ‘Ambrose, bishop!”’
“He became the archetypal embodiment of the unearned and utterly surprising generosity that sometimes comes into our lives at the bleakest moments.”
I did feel better after my encounter with the leaf collectors. The physical exercise no doubt helped, and the fresh air, but also it reminded me that it is almost impossible to calculate or to know what the smallest notice, the most minor kindness, done deliberately and without ceremony, can do to lift the spirits of one who might need it more than we imagine.
“Open our eyes to see you in the darkness; The darkness of our souls, hearts, and minds.”