The Second Day of Christmas; Saint Stephen’s Day

“Instead of being a time of unusual behavior, Christmas is perhaps the only time in the year when people can obey their natural impulses and express their true sentiments without feeling self-conscious and, perhaps, foolish.  Christmas, in short, is about the only chance a man has to be himself.” ~ Francis C. Farley

Two Turtle Doves

The Second Day of Christmas is the one that reminds us of unconditional love and perfect dedication. It is the feast day of St. Stephen. We are reminded that love overcomes hatred as evidenced by his legacy left which somewhat troubles the hearts and souls of those who are filled with malice and malcontent.  That gift of love left by Stephen haunted his persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, until he could stand it no more.  On a dusty road, he saw the light and was forever converted. St. Paul cleared the way for all of us to follow.  Love triumphs, Love wins, Love endures.

What a message we receive in these days of Christmas celebration!  There is an urge to get it all over with, to pack up the decorations, put away the presents, clean up the mess, and to resume the day-to-day routines.  How about if we summon the spirit to resist that temptation right now?  Two turtle doves are the symbol of this second day of Christmas.  It is the perfect opportunity to think about those little loving creatures who dedicate their entire lives to each other.  They are little signs of God’s love; a love which makes no demands and asks no favors and has no strings attached.  Think of how unlike that our regular, busy or hum-drum days can be.  We require performance from each other.  We expect returns for what we give.  We keep step with an invisible and arduous drummer telling us to be worthy. 

Saint Stephen

I stand against trying to put Christmas back into storage bins and boxes.  Give it up!  Settle into the 12 Days and receive a new way of living out the love which is given so freely.  Perhaps, even after two thousand years, St.Stephen and St. Paul have personally left each of us with a cleared the way that we might navigate life differently.

Gifts of The Wonderful

“The main trouble is there are too many people who don't know where they're going and they want to get there too fast!”

Sylvester (The Bishop’s Wife, 1947)

I’m waiting for The Wonderful. 

It’s coming as sure as there will be white Christmases, holiday decorations, familiar old songs, eggnog, stuffed stockings and presents under the tree.  Many of us have the luxury of fond memories, enticing smells of things cooking and a landscape that twinkles with a thousand lights to remind us.  Some have not been as fortunate. 

But we must remember that there is more to Christmas than the things we might receive and give.  I have come to call it The Wonderful.  It has to do with a marvelous transformation that seems to happen to people this time of the year.  Waiting for The Wonderful creates an atmosphere of childlike joy.  The possibility of a miracle reigns supreme. Something extraordinary is coming as our waiting takes on a joy of its’ own.

Christmas movies always put me ‘in the mood’ for the coming festivities.  Among my favorites are old black and whites from post-World War II. The men and women who had been engaged in devastating struggles of battle were back home and in the process of creating a bold new world.  They rolled up their sleeves, went to work, built houses, attended schools, and dreamed dreams of prosperity. 

By 1947, the simple times and ways of a Norman Rockwell agri-rural America were forever altered.  Along with the many changes came a more bountiful and materialistic focus on Christmas.  Presents were stacked under lighted trees instead of hung on branches.  More became better…and that notion was reflected in the movies. 

Two very different films were presented that year.  One was ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ which portrayed the Macys parade and an abundance of shopping.  The other was ‘The Bishop’s Wife’ which reminded a hurried nation to slow it down and to think about what our Christmas observance was all about.  This picture sums up the essence of The Wonderful.  It ended with a Bishop’s sermon written by an angel.  This is what he said;

https://youtu.be/XQoRul2ez1w

“Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking. Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry. A blazing star hung over a stable and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries; we celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, the sound of bells and with gifts. But especially with gifts.

You give me a book; I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry could do with a new pipe. We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled...all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up.

The stocking for the child born in a manger. It's his birthday we are celebrating. Don't ever let us forget that. Let us ask ourselves what he would wish for most... and then let each put in his share. Loving-kindness, warm hearts and the stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.”

Today, amid all the hustle and bustle, I will remember to fill a stocking in my heart with the most important gift of all. I will eagerly welcome The Wonderful.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Rejoice, Rejoice; The Season of Light is Beckoning

“There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.”

John Calvin

This Sunday in Advent asks for us to rejoice in the season.  We can see the changes wherever we go during Christmastime. Colored and white twinkle lights adorn trees, houses, barns...and even gaily displayed on a whole group of people in Pelzer, South Carolina.  What a delight it is to be surrounded by the joy of light and lights.  Today implores us to be mindful. It asks for us to join hands in an effort to make the world a gentler place of rejoicing.  What better time than now to start a journey of healing and awakening?  We have the light to guide us just as the Wise Men did more than two thousand years ago.

The Pelzer Light People

All of this incredible celebration is shining into our hearts on Gaudete Sunday.  But I want to share another kind of rejoicing that has touched me deeply.  I have had the great honor and privilege of listening to the “Fifth Step” of people recovering from the chronic diseases of addiction.  When one arrives at this point, a fearless moral inventory has been painstakingly prepared.  Resentments have been identified.  Even personal ownership in those offenses has been taken.  A lifetime of secrets is shared and confessed.  Burdens are set aside.  A place is made for rejoicing where depression and regret once reigned. From the heart of darkness comes a beacon of hope. 

I have learned from these brave people that light, love, and joy can glow in the most hopeless situations.  I have learned that healing and awakening are always possible.  I have learned that we are never alone.  I have learned that we are all in this together for a very good reason.  I have learned that Christmas rejoicing can happen every day of the year if we allow it. That transformation is just what we need today.

"I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoon of himself with his stockings.  "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy.  I am as giddy as a drunken man."

Charles Dickens 

Embracing Faith; The Mystical, Magical Flight of Christmas

“I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.” ~ William Sloane Coffin

One of the magical messages of Christmas which we are asked to explore during Advent is that faith, like love, is here regardless of our willingness to recognize it. We don’t have to trust this...and we don’t even have to believe it.  In fact, we don’t have to do anything.  Faith is just there regardless of our acceptance. 

Words of the poet Rilke sweep over me and fill me with wonder when he says that in faith “there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.” 

The mystical wisdom of Jesus who compares faith to a mustard seed boggles my mind.  The tiniest little seed was planted in each of us.  And it has the capacity to move mountains.  How could it be that our faith which seems so fleeting and fragile is so ever-present and strong?  Perhaps because it never really leaves us.

Our always-possessed faith whispers the truth to us that darkness can never endure.  It proves over and over that good will overcome evil.  It brings love forward and casts hatred aside.  It dispels worry and asks us to simply do the-next-right-thing.  We are not meant to understand faith.  This isn't necessary and perhaps not even possible. Just take the leap.  Your wings will appear and provide a magnificent flight. Everything will be okay.

Have Some Faith; A Message of the Christmas Season

I know you want to question everything, but sometimes it pays to just have a little faith.”

Lauren Kate

Our senses are bombarded with stories of conversions and restoration of faith during Advent and Christmastime. 

The tales have been woven into the fabric of our culture beginning on Thanksgiving with “The Miracle on 34th Street” and continue to infuse us for the next days and weeks until The Wonderful finally arrives on Christmas Day. Most all of us have seen these movies dozens of times. 

Yet, the hard-hearted becoming soft and compassionate, the miser becoming generous, and the troubled being saved, always seem to find a way of evoking sentimental feelings.  The reason is, of course, that this is the heart of our Christmas experience.  We are all hoping that we will be better people and that the world will become a kinder place.

The 2nd Sunday of Advent symbolizes Faith. One of the stories that always moves me is that of Saint Therese of France who had an incredible awakening in 1886 at age 14.  A simple thing had happened.  She had reached an age when the Christmas tradition of leaving her shoes by the fireplace in anticipation of presents was at an end. 

She completed the ritual with her parents after which she heard her father exclaim that he was thankful they would never have to do it again.  She began weeping, but the sadness was replaced by an incredible ‘white-light’ experience in which she was given a message of conversion by God.  The rest of her life became a testimony of Christmas which brought major changes to the Catholic Church. 

Christmas conversion and resilience of faithresonates deeply because, as Saint Therese shows us, the grace of God is alwaysat work.  It is the lesson at the heartof The Wonderful.  In the ordinary, warmearthiness of a stable God is born and new life comes to the earth.

The Wonder of Hope

“Hope is patience with the lamp lit.” ~Tertullian

This wonderful season presents itself just at the time of the year when daylight is quickly diminishing.  We begin bringing out the candles.  I am reminded of the Jewish prayer of Hanukkah which begins, “We light these lights for the miracles and the wonders.”  It’s a time in which everything is shining. It is the first Sunday of Advent for Christians who begin to focus on the four virtues of Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace.

Today we light the hope candle.  Healing happens when we participate in hope.  Hope is not an idle, misty, sympathetic emotion.  It is a faith-filled response to life. The vision of The Wonderful is upon us and we are reminded to never let darkness fill up our hearts.  We might be tempted to extinguish the lights and ignore the continual presence of The Wonderful as voices of negativity, gloom, and doom, reverberate from so many corners.  Scrooge and The Grinch can be found lurking around if we want to look and listen for them.  Even so, it is important to remember that both Scrooge and The Grinch were transformed by the light.  Darkness likes to make us think that it is overpowering.  But the truth is that a tiny candle will push it aside.

Advent and Hanukkah Candles will beflickering with the message that hope can never be snuffed out.  We have the opportunity to kindle them rightnow.

Advent and the Gift of Waiting

“At this Christmas when Christ comes, will He find a warm heart? Mark the season of Advent by loving and serving the others with God's own love and concern.”  ~ Mother Teresa

Advent begins next Sunday.  The Hallmark Channel is providing continuous Christmas movies, people are hanging up calendars to mark the days until Christmas, while decorations abound in stores, homes and on lighted streets. Holiday music is playing on the radio.  But Advent is about waiting for Christmas.  This is a different kind of waiting than the annoying kind we experience so frequently like hours sitting in doctors offices, and long lines for at airports.   Advent is about joyful anticipation.

The kind of waiting that we are called to experience during Advent is both focused and alert.  It is being present in the moment and deliberate in our actions.  We are asked to participate during this holy time by being more attentive to the people in our lives, actively listening to our families, taking extra measures to be kind and considerate, and by being unselfish as we touch the lives of strangers.  This is challenging and can only be done if we slow down and take our steps thoughtfully. For hidden in these days of Advent,amid planning, rushing and overdoing, is the gentle spirit of peace.

All Stirred Up

“You haven't learned life's lesson very wellif you haven't noticed that you can decide the reaction you want of people inadvance. It's unbelievably simple. If you want them to smile, smile first. Ifyou want them to take an interest in you, take an interest in them first. It'sas simple as that. People will treat you like you treat them. It's no secret.Look about you. You can prove it with the next person you meet.” ~ WinstonChurchill

The holidays have jump-started and are in full swing with Thanksgiving and Black Friday behind us already.  Today is often called Stir Up Sunday.  A Victorian tradition, it has been forgotten by many churches today. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer starts today's services with this Collect;

"Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

This urging prayer also reminded cooks to get the Christmas pudding made in plenty of time to mature before Christmas Day.  One of the puddings has a coin cooked into it.  Whoever gets that pudding should get worldly riches heaped upon them. What a fun and spiritual way to get all stirred up for the wonderful days ahead.

Victorian Christmas Pudding

Churchill was a big advocate of Stir Up Sunday.  He loved Christmas pudding too…with a tankard of brandy of course.  He believed this season to be a fine time for stirring up our sluggish and sedentary wills that we might rise to action the slumber of our complacency. What a wonderful way to prepare for this season of good-will.

Good intentions are never enough. For the necessarypassion must come not only from an exterior Sunday prodding, but from aninterior fire to do what is right along with a consistent determination thatonly a resolved will can supply. It is up to each of us to recreate the messageand mission of Christmas this year. For Peace on Earth will only come as aresult of our own efforts. Let’s stir it up.

Thanksgiving Day and Lost Sheep

“Life has its problems and with these we must cope. 
Trust in God, have blind faith and never give up hope.”~ Cortez McDaniel

As Thanksgiving nears, I am thinking of Cortez McDaniel, a resident of Christ House in Washington, DC.  He is a poet, is chronically ill, and a once homeless man without much hope. He had little reason to be thankful.  But just when he was at the end of his rope, the incredible miracle of Christ House reached him.  There, he received expert medical care, safe respite, a warm bed, nurturing love, nourishing food and a place to recover.  His gentle heart was restored and life has renewed possibility.  God went in search of this lost sheep and brought him home.

Christ the Servant at Christ House in Washington, DC

We who have been blessed with comfort, work, family, friends, cars, homes and such abundance have no reason to complain.  Our annoyances, worries, and frustrations come from an illusion of scarcity and lack.  Even in our culture filled with prosperity, we often choose to see the glass half empty.  Here we are on the eve of Thanksgiving.  If tempted to complain about what we are missing this year; who failed to come to the table, what favorite dish was forgotten, or that the turkey was deep fried instead of roasted, let’s stop a minute and think about Cortez McDaniel and his friends at Christ House.  Let’s fill our hearts with the bounty of God’s grace in full appreciation.  How fortunate and blessed we are!

A lost sheep is crying out for help somewhere in your life.  Thanksgiving is a good time to go out, no matter how far it has strayed, and welcome it back home.

“A lost sheep needs a shepherd to find the way." ~ Felix Wantang

With Gold Dust at My Feet

“Grab your coat, and get your hat, leave yourworry on the doorstep.  Just direct yourfeet, to the sunny side of the street.” ~ Dorothy Fields

The lyrics from ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’ were composed by Jimmy McHugh with lyrics by Dorothy Fields in 1930 as the world was plunging into the Great Depression.  The words gave hope and were heard across the country for years.  The song became a jazz and big band standard.  It is widely believed that the stock market crash of 1929 was a symptom of deeper and more systemic problems than the events leading up to the epic day it all tanked in September.  The nation certainly did not leave worries on the doorstep.  Instead, we entered into a period of isolationism which included punitive tariffs.  The result was catastrophic.

Lessons of the Great Depression and theoptimism of ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’ are available to each of us inour own struggles.  Hard times come andthey also go.  We can choose to isolate,withdraw, protect ourselves at the expense of others and hide with our head in thesand, or we can choose to connect with families, friends and the community.  We can absolutely find ways to help oneanother, and persist with an optimistic ‘Can-Do’ attitude.  Of course, no good comes from ignoring theproblems that we have.  Things areresolved by taking a positive approach toward solutions.  But we need each other to make ithappen.  Let’s reach out and lend a hand.

“No pessimist ever discovered the secret ofthe stars, or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the humanspirit.” ~ Helen Keller

The Activism of Love

“It’s a huge danger to pretend that awful things do not happen.  But you need enough hope to keep going. I am trying to make hope.  Flowers grow out of darkness.” ~ Corita Kent

Corita Kent, once a nun called Sister Mary Corita, worked to bring religious and secular people together at Immaculate Heart College and assisted in a peacemaking campaign with Physicians for Social Responsibility. As a result, Cardinal James McIntyre began a movement to frame Kent as blasphemous and the college as communist. In 1968, Mary Corita, followed by most of the sisters at the college, made a difficult decision to return to secular life.  This ultimately led to the closing of Immaculate Heart.  She was named Woman of The Year by The Los Angeles Times, was featured on the cover of Time Magazine and received the American Institute of Graphic Arts Medal.  Remembered by many for her Love Stamp used by the USPS, Corita Kent's vast work is held by several art museums and private collectors including The Whitney, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Corita Kent Artwork

The intense faith demonstrated in Corita’s activism and art remains an inspiration in these times of violence, divisiveness, and rancor. There is a beautiful amalgamation of the holy and the human that we fail to embrace nowadays. We seem to have missed the point that God is Love and each of us is a gift of God.  Our mission is to transform the world.  Not by fighting against one another...but by combining divine and human love into an undeniable force for good. It is the only way.

The War to End All Wars

There were 4.7 million Americans who served inthe Great War.  Finally, a national memorialis underway in Washington, DC to honor their sacrifice. It is still underconstruction with the General of the Armies, John J. Pershing Memorial atPershing Park (14th and Pennsylvania Ave. NW). Ceremonies sponsored by TheWorld War One Centennial Commission started on November 8 and conclude onNovember 12 for a “FirstLook at the National World War l Memorial.”

Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France

I spent some time with a friend who lives in the UK last night.  The difference between our experiences of Armistice (Veterans) Day is that there are physical reminders of the Great War to be seen over there and none here.  Battle scars, memorials and cemeteries abound in Europe.  Americans went ‘over there’ after war was declared by Congress on April 6, 1917, but the war had been raging for three years.  When it was all done on November 11, 1918, the total number of military and civilian casualties was around 40 million. There were 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.

Roswell Perry Smith in the Great War (France 1917)

But our memory has been fading as generations have passed.  Families like that of my wife sent all of their sons to France in the first and following waves of soldiers.  By the summer of 1918 we were sending 10,000 a day. Four of her granduncles, Renan, Rex, Roswell and Hugh Smith fought to preserve freedom in World War I. By grace alone they all returned alive and unharmed. We cannot afford to allow this war and these heroes to become relics.  We should still wear poppies.  We should still toll bells at 11:00 as we are doing at the National Cathedral today. The tragedy of the Great War and its countless victims claimed by the conflict should never be forgotten.  The course of our own times has been permanently influenced by the events of 1914-1918 and their aftermath, as were the lives of our ancestors, and so we remember.

Finding the Middle Way

“I swear I will not dishonor my soul with hatred, but offer myself humbly as a guardian of nature, as a healer of misery, as a messenger of wonder, as an architect of peace.”

Diane Ackerman

Diane Ackerman offers some healing words to consideron this day after mid-term elections.  Emotionsran high when we were fighting for candidates who carry our banner andrepresent out principles and ideals. Record numbers of us turned out to vote. Some of us are happy with the results and some of us aredisappointed.  What we do next to moveforward is very important.

Fighting the good fight is an American tradition.  There is a great story in the History of Knox County, Ohio in which my ancestor, James Houck accused one of his young neighbors of stealing a ‘scrap of bees’ at the fall social gathering where apples were being prepared for drying (called an apple-bee).

The pioneer custom was to either ‘take it back or take a licking’. Though a fist fight occurred, there was no resolution.  The next gathering would be on Election Day 1808 where all community scores could be settled.  There was an abundance of whisky and plenty of fights.  But at the end of the day, differences and quarrels were to be finalized.  I’m not suggesting a return to this kind of dispute settlement. What I am endorsing is that we put aside the partisan divisions and work together again. 

Pioneer Schoolboys Settle a Score

The extremes of right and left can do exactly what we did under our 34th president, Dwight D. Eisenhower who called his administration “The Middle Way”.  We need our leaders to help turn us in that direction forgetting resentments and a desire for revenge.  Eisenhower accomplished much by being able to talk to, and work with, both sides on every issue. For a nation now mired in conflict, his model of getting things done by taking the middle way could provide a welcome alternative.  In the meantime it is up to all of us to strive for civil discourse and to find common ground. That is as American as Apple Pie.

Honor Your Legacy

“We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” ~ Thomas Jefferson (3rd U. S. President)

This is a participatory democracy.  And participation in the election process is our legacy.  Voting has been a big deal in my family for generations.  Mother was a poll watcher and spent endless hours volunteering at party headquarters when I was growing up.  My grandfather, Roy Jones (1875-1972), served as an elected official in Piatt County, Illinois for over three decades.  His great-grandfather, James Houck (1783-1883), cast his first ballot in Ohio for Thomas Jefferson in 1804 and then served as Township Treasurer for years.  Roy's father-in-law, Ira Miner (1840-1927), was a member of the Wide-Awakes who battled to elect Abraham Lincoln at the Chicago convention.  I have a long-standing legacy to honor every time I vote. And so do you.

James Houck (1783-1883)

Each of us immigrants has a story in which either we or our ancestors made a decision to come to this land of opportunity in search of freedom.  But, as Thomas Edison once quipped; "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work." There is work involved in citizenship which can be meaningfully exercised on Election Day.  

The ability to vote exists as one of the most cherished of Constitutional Rights.  It has been fought for, marched for, and died for since George Washington was first elected 229 years ago.  What an incredible opportunity we have to share in the forming and reforming of our government! We can be a part of the magnificent shaping of our own destiny and building our nation.  What better work is there than that!

Ask yourself this important question on November 6;

What kind of a country do I want?

Then make good choices in the voting booth.  Help our nation to fulfill the highest ideals and guide us to more richly live out our principles.  We can accomplish great things.  Let’s honor our sacred legacy and be good citizens.

An Inconvenient Truth

“The call to the margins, led by those we find there, is exhilarating and life-giving and renews our nobility and purpose.  For this, we all long. The time is now, as never before, to put terror and defense to one side and find our human connections on the margins.” ~ Gregory Boyle (Founder of Homeboys Industries)

It isn’t more power, more prosperity, more armaments or closed borders we need. None of these things will give us long-term security.  None of these things will keep us safe. We become more vulnerable to destruction from within when we isolate from ‘the other’ in self-woven cocoons.  Instead, we need to reach out for the hand of those on the margins, those who are broken, and those who understand how interdependent we really are. We go to the marginalized not to make a difference but for them to make us different.

Martin Luther King called us to serve “the last, the least, and the lost.” Jesus instructs us to include not exclude as he invites tax collectors and prostitutes to his table.  He tells us “that which you do to the least of my brothers, so you do unto me.”  Buddha dedicated his entire life for the cause of others, for the uplift of humanity at large. He was the first to revolt against the caste system which was firmly rooted in the soil of India. One of the great reforms that the Prophet Muhammad brought was the rights and treatment of the poor. And so we struggle with an inconvenient truth.  We must drop our moral outrage and pick up compassion in its place. When we do that wonderful things will begin to happen in our lives and in our world.

A Time to Kneel

“A desire to kneel down sometimes pulses through my body, or rather it is as if my body has been meant and made for the act of kneeling.  Sometimes, in moments of deep gratitude, kneeling down becomes an overwhelming urge, head deeply bowed, my hands before my face.” ~ Etty Hillesum

Etty Hillesum 1939

There was a deep peace in the heart of Etty Hillesum.  She wrote extensively about her love for fellow human beings while being persecuted and awaiting the certain fate of deportation from her home in Amsterdam during World War II.  She was one of 1.1 million who died at Auschwitz concentration camp but her faith in God and people live on in the many letters and diaries she left behind. The thought that kneeling was Etty’s demonstration of awe is one that should inspire us today.

I wonder what it might be like if we all knelt a little bit more and stood tall a bit less.  The thought of making ourselves vulnerable in the kneeling position is a foreign one to us.  But the image of getting on both knees to help a child or to pray at night is universally embraced. The reverence and wonder demonstrated by such an act can only be matched by how defenseless we become in this position.  It is time for more kneeling.  It is time for becoming so open to God and each other that we are once again willing to find the common ground necessary for a cessation of all the misunderstandings and animosity which are destroying us.

A Recipe for Living

“Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.” ~ John Quincy Adams (Sixth U.S. President)

Life is unpredictable. Just when things seem to be going our way the rug gets pulled out from underneath us.  Good times become hard times.  Health issues crop up. Money once plentiful gets tight.  People leave us or die. When times get tough it is important to remember that everything will change. The ingredients needed to face these situations are courage to straightforwardly deal with them as they happen and perseverance in our efforts to overcome.

The fact that change will always occur can be as comforting as it is disturbing.  Happiness, joy, celebration, friendship, and abundance are every bit as certain as their counterparts.  When we begin to understand that God is not punishing or judging us and the power of love will conquer anything...courage and perseverance are not so hard to muster.  Life happens and God is never distant.  Like the Prodigal, we can take stock of what is happening and accept the unconditional embrace which is always waiting for us.

Make the World Come Alive

“There must be always remaining in every life, some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful.” ~ Howard Thurman

Howard Thurman was the grandson of a plantation slave in Madison County, Florida.  Profoundly influenced by his grandmother, he made it his life’s mission to teach about the inseparable connection each of us has with God. He found reasons to seek out more than common-ground; rather, he revealed the incredible beauty which is the essence of everyone.  This truth is elusive nowadays.  We seem to be fixated on finding differences and darknesses in those who are different.  Such divisions lead us to picking sides, creating misunderstandings, fostering hatred, and being violent.

There is a weariness that hangs heavy over us.  Tired of the mean language, name-calling, character assassination and loss of civility, we long for relief from it all.  The only force which will restore Thurman’s vision of beauty is the effort that you are willing to give and the vitriol you are willing to abandon. God is present by our side, ahead, behind, above, below and inside. Take a good look. And then listen to the angels sing.