In politics it commonly takes a superior woman to overcome the handicap of traditional prejudice.
Prayer is a place where God and humans meet.
The rubber hits the road when we try to show grace to a person most unlike us, even someone morally offensive.
We in the church have humility and contrition to offer the world, not a formula for success. Almost alone in our success-oriented society, we admit that we have failed, are failing, and always will fail.
Eugene Peterson points out that "the root meaning in Hebrew of salvation is to be broad, to become spacious, to enlarge. It carries the sense of deliverance from an existence that has become compressed, confined and cramped. " God wants to set free, to make it possible for us to live open and loving lives with God and our neighbors. "I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free," wrote the psalmist.
We tend to think, 'Life should be fair because God is fair. ' But God is not life. And if I confuse God with the physical reality of life- by expecting constant good health for example- then I set myself up for crashing disappointment.
The world says you gain your life by getting more and more and more and more, but Jesus says, 'No, that leads to death. You get it back by giving it away and when you give it away you get it back. '
I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.
Whatever ambivalence I felt about my own career, Frankie more than made up for it with his ambition and tenacity.
Over the years I have learned that creating art has made me happy. I used to be a lawyer and I'm much happier being an artist.
Pure devotional service fries the seeds of material inclinations in our heart.