"compassion" Tagged Touchpoints
Shape of My Heart
“We have been told, or we may think, that we need to be fit. Boy scouts need to be prepared, yes! But why do we need to be prepared to love… to engage strangers and deliver life-giving seeds of new beginnings or watering the seeds already scattered? Jesus said, “You don’t need any other equipment; you are the equipment!” In talking to Samuel he said, ‘They don’t need a king to tell them what to do, they have me!'”
A Pause to Remember
“What were the religious leaders and lay judgers misunderstanding about the Sabbath? Perhaps it was that the commandment was not a matter of social and spiritual conduct, but rather a nurturing of the body in a state of rest, a way to stop the mental and physical spinning we get ourselves into. It is a gift that honors life and its nourishment, a time to rest and reflect on something greater than being producer and consumer. What is that something greater?”
Third Party Gods
“Let’s each ask ourselves, ‘Where do we linger the most? Where do we abide? What stokes our inner fire?’ This is an invitation, not a judgment. Compassion longs to take us by the hand and walk with us. Spirit’s compassion will celebrate the uncovering of false identities we’ve created, both of ourselves and of the third party gods.”
Devils and French Fries
“The evil is real, but I do not understand it. However, since I shook off the idea that I must wage a war against it, I have not encountered it. It has no life-giving breath, but only a stink in the air. Maybe a good candle and a centering prayer will help create an emotional receptivity to God as king rather than a panic-driven election of a false god.”
Damn Serious
“It causes me to ask myself, have I not evolved from euphoria and intellectual devotion? Have I become spiritually self-indulgent and neglected those God shows preference for in suffering? I can tell you that as a preacher, my words have not neglected them. My actions are what I would prefer to think about.”
God Loves Me
“To let go is to gradually embrace love without caveat, without condition. It doesn’t mean tolerating. It doesn’t mean hanging out with someone with the agenda of changing them. It’s letting this love which holds the stars in the firmament and keeps the blood flowing in our body and our minds full of clarity and free.”
Shifting Ground
“Grace is funny. It is dangerous and subversive. But it is also peace-giving and freeing. Freed from having to justify ourselves, our existence, our stands… we are freed to live and serve the world. We don’t have a free will. We have a freed – F R E E D – will. And we are freed to take a walk, a hike, onto and into new ground.”
In Christ All Things Hold Together
“They, with us, heard these words: “In Christ all things hold together.” I want to believe that. I “need” to believe that! And with God’s grace, if we can hold each other together, with patient expectation and prayer, we just might be able to join St. Paul as servants of this gospel.”
Who Was the Neighbor?
“To love the neighbor as myself is to recognize the neighbor as myself. We are one and the same. We both carry the Christ within us. To walk past the wounds of the neighbor is to walk past the wounds of our own lives. To not touch the wounds of the neighbor is to think we can live without touching the wounds of our very selves.”
The Book of Acts: A Stretching Exercise
“It isn’t just a one-way street you know. The Christ is present in – and present to – the bumblers and stumblers of the world.”