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February 27 - March 26, 2019
The sinful and repentant prodigal son experienced an intimacy and joy with his Father in his brokenness that his sinless self-righteous brother would never know.
Healthy guilt is other-centered, arouses compunction and the desire for reconciliation, and calls us into the fullness of humanity by staring in the face defiantly and without embarrassment the gods of pride, arrogance, self-righteousness, and self-pity.
Unhealthy guilt is self-centered; it stirs our emotions to churn in self-destructive ways, leads to depression and despair, closes us in upon ourselves, and preempts the presence of a compassionate God.
Describe the Christ that you have personally encountered on the grounds of your own self? Only a stereotypical answer can be forthcoming if we have not developed a personal relationship with Jesus.
nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this” (8:10). At last, Jesus is saying—finally someone who understands me and what I want to be for my people: a Savior of boundless compassion, unbearable forgiveness, infinite patience, and healing love. Will the rest of you let me be who I am and stop imposing your small, silly, and self-styled ideas of who you think I ought to be!
the value of community worship in the sight of God—independent of the caliber of the music, the effectiveness of the preaching, and the imaginative design of the banners—is measured by the quality of life and love in the community of faith.
The tendency to procrastinate is so prevalent in human beings that it can properly be called an integral part of the human condition. We postpone a decision (which is a decision itself) hoping that the Storyteller will grow weary of waiting and that the imperious inner voice will get laryngitis.
How do we resolve this conundrum? We don’t. “Perhaps the best that we can say is that while we cannot will ourselves to grace, we can, by will, open ourselves to its miraculous coming.
The dream of Jesus Christ is the Kingdom of God, and the committed Christian buys into his dream.
The mature Christian harmoniously integrates her faith, intellect, and feelings in consistent and fairly predictable behavior patterns. The sense of serenity that springs from this internal continuity is self-acceptance. The need for approval and the hunger for human respect diminish in proportion to our integrity.
The gradual transformation from an attitude of self-hatred to a spirit of self-acceptance is what occurs in the process of trying to be honest. Paradoxically, the human spirit soars in the daily endeavor to make choices and decisions that are expressive of the truth of who we are in Christ Jesus, not who we think we should be or who somebody else wants us to be.
When the Crucified One says, “I’m dying to be with you,” and then whispers, “Will you die a little to be with me?” my sluggish spirit is stirred (unfortunately not always) to prefer the pleasure of his company to whatever trinket of creation is mesmerizing me at the moment.
Life teaches us how difficult it is to receive anything from someone who has all the answers, who is completely cool, utterly unafraid, invulnerable, needing nothing and no one, always on top of life and in control of every situation. We feel unnecessary, unneeded, and reluctant to receive. So Jesus comes in the way of weakness, giving us the chance to love him and making us feel that we have something to give him.
Wisdom: The Feminine Face of God, by octogenarian Daniel Berrigan.
