Month: February 2010

Lenten Journey of Balance: Humility & Confidence

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eight days into lent, i keep coming back to the struggle for balance… losing one’s identity in efforts gain one’s identity in Christ… balance of being merely human while recognizing that Christ lives in us… the balance between humility & confidence.

“a humble man can do great things with an uncommon perfection because he is no longer concerned about incidentals, like his own interests and his own reputation, and therefore he no longer needs to waste his efforts in defending them.

for a humble man is not afraid of failure.  in fact, he is not afraid of anything, even of himself, since perfect humility implies perfect confidence in the power of God before whom no other power has any meaning and for whom there is no such thing as an obstacle.

humility is the surest sign of strength”

~ thomas merton

rowdy jesus

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“Read the Gospels.  Read what this guy is really like.  He had a strong personality, he told jokes, his friends were all the wrong people, he liked to go to parties.  He didn’t start a lepers’ rights movement, he just healed lepers in his path.  He was far more severe about people who were judgmental than he was about people who committed adultery.  Love was always more important than anything else.  All of his miracles were done on the Sabbath.  God should have said, “Jesus, tone it down a bit.  Be a little more careful!”

~ Robert Wuthnow, Creative Spirituality: the Way of the Artist

hope that can shine in the darkest nights

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read narrative of my life by frederick douglass yesterday in anticipation of my “frederick douglass” core theology class beginning monday… an autobiography that both challenged me to question the goodness of humanity but also to be comforted in the hope that is able to persist in the bleakest of circumstances.

“from my earliest recollection, i date the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace; and in the darkest hours of my career in slavery, this living word of faith and spirit of hope departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to cheer me through the gloom.  this good spirit was from God, and to him i offer thanksgiving and praise.” ~ frederick douglass

ash wednesday

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“ash wednesday
and we are on our way
to your way.

o lamb of god,
have mercy upon us and
keep us from all the smalleness of our lives
that would take precedence
over kneeling in jerusalem”

– anne weems, kneeling in jerusalem

standing in the middle of the pool

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“in short, if adolescents are to become practical theologians in their own right, we have to get them in the pool.  and that means that you and i have to stand in the middle of the pool ourselves, practicing our faith while holding out our hands, inviting the youth we love to jump into the christian community alongside us.”

~ kenda creasy dean in starting right: thinking theologically about youth ministry

merton, apples, and prayer

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“merton once told me to quit trying so hard in prayer.  he said: ‘how does an apple ripen?  it just sits in the sun.’  a small green apple cannot ripen in one night by tightening all its muscles, squinting its eyes and tightening its jaw in order to find itself the next morning miraculously large, red, ripe, and juicy beside its small green counterparts.  like the birth of a baby or the opening of a rose, the birth of the true self takes place in god’s time.  we must wait for god, we must be awake; we must trust in his hidden action within us.”

~ from merton’s palace of nowhere by james finley