As I have pondered the Beatitudes[Matthew 5:3-12] and read diverse opinions about them, I remember most what I read about Jim Forest’s concept in The Ladder of the Beatitudes,” a step-by-step process which describes the journey with Christ. Each rung is dependent on us achieving the current step before we can continue. We can think […]
Peace is the way, the method. Peace is the end. Without peace we have no trust. Without peace we have no love. Without peace, how can we say we love God? For Jesus brought us his peace, the peace that he lived, [John 14:27] that is beyond anything that the world offers. It is the […]
It is not the New Jerusalem. Or Zion. Or Canaan. The Land of Milk and Honey. The Promised Land. It is the kingdom of God as Jesus described it in many places in the New Testament. It is not a place, but a state of mind. We live in the kingdom of God when we […]
“Make haste slowly” has been reverberating in my ears the last three days as I’ve been working on sample table runners for my son’s wedding. Each time I try to start a part of this project, I hear within me to slow down. To not rush. To be relaxed. This is not the way I […]
Peace is one thing that we long for, pray for, desire above all, and yet so often we look at peace as contingent on someone or something else. “If only he would______, I could rest in peace.” Or if “God would bring peace to this world, I could be at peace.” Or “If she […]
How do we live lives of integrity, where the inside self and the outside self are the same, when we live in a culture that advocates “looking good” above all else? How do we learn to love when all around us the message is “me, me, me.” How can we be at peace, when all […]
With our minds we can assert that God loves us, but what are the markers within us for knowing that we are loved? That we actually feel loved by God in every cell in our body? We are not transformed until we realize that we are loved, until we live in and with that love. […]
This weekend in the country the quiet outside echoed the quiet inside me where it didn’t matter at all if I was reading or semi-napping or playing solitaire on my phone or cleaning up after myself and our retreat this weekend. I was really at peace with myself, with time, with undone things, knowing deep […]