main cow pic

08.25.11

We all want to change the world…

Filed under: God's movement,quotes — 5:05 pm

We all want to change the world.  Right?  But in spite of the many different movements and individuals and institutions that are fighting for justice and peace on this planet, things seem to get worse and worse.  Why is that?  Some want to blame it on “bad people” who “hate the light and want to live in darkness”, but I don’t think that is it at all.  Check out what Ronald Rolheiser writes about our movement toward justice:

“…to change the world in such a way that people want justice and are willingly willing to live in a way that makes justice possible requires an appeal to the heart that is so deep, so universal, and so moral that no person of good conscience can walk away from it.  No human ideology, no private crusade, and no cause that takes its origins in guilt or anger can ever provide that.  And so many people walk away from these great causes in good conscience.  Why?  Because despite the movement’s obvious merit in terms of the truth of the justice they promote, too often the energy driving their quest is not as morally compelling.  In simple terms, the truth is right, but the energy often is not.”

The Holy Longing, Ronald Rolheiser (page 173-174)

The school-yard bully pushes kids around to try and make friends.  It doesn’t work.  Some countries drop bombs to try to bring peace.  It doesn’t work.  And many of us resort to ugly tactics in the name of creating something beautiful and right.  It can never work.  Rhetoric is quickly forgotten.  Actions only rearrange the surface.  But deep change comes from a deep place that’s been changed.

This is so challenging to me.  I don’t want to be a person who does some good things;  I want to be a good person.  I am fully capable of hiding and justifying my brokenness behind the occasional good that comes out of it.  But I don’t want to any more.  I don’t want to be one of those shiny people who gets uglier the more you get to know them.  It’s easy to fool crowds.  Oh God, please redeem every part of me, inside and out.  And help me to, as Ghandi said, “BE the change that I hope to see in the world.”

Who have you seen that most embodies their beautiful ideas with beautiful energy?
Who have you seen live the good they talk about?

08.24.11

From activist to peacemaker

Filed under: God's movement,Palestine / Israel,quotes — 7:09 pm

As many of you know, my mother-in-law Lynne is a passionate, brave advocate for the poor and oppressed around the world.  I’ve learned a ton from her – particularly about the complex conflict in the Middle East – and continue to follow her lead in many ways.  She recently commented that she is…

“…in the process of moving from being an activist (angry about injustice and determined to fight it) to wanting to be an authentic peacemaker (responding with compassion and wisdom to victims on both sides of the conflict).  It’s a lot easier to be an activist than a peacemaker.”

I found this to be both inspiring and deeply challenging.  It’s so easily to rage against what is wrong (and there is a time for that, I suppose), but only peacemakers change the world.  (Tomorrow, I’m going to post a new blog post called “We all Want to Change the World”)

If you’re interested in learning more about making peace in the middle east, Lynne just posted a fantastic Middle East resource list on her blog.  It’s really worth checking out and digging into.  As Americans, we are all a part of this conflict (huge amounts of our tax dollars go to Israel and Palestine, and our political positions play a huge role in peace or strife), so let’s learn as much as we can…and be peacemakers in the widest possible sense!

a painting I saw on the wall in Bethlehem: Lady Liberty weeping over Handala (forgotten Palestinian Refugees)

03.06.11

a venture into reality…

Filed under: quotes,worship — 7:09 am

“To worship God, on the other hand, is a venture into reality, a disciplined exit from the delusional fields created around our idols, a constant pull toward the margins of what we know. The worship of God is about awareness, about mindfulness, about reverence for the gift of life, about regaining perspective, beyond self-expression, beyond our beloved religions.  By worshiping God, we turn our sights farther, rescued from a preoccupation with ourselves and with our own life.”

Samir Selmanovic

02.16.11

A quote I need today…

Filed under: books,quotes — 12:36 pm

“Do we cry with each other and support each other in the
frustration of our incompleteness or do we give each other the
impression that there is something wrong with us because our lives
are inconsummate and our symphonies are incomplete?

“Do we still take our longings and emptiness to God in prayer or do we
demand that life gives us, here and now, the full symphony?

“Do we lovingly and gratefully receive the spirit of our own lives,
despite the tensions, or do we live in angry jealousy?

“Are we loving against an infinite horizon or is our eros directed
only towards the concrete sweetening of life?”

————–

Forgotten Among the Lilies, Ronald Rolheiser

01.10.11

The Place Where We Are Right

Filed under: life,quotes — 6:32 pm

“From the place where we are right flowers will never grow in the spring.
The place where we are right is hard and trampled like a yard.
But doubts and loves dig up the world like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place where the ruined house once stood.”

Yehuda Amichai (one of the greatest Israeli poets)

12.20.10

the line between good and evil

Filed under: God's movement,Palestine / Israel,quotes — 3:30 pm

-

For some reason, I’ve had a handful of conversations in the last 24 hours that have brought to mind a famous quote by Solzhenitsyn.  One was about creationism/evolution (which I believe is a really unhelpful either/or debate), one was about Israel/Palestine, and one was actually a blog about atheism by Ricky Gervais.  In each situation, both sides were claiming to be “the good guys”, and they built their case by making the other side “the bad guys”.  In order to be 100% right, I need to prove that you’re 100% wrong.  Right?

This polarizing, either-or, good vs. bad thinking is the source of so much conflict on earth – whether between nations or religions or friends or spouses.  And I hate to admit how often I slip into it.  But here’s a freight train of a quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn:

“It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil.

“…If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

10.28.10

I want to dive in today…

Filed under: quotes — 1:32 pm

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”

(Elie Wiesel)

10.18.10

A farm without fences

Filed under: God's movement,quotes — 4:26 pm

“An African Christian described it to me this way:  “You Americans think of Christianity as a farm with a fence.  Your question is, ‘Are you inside the fence or outside of it?’  We Africans think differently.  We think of Christianity as a farm with no fence.  Our question is, ‘Are you heading towards the farm, or away from it?’”  The church’s identity is not defined primarily by its edges, but by its center:  focused on Christ, the sole source of our identity, no intruder poses a threat.  No alien hops a fence, because there is no fence.  Boundaries are determined by proximity to the Holy Spirit’s centripetal pull, not by arbitrary human borders.”
(Dean, Almost Christian)

09.06.10

Regret

Filed under: life,quotes — 10:01 am

According to Gilbert, studies show that “in the long run, people of every age and in every walk of life seem to regret not having done things much more than they regret things they did.” (read more)

This strikes a deep chord in me.  I get distracted by doing things…but my deepest, most core fears are all about missing out.  What if I don’t live up to my ideals and dreams?  What if I get caught up in pragmatic safety and miss out on the path to real adventure?  What if I never actually become the person I was made to be?  I don’t want to be driven by fear…but I don’t want to ignore this deep ache either.

What is it for you?

07.11.10

Live as if you…

Filed under: life,quotes — 11:10 am

“Live as if you were living already for the second time, and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now.”

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

06.28.10

a vision

Filed under: God's movement,quotes — 6:22 pm

“The demand is liberation; the emphasis is connectedness; the corrective is suffering; the power is imagination; and the vocation is tikkun olam — the repair of the world.”


- Maria Harris, in her book Proclaim Jubilee: A Spirituality for the Twenty-First Century

06.21.10

be here now. (easier said than done)

Filed under: life,quotes — 8:33 pm

“Remember that when we are present, we see that there really is a Divine plan, and that it is happening right now. Consciously participating in the miraculous unfolding of reality is the Holy Work, and it is the greatest source of satisfaction that we can have.” (Understanding the Enneagram, 56)

What stops you from being fully present in each moment?  For me, there are two things:  (1) My iPhone.  Instead of thinking or praying as I walk to my next work meeting, I quick flip through Twitter world.  Instead of fully engaging with Henry at the park, I half watch him play…half dominate the high-stakes tables of Texas Hold’em.  It’s a problem.  (2) Dreaming about the future.  They say that you’re biggest strength can easily become your biggest weakness, and being futuristic is mine.  I can be so caught up in the potential beauty and excitement of the future that the present feels cruelly boring.  Or even more insidious, when the present feels overwhelming and threatens my idealism, the future is a safe place to hide.  Once again, this can be quite a problem.

What about you?   What stops you…AND what keeps you present in the moment?

06.11.10

where does the future come from?

Filed under: creativity,leadership,quotes — 11:08 am

“Learn from the fringe.  It’s true for music, fashion, business, and the arts:  the future starts on the fringe, not in the mainstream.  As William Gibson once said, The future has already happened, it’s just unequally distributed.  To see it coming, we have to pay attention…”  (Gary Hamel)

05.17.10

two painful quotes for today

Filed under: God's movement,life,quotes — 12:42 pm

“We seem to have focused so much on exuberant beginnings and victorious endings that we’ve forgotten about the slow, sometimes tortuous unraveling of God’s grace that takes place in the ‘middle places.’”           (Sue Monk Kidd)

“We must be willing to be uncomfortable for a while if we wish to be released from whatever has bound us.”  (Understanding the Enneagram)

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