…Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble.
That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless — that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.
Whoever wants to embrace life and see the day fill up with good, Here’s what you do:
Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
run after peace for all you’re worth.
(1 Peter)
I’ve really been impressed and appreciative of all the things Jason Kovacs does. It’s been great getting to know him and his ministry over the last several months via his blogs and Twitter (@jasonkovacs).
Last week, Jason shared a great post on what he learned from the story of Hannah (1 Samuel 1) and her husband in Scripture…
Hannah taught me that it is natural for a woman to desire to have children. Woman all around the world can relate to her. My wife painfully longed to be a mother. Initially I didn’t know what to do with her emotional response to not being pregnant. To me it seemed so disproportionate to how I felt…. I felt like Hannah’s husband, who said to her: “why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?†That approach didn’t work in Hannah’s day and it still doesn’t work today.
I ditto that statement. I will never fully understand the pain and sadness that Laurie feels as we struggle with our infertility. Yes, my heart hurts because we haven’t been able to get pregnant — but my desire is no where near that of Laurie’s.
Continue reading Dealing with the pain of infertility
Found a great podcast featuring Mark Scandrette during my break. In it, he addresses 5 Myths of Community.
“If we want real community like the early church… we must be willing to embrace hurt and suffering… because love is costly.”
Sounds very counter-intuitive to the American dream and empire.
Continue reading 5 Myths of Community
Brian McLaren shares some great thoughts from Fr. Richard Rohr ::
Is your religion helping you to transform your pain? If it does not, it is junk religion. We all have pain—it’s the human situation, we all carry it in a big black bag behind us and it gets heavier as we get older: by betrayals, rejections, disappointments, and wounds that are inflicted along the way.
If we do not find some way to transform our pain, I can tell you with 100% certitude we will transmit it to those around us. We will create tension, negativity, suspicion, and fear wherever we go…
Not sure who started it, or where it came from, but found out about the #myfavoritebiblestory Twitter meme last night at dinner.
The basic gist of it is “What’s your favorite Bible story” but complete with irony and sarcasm.
What’s really interesting is to see how folks have responded. While many of the tweets have come from one or two people, they’ve been retweeted and added to by a number of folks. And I would say the irony of these stories highlight some of the real issues people have with the Church and Christianity today.
So the question is, do we ignore it by calling it offensive, or do we start working to fix it?
Hope no one takes offense, but these are some of my favorites….
Continue reading #myfavoritebiblestory
How many of you can finish this statement:
“Love the sinner….”
Tony Campolo says “wherever someone is hurting, there is Jesus.”
But then he also finishes the above statement. For those who say, “I love the sinner, but I hate his sin.” His response is that “that is just the opposite of what Jesus says…. Jesus says, ‘love the sinner and hate your own sin; and after you get rid of the sin in your own life, then you can begin talking about the sin in your brother or sister’s life.'”
I continue to believe that the more we get to know people and know their stories and know their backgrounds and know their hurts — the more we realize how similar we are and loving them becomes that much easier.
Huge props to Theresa for sharing this video.