“God does not force us to believe in Him, but draws us to Himself through the truth and goodness of his incarnate Son. Love, in fact, always respects freedom.”
— Pope Benedict XVI
“Massive poverty and obscene inequality…rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils. In this new century, millions of people…remain imprisoned, enslaved, and in chains. They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is manmade and it can be overcome….Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. We thank you for coming here today. Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom. Of course the task will not be easy. but not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up.”
— Nelson Mandela
Remembering an old conversation with a friend
We were talking about being encouraged, and i started to share with her a passage i just read, that turned into a revelation to me…
i was reading through mark 6 tonight, and i caught a verse that i had never seen before… mark 6:31[Her]
im lookin in the message
[Josh]
after the twelve went out and cast out demons and healed people, they come back and it says that because the people were coming and going so much, they didnt even have a chance to eat. and jesus says “come with me by yourselves and get some rest”
[Her]
sounds like my life
resting is one of the ten commandments!
honor the sabbath
we dont do it
[Josh]
but even in the midst of the “restful place” there was a HUGE crowd of people… and the desciples start to freak and jesus basically says “ill take care of it… you dont get it… you work and work and work… but here- look… im the rest, im the secret place, im the bread to fead them, im the boat that holds you… I AM.
i LOVE that about JEsus
[Her]
i know
[Josh]
we keep trying to be this anjd be that and go and go and go… and jesus is simply standing there, saying “whatever you need- im it. food? here i am. rest? here i am. help for others? here i am. health? im here. im the very boat that carries you to the rest you need.
isnt that cool!
[Her]
yeah it is
hes everything
[Josh]
but its weird to think that Jesus could be everything.
[Her]
i think its comforting
[Josh]
yeah…idk… for me, it comes down to the question “if Jesus is everything, what am i?”
[Her]
hmmmmm
[Josh]
You know what, If Jesus is everything but I still exist, then I am what He has made me to be. except Im not… I don’t always act like the person He made- for some reason I find it comfortable to act like someone else rather than simply be me. But if Jesus, who is the culmination and creator of everything, made me as me, Id have to be absolutely insane to try and act like anybody else. Reminds me of Brennan Manning when he said “My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.”
A Great Rabbi stands teaching in the market place. It happens that a husband finds proof that morning of his wife’s adultery, and a mob carries her to the market place to stone her to death. (There is a familiar version of this story, but a friend of mine, a speaker for the dead, has told me of two other rabbis that faced the same situation. Those are the ones I’m going to tell you.)
The Rabbi walks forward and stands beside the woman. Out of respect for him the crowd forbears, and waits with the stones heavy in their hands. “Is there anyone here,” he says to them, “who has not desired another man’s wife, another woman’s husband?” they murmur and say, “We all know the desire. But, Rabbi, none of us has acted on it.” The rabbi says, “Then kneel down and give thanks that God made you strong.” He takes the woman by the hand and leads her out of the market. Just before he lets her go, he whispers to her, “Tell the lord magistrate who saved his mistress. Then he will know I am his loyal servant.” So the woman lives because the community is too corrupt to protect itself from disorder.
Another rabbi, another city. He goes to her and stops the mob, as in the other story, and says, “Which of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone.” The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of their own individual sins. Someday, they think, I may be like this woman, and I’ll hope for forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her the way I wish to be treated. As they open their hands and let the stones fall to the ground, the rabbi picks up one of the fallen stones, lifts it high over the woman’s head, and throws it straight down with all his might. It crushes her skull and dashes her brains onto the cobblestones. “Nor am I without sin,” he says to people. “But if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead, and our city with it.” So the woman died because her community was too rigid to endure her defense.
The famous version of this story is noteworthy because it is so startlingly rare in our experience. Most communities lurch between decay and rigor mortis, and when they veer too far, they die. Only one rabbi dared to expect of us such perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation. So, of course, we killed him.
— Excerpt from “Speaker For The Dead” – Orson Scott Card
Love from Thomas Merton
“If you want to identify me,
ask me not where I live
or what I like to eat
or how I comb my hair,
but ask me what I am living for –
in detail –
and ask me what I think is keeping me
from living wholly for the things I want to live for.”
~ Thomas Merton
“THOUGHTS IN SOLITUDE”
by Thomas Merton
My Lord, God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself; and,
The fact that I think I am following Your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please You
does, in fact, please You.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And, I know that if I do, You will lead me by the right road
Though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore, will I trust You always –
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for You are ever with me; and,
You will never leave me to face my perils alone.
“Let there always be quiet, dark churches in which people can
take refuge….Houses of God filled with his silent presence. There,
even when they do not know how to pray, at least they
can be still and breathe easily. -Thomas Merton, (New Seeds of Contemplation)
Great quote. Taken with Hipstamatic
Josh
{Sent from my iPhone. Please Forgive any spelling/grammattical errors, shorthand or incompressible text-pictures. Thanks.}Politics and Disneyland just should not mix…
Josh
{Sent from my iPhone. Please Forgive any spelling/grammattical errors, shorthand or incompressible text-pictures. Thanks.}
