instrument of peace

make me an instrument of your peace,
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

~st. francis

The Justice Creed

We believe that God is just and that God loves justice.

God delights in just laws and rejoices in just people.

God liberates those who are oppressed by injustice and is grieved by unjust people and the unjust systems they create and sustain.

God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, and God's kingdom belongs to those willing to be persecuted for the sake of justice.

To God, justice is a weighty thing that can never be ignored.

We believe that Jesus came to display the justice of God, in word and deed, in life, death, and resurrection.

The justice God desires, which Jesus taught, must surpass that of the hypocrites, for the justice of God is a compassionate justice, rich in mercy and abounding in love for the last, the least, the lost, and the excluded.

On his cross, Jesus drew the injustice of humanity into the light, and there the heartless injustice of human empire met the reconciling justice of the kingdom of God.

The resurrection of Jesus proclaims that the true justice of God, naked vulnerable and scarred by abuse, is stronger than the violent injustice of humanity, armed with weapons, conceit, deceit, and lies.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is here now, convicting the world of sin and injustice, warning that God's judgement will come on all that is unjust.

We believe that the kingdom of God is a not a matter of superficial things but is justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Empowered by the Spirit, then, we seek God's kingdom and we seek God's justice, for the world as it is has not yet become the world as God desires it to be.

And so we live and work and pray, until justice rolls down like water, until justice flows like a never-ending stream.

For we believe that God is just, and the true and living God loves justice.

Amen.

~Brian McLaren

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

~Oriah
© Mountaindreaming, from the book The Invitation published by HarperSanFrancisco, 1999 All rights reserved

the context of the whole

"We all become important when we realize our goal should be to figure out our role within the context of the whole."
~Kimya Dawson

“Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.”
-Harry Emerson Fosdick

Love wins.

whatever divinity we can lay claim

"Whatever divinity we can lay claim to is hidden in the core of our humanity and when we let our compassion go, we let go of whatever claim we have to the divine."
~Bruce Springsteen

when living water dies...

when living water is cut off from the source, it becomes stagnant and dies.
in that death it does nothing but churn within itself and become poisonous.
don't go near the water cut off from the source.