Meetings

At most meetings there are people who validly point to difficulties inherent in a proposed project or activity. Even though they serve a purpose, they can be very disheartening. Just once we ought to act, even though it may be hard and even if we might be wrong. Who said things should be easy or that we had to be right all of the time?

For The Cause

What happened to all those willing, and sometimes even anxious, to die for a cause?

I don't know, maybe they all died.

No Choice But to Stay

People say, "If you don't like the Church as it is, get out." They also say, "If you don't like the country the way it is, leave." They do not realize it is because a person loves that he must sometimes criticize, urging that it get better rather than stay satisfied. He cannot leave and there is nowhere else to go. His heart is there. There is no choice but to stay - and make people mad. Leaving it wouldn't help; changing it might.

Emotional Junk Mail

They are in life responding to all the emotional junk mail, treating it as though it were significant communication and leaving no time or energy for more important matters. Perhaps the junk serves a purpose, providing busy-ness and a way to avoid what could be too hard to face.

The Wisdom of Knowing Less

We can perhaps demythologize too much. We can end up knowing so much, but having so little. In finding the facts, we can destroy the beauty.

Leaving Home

Aeneas left home carrying his gods on one shoulder and his father on the other. In what may be a less graphic - though just as real - way, so do we all.

Success & Failure

Only if there was a chance of success can we truly call it failure.

Trusting

The prophet Jeremiah feels God should maybe look-out for God's people, that he should stop being so tough on Israel, in general, and in particular the prophet. There are times I feel the same way, times when God seems to be fouling things up, especially me, and he is missing the point of just about everything, and would he please stop. Please, smarten up. But when I complain, when I ask about it, he doesn't answer. He doesn't apologize. He won't even try to explain. Still, I think maybe he does understand, maybe better than I do; and even if he doesn't, there is little to do but go on trusting.

God's Interlocutors

I thank God for people I have known, especially those who can act as though they have seen God's face and know his first name, and try to tell us what he said.

Reactions to Us

We cannot be responsible for reactions to us. Whether people accept, like, hate, tolerate, or venerate is within themselves and not our concern. Yet I think we sometimes alter our message or ourselves, so someone will look favorably upon us, so they will recognize themselves rather than us in who we are.

Despite what they say and in spite of the evidence, God is not a giant spider

Talking to Walls

We sometimes talk to walls. Not because they do not hear, but because they will not answer.

God's Role

It is sometimes easier to say God has no role in day-to-day functioning, to say his casual role is inapplicable to specific situations. The alternative is to see him as responsible for some terrible things, things inconsistent with whom we want him to be.

How to Solve Problems

To deal with a problem we must first give it a name. It need not be the right name. We can change it as we get to know it better, but if it has no name, no identity, then we have nothing to alter, no place to begin and no way to know when we have finished.

Like God Prays

They prayed like God must pray. They prayed like they meant it. The words were not just words. They instead said what was in their heart, and they said it for all to hear.