And I wonder if this broken-down-ness is supposed to be. Everything created enters a state of disrepair at times. Your car breaks down – you kind of expect that, but there’s brokenness in the natural world, too. Sometimes things do not work just right. Babies are born with deficits. There is disease in the human body, and turmoil among people and wildlife alike.
And we look out from this perfectionistic perspective, thinking we are going to reach a place where everything works perfectly. ...
When you learn to trust, I believe you will begin to trust EVERYONE. Now most of us choose who we trust, which is wise in a way, especially when you are talking about actually entrusting yourself to people. But I believe you can also learn to trust the people who have hurt you continually and will continue to do so. Trusting those who have hurt you looks like this: forgiving them and giving them over to their own devices.
When you learn to trust, it means you realize those people who have hurt ...
It is important that we believe in people. I mean, we should not put our trust solely in people, but people benefit from our faith in them. We also benefit when we trust others. It is far too easy to get cynical. When people wrong you, or just appear different than you, it is easy to write them off. But our differences are what stretch us and make us grow. If you write people off, you are missing your opportunity to grow.
Everything around you in the world will convince you not to have faith. Your ...
We must believe in the good in people. I’m not saying that everything everyone does is okay. In fact, people do terrible, terrible things at others’ expense – things deserving of punishment. I am saying, however, that I believe that every being is capable of being redeemed. If you do not believe that, then where is your hope and what is your hope in?
I have yet to meet a person that did not start out desiring to be loved. Many of the things we do to hurt others come about because ...
I think when we are always busy trying to be “contemplative” and get to a deeper level of prayer, we miss something. I think one of the truest forms of prayer is my daughter running through the grass at full speed, saying, “Look at me, Daddy!” She marvels at what her legs can do and is truly abandoned to the moment and the speed at which she carries her little body.
We can do a lot for our hearts by just being what we are. There is a gamut of emotions that I feel like I ...