A few years back during a dark night of the soul, I rediscovered this truth. Hymns I’d long forgotten popped up unbidden in my thoughts. Scripture verses I’d forgotten I’d memorized as a child emerged out of nowhere. Prayers I’d learned, spoken by thousands of Christians over centuries, rooted my thoughts when I didn’t have the words.
Curiosity about others, curiosity about their lives, opens us up to opportunities to acknowledge and reflect their value: they are worth noticing. In a distracted world, this is explosively powerful.
As a friend put it recently, people are uncomfortable with their lack of control; if Bad Thing A can happen to you, then maybe it could happen to me – so let’s find something you did that caused it. That way, I feel safe again.
While the calendar reads January 29th, it can feel like a year’s worth of news and activity has already taken place.
We are pleased to share a rich chorus of voices who have answered questions posed in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr Day.
This is what happens when we employ shibboleths. We don’t engage in critical thinking, we don’t assume the value of the other person, and we don’t speak with kindness to or about those outside the boundaries of our groups.
Christmas stillness is deep, underlying peace that bookends our days, whether they are good or bad, joyful or tragic.
Beware the excuse that lets you off the hook, or lets your friends, your ideological companions, or your heroes off the hook.
For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
The urgent truth that this moving story illustrates is a simple, powerful one: honor is healing.