Still Relevant ...

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.

- Abraham Lincoln,
Second Inaugural Address (1865)

Maintaining Peace

The struggle to maintain peace is immeasurably more difficult than any military operation.

- Anne O'Hare McCormick,
first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for foreign correspondence

Peace is powerful

Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.

- Etty Hillesum,
died in Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of 29. From An Interrupted Life, a compilation of her diaries and letters.

Just do it

Don’t tell me what you hope for. Tell me what you are doing to bring it. Then you will know both patience and justice.

- Joan Chittister

It's one of those days

Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.

- Martin Luther King Jr.,
Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Dec. 11, 1964.

Ambassadors of God

People who are in need and are not afraid to beg give to people not in need the occasion to do good for goodness' sake. Modern society calls the beggar bum and panhandler and gives him the bum's rush. But the Greeks used to say that people in need are ambassadors of the gods. Although you may be called bums and panhandlers you are in fact the ambassadors of God. As God's ambassadors you should be given food, clothing and shelter by those who are able to give it.
--Peter Maurin

Quote of the Day

It is sad to see that, in our highly competitive and greedy world, we have lost touch with the joy of giving. We often live as if our happiness depended on having. But I don't know anyone who is really happy because of what he or she has. True joy, happiness and inner peace come from the giving of ourselves to others. A happy life is a life for others.

- Henri J.M. Nouwen
Life of the Beloved

Quote of the Day

Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.

- Robert F. Kennedy, in a speech in Capetown, South Africa, June 6, 1966. Today is the 40th anniversary of his assassination.

Quote of the Day

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." ~ Alvin Toffler

Consider this

To cure us of our immoderate love of gain, we should seriously consider how many goods there are that money will not purchase, and these the best; and how many evils there are that money will not remedy, and these the worst.
Charles Caleb Colton

Quote of the Day

I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don't have time to carry grudges; you don't have time to cling to the need to be right.

- author Anne Lamott, in a recent interview. (Source: The Washington Times)

Leadership: Obedience, Servanthood & Maturity

Ahh, how I love Jean Vanier. His book, Community and Growth (Paulist Press, 1989) was one of the key books I treasured when I lived in community at Jesus People USA. There is so much amazing stuff in this book. I encourage you to read about him and his life in communtiy with God and others. Really, really good stuff.


“In order to be able to assume the responsibility for other people’s growth, leaders must themselves have grown to true maturity and inner freedom. They must not be locked up in a prison of illusion or selfishness, and they must have allowed others to guide them.

“We can only command if we know how to obey. We can only be a leader if we know how to be a servant. We can only be a mother—or a father—figure if we are conscious of ourselves as a daughter or a son. Jesus is the Lamb before the He is the Shepherd. His authority comes from the Father; He is the beloved Son of the Father” (p. 225).

The Beginning of Love

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” -- Thomas Merton

Quote of the Day

I love this quote about sharing about Jesus with others. Just show the One I love.

Have you ever seen someone pull a photo out of their wallet and argue about the supremacy of this particular loved one? Of course not. They show you the picture and give you the opportunity to see what they see. -- Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

Quote of the Day

"This disparity between economics and justice is an issue of worship. According to the narrative of Scripture, the very heart of how we show and distinguish true worship from false worship is apparent in how we respond to the poor, the oppressed, the neglected and the forgotten."
-Mark Labberton

Quote of the Day

Warren Buffett, the third-richest man in the world (he's worth $52 billion), has criticised the US tax system for allowing him to pay a lower rate than his secretary and his cleaner. Speaking at a $4,600-a-seat fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, Buffett said:

“The 400 of us [here] pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent” ...

Shane Claiborne/Rich Mullins

As I mentioned in the previous post, Shane Claiborne was here a couple of weeks ago speaking. He shared an awesome quote from Rich Mullins that stopped me in my tracks. I found that quote in an interview that Shane did with Relevant magazine a while back and thought it was worth sharing with the rest of you.

A lot of what we believe about money and its hold on our lives comes from the story of the rich young ruler. What are your thoughts on that story?

I think that is one of the stories that we’ve kind of lost. Rich Mullins—I often talk about him when I talk on that parable—showed up in chapel and said, “You guys are all into that born-again thing, and that’s awesome; we’ve got to be born again. You know Jesus said that to Nicodemus. But if you tell me that I got to be born again, I can tell you that you’ve got to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy, too.” I love that. And then he said, “But I guess that’s why God invented highlighters, so we can we highlight the verses that we like and ignore the other ones.”

The interview in its entirety can be found here: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/beta/issue_26_claiborne.php

It's well worth the read.

What goals do you have as a leader?

"Stay faithful every day and make
aggressive mistakes. Goals are too limiting. I have none."

Brian Tome, Pastor, Crossroads Community Church

http://leadershipblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/leadership-blog-interview-brian-tome.html

Bloom Where You're Planted

Ah but the stability that comes from staying in place, being truly
grounded, settled, unwilling to jump when the next parade comes to town beating
whatever "drum of the month" it brings... that only comes from trusting, seeking
and recognizing the presence of God in normal, everyday tasks. The same
neighbors, the same place of work, same basic situation cannot shut God out. We
simply don't have the power to stop the active Spirit when and where He chooses
to work!

Thanks, Glenn.

Quote by my friend Glenn:

http://www.glennkaiser.com/blog.htm

Left Vs. Right

"The Left mocks the Right. The Right knows it's right. Two ugly traits. How far should we go to try to understand each other's point of view? Maybe the distance grace covered on the Cross is a clue." --Bono, lead singer of U2