So often we complain about traffic or a line at the grocery store or a cranky boss or unfriendly neighbor. But for someone whose existence is wholly prescribed by prison rules or jail cells they would be grateful to be driving or shopping or working or living in a neighborhood. We take so many things for granted in this world, filled up and overflowing as it is with blessings great and small.

And for someone returning to the free world after months or years or decades in prison, the things we find routine can be filled with uncertainty of how things have changed and how they are expected to act. They have not opened a door or window while they have been away. They have not been the first person to see a letter or card addressed to them, and they may have missed a card altogether because it had glitter or added parts that did not meet the necessary prison guidelines. They are often challenged by the very foods they have been longing for because few prisons have much budget for spices. Fresh fruits and vegetables are a rarity. Flowers tend to be limited to prisons with horticulture programs and pets to prisons with dog rehabilitation programs.

How would it be to come out of prison with no one waiting, no place to stay, no one who is willing to offer even the most basic employment, no church who offers the fellowship of all believers? And this is not a short-term situation as broken families, uncertain landlords, worried employers and frightened churches are slow to lend a hand up for multiple reasons both valid and invalid.

We speak of "paying a debt to society" but our fears help increase the likelihood of someone, even someone who comes to faith in prison, being soon attracted to old friends, old stomping grounds and old ways of coping with sadness, want and despair. If church people don't really believe in redemption, renewal and restoration, then how are we different from the world?

Both Saturday's small group speaker and the sermon Sunday were on the subject of love. Both spoke with passion and, not surprisingly, in complementary ways.

Michelle Willis reminded us that God is Love. That anywhere in the Bible, inserting "Love" where it says "God" can help us move loser to understanding the nature of God and God's relationship with us. She reminded us that when the Bible says, "Love is patient, love is kind" it was not referring to human relationships even though we often associate that passage with marriage ceremonies. And it is certainly a good verse to read when we are trying to figure out of someone is "the one" or how we might behave in kinder ways in our marriage and within our families. But the last part says, "Love never fails." And those of us who have known the pain of divorce know that is not always the case if we are speaking of human beings' capacity to sustain a loving human relationship.

So what does all this mean? This passage, quoted below, actually is St. Paul exhorting the church to remember that no matter what its gifts and ministries and attributes it is proud of, that without love infused in all, it is only noise and self-importance.

So Pastor Jeff Brinkman added his perspective on love as a fruit of the spirit. He reminded us that God's love, agape, and even romantic love and brotherly love are entirely different that "loving pizza." The over use of the word "love" really is sad, because real love, especially God's love is so amazing that no human word can begin to properly name it. Fortunately, our inability to name or describe it, does not limit God's capacity and covenant to pour it out upon us.

Today, let us bask in God's love for us and share it freely with all who God sends to cross our path. The word for today is kindness as it reflects love in action.

1 Corinthians 13 
     If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 
     Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
     Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
     And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Last fall I told you I was attending a retreat weekend for Kairos Outside, a community of people who minister to folks affected by the incarceration of a loved one. The next weekend in the Kansas City area is October 9-11.

If you are a woman who has been affected by the incarceration of a loved one and would like to be a guest at the upcoming weekend, use the "contact" tab above and we'll get you information. If you are a man or outside the area, contact me so we can find alternative or local weekends for you.

This is what I ask of each of you. 

Put a sticky or a note under a refrigerator magnet or add us to your "tasks" because we are standing in the need of prayer.

Pray for Elaine, the team leader as the team is chosen and angel volunteers recruited. Pray for us as we meet for training and spiritual growth and team bonding on August 8th, August 22, September 12 and September 26. Pray for the pilgrims, both those who are looking forward to this and those who don't even know yet that this blessing is coming their way. Pray for us on October 9-11 as we gather to live as daughters of the King of King, loving, healing, hoping, reaching out, receiving grace. We also ask for prayers in the weeks after as our guests move back into their day-to-day lives to carry new ideas and options and understanding of their infinite value as a child of God. On October 24th we will have our first reunion, and prayers then would also bless us.

If any of you think this sounds like you would like help you can be an angel volunteer by writing notes of encouragement for the pilgrims (I think we will need 30, unless we have lots of extra big blessings and need a few more) or even coming out to help with a meal or running errands, set up, take down and the like. Or you can sponsor a meal ($5.00 per meal per person) or a bed ($30.00 per person per weekend). Use that contact button above and let me know that too. 

Also, please pray as we seek churches who might be called to touch the lives of children affected by the incarceration of a parent through Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree program. (Prison Fellowship matches children of an incarcerated parent with volunteers who teach reach out with a gift and kindness. Last Christmas almost 2,000 children in Missouri alone were left without a gift they qualified for because the need outstripped the support.) Again, use the buttons above to either "contact" me or click on the "resources" button to link directly to the Prison Fellowship home page.

We need prayers most of all as we seek to love as God has loved us, bring healing and hope as we love on these folks.

We meet one another and at at least some level we ask ourselves, "Is this person safe to walk with?" Depending on the level of unsafe experiences we have had, how similar the person seems to ourselves, the availability of others we trust to provide backup, and our personal temperament, we proceed with varying degrees of trust.

We know this made sense when the world was more aggressively unsafe than it is today. But there is plenty to be afraid of today and it is much more difficult to determine what is dangerous and what is safe. So, we learn and remember what we can, then make the best choices that we can and keep moving on. I have no better alternative to offer because not one person is ever perfectly safe. Humankind is too broken, to untrustworthy too often, to proceed with no caution; but excessive caution causes life to be miserable, with fear excluding joy.

I can only share my way of stepping out in faith. "God, I appreciate Your love and tender care. I wish I were better and faster at learning so I would more correctly interpret the choices I face each minute of every day and sometimes I do better and sometimes I am careless with the life you have give me. Let me choose kindness over timidity, courage over fear, generosity over acquisitive, remembering that all I have, including my life, my resources, my health, my hospitality are gifts from You and if I should loose time, health, resources or even die expending them trying to good, I trust my self and my loved ones into your care. AMEN"

Some folks (including some of my nearest and dearest) find this nuts. But here is the deal for me: bad things happen sometimes, and I'd much rather pay the price for doing a good thing rather than while surrendering to bullying and threats where I still loose time, health, resources or even die anyway.

Last evening I had the blessing of joining a gathering of folks who are or are preparing to enter prison ministry with Prison Fellowship. I have great respect for the organization, firstly because it was founded by someone who belatedly decided to tell the truth when he was challenged to make his actions match his words. (He was promptly rewarded for this by being convicted of a felony, loosing his law license and capacity to earn big money, and becoming a federal prison inmate. That sounds like a recipe for trying faith beyond anything most of us ever experience.) Secondly, he took all his experiences from growing faith to academic and professional skills to personal commitment and wrapped it up as a gift to the Spirit of God, asking to be used to shine light into the darkest place he had ever been.

When he left prison he was filled with compassion and love for the people he had met on the level field of the prison yard, folks with whom he shared prison food day by day, scary people and scared people. I suspect that most of us would have wanted to put that all as far behind us as possible as fast as possible and get busy trying to restore our financial security, wanting to forget the experience as quickly as possible.

Instead Chuck Colson invested the rest of his years working in, visiting and praying for prisons across the United States and around the world. He has advocated for more effective legal processes affecting incarceration rates, alternatives to incarceration and powerful prison programming. He built an organization that has survived and thrived since his death, recruiting, training and overseeing volunteers that offer light in the darkest of places.

The free world's free press occasionally mentioned Chuck Colson's story, but they never seem really comfortable either with Mr. Colson's relationship with God which drove him to "squeal on his friends" (though they think dirty politicians should repent and change their ways), nor does it seem they really believe anything can make things better for someone convicted of a crime. They are excited to tell the stories of folks unjustly incarcerated with much speculation about how that happened; unless the unjustly incarcerated person is more interested in forgiving and living well than in rehashing the truly horrible thing that happened to them. Stories encouraging people to give folks who have been incarcerated a chance at honest, gainful employment is certainly not considered worthy of time on the nightly news. So they either dismissed it as a "flash in the pan" or unlikely to matter or maybe mildly interesting if the incarcerated person has "star quality". Even then the news seems almost smug when someone who has struggled and found a new life, then slips, as though by the public sin all redemption, reconciliation and renewal is proven false by it, Instead it is the proof that even very public people are loved by God and tended with care as they recover from a public slip. (I'm so grateful that when I fall off my diet or yell at someone I'm not news worthy!).

So today I want to thank God for the Prison Ministry staff; volunteers, both free-world visitors and resident volunteers; Angel Tree participants; and churches building processes to be safe places for former prisoners seeking to build purposeful, worthwhile lives and be responsible members of families, churches and communities. And say out loud in public how much I appreciate the work they acting as Jesus modeled for us.

If you hear a whisper that God has this on His list of ways to bless you, check out the link on the resource links tab above look for programs in your area. Even if you don't find a way to volunteer with them, they have great resources and replaceable processes information so if you are building a new ministry in your church you can start a step or two ahead and with great information on keeping everyone safe.

Generous and Abundant Lord, thank You for Your promise to meet us where we are. No matter how someone finds their way to a jail or prison cell, we know it can be a time of reflection, reconsidering past choices and seeking new ways to move ahead. Send workers to this orchard heavy with ripe fruit where something as simple as kindness and respect, a hearing ear, a praying heart can be used by the Spirit of God to offer hope, help, healing and holy change in lives of inmates who today find it hard to believe it is possible that God loves them. Thank you for opening opportunities for us to be a part of that, from prayers to financial support to personal interaction with these folks. Give us wisdom, patience, and a willingness to be only the hands and feet of God, guarding us from all evil and protecting us from causing harm. AMEN

Fear has such a high cost. It drives us to defensive and offensive positions that are woefully unhelpful unless we are actually under attack. And even when we are in danger, letting fear run rampant keeps us from actually doing the most efficient job of evaluating the dangers and responding.

A little fear, like the kind that keeps us from rushing into the street without checking for oncoming traffic is helpful. The kind that we see in movies where the terrified person plunges out of the alley only to be flattened by a truck would be the unhelpful kind.

The other very unhelpful kind is the fear of what might happen because of something bad that happened before. Someone who can't hold a job because a prior employer stole their paycheck, assaulted them and gave them horrible references when they sought safer employment. It is the kind of fear that happened in my extended family when someone took on the "I hate cops" mantel using the excuse of a grandfather had died in a bar brawl in 1906 New York when the police were trying to break up the fight. It was not his son who took this position, but a grandson looking for an excuse for behaving badly. 

Sometimes we take a single incident and blow it up into a life-style of self-pity. Other times we embrace every offense, real or imagined, to reinforce the self-destructive habit of always expecting and dreading the worst. Maya Angelou is quoted: "Hope for the best, be prepared for the worse. Life is shocking, but you must never appear to be shocked. For no matter how bad it is it could be worse and no matter how good it is it could be better.”

That balance is much easier for me in the light of my faith because I believe God always looks out for my highest good, not by keeping all sorrow from me, but rather by assuring the facility to grow in understanding and strength and kindness.  No matter how bad things are, I am assured that God will see me through and make it all count for something important, making it possible to survive some pretty grim things without loosing my balance permanently.

Almighty and All-powerful God, thank You for Your covenant promises to love me always, support my highest good at all times and be my Shield and Shelter, helping me find your Will in my life, that I might fulfill the purpose for which You created me, loving as Your Hands and Feet, growing closer to You all the way to Heaven. AMEN

I worked on a women's build Habitat for Humanity house last spring. They were an awesome bunch of women who are quick to try new things if only someone will teach them. They got lots done and the staff coordinator was run off his feet coaching and helping. Everybody was busy, worn slick by the end of the day and happy to be a part of something as important as saving a little house for the benefit of a small family.

So today I worked with a "regular team" meaning the volunteers were half men and half women, one of whom is an professional rehabber experienced in setting up and executing similar work sites. It was a "day job" meaning three small projects to help someone stay in their home rather than building or fixing a broken home. So here is the challenge: the men had worked together before, had great skills and experience specific to the projects and the yard was tiny before it was filled with table saw, saw horses, jack hammers, stacked siding, bags of concrete, a wheelbarrow and the concrete mixer. It was such a tight fit that it was not practical to get all three projects going at one time and it made perfect sense for the experienced team to jump right in replacing the railings on the porch with a camaraderie that was fun to watch.

Other than working around the edges keeping the work sight picked up and trimming some bushes and eventually moving the broken concrete away to set-up for a walk-way repair, we were not such great help. And as the day wore on and the shade was reduced and the temperature climbed steadily, the women were not feeling like they were being much help. The crew chief was most comforting, but one just can't put 8 people in a space that is tight for four. Today is the only day I could fit Habitat into my week and I'm feeling less frustrated about that.

But, challenges and all, today was a blessing. I love being around folks (of ALL ages -- we were 16 to maybe 70 today) who have a genuine heart for helping and are willing teachers. Although I had not worked with these folks before, we had common friends and everyone was so welcoming and friendly even with high heat and the usual unplanned fixes that needed to be addressed. Even the older neighbor next door would wander over to kibitz. Habitat workers are good for neighborhoods too. The staff member who coordinated the site was most knowledgeable and gracious and his great son came to help too.

So, I may be creaky tomorrow, but it will be a happy creaky! Both because I enjoyed today and because tomorrow I will be in air-conditioning.

Thank you Almighty God, for the heart, health and opportunity to be Your hands and feet today. Bless the home owner as she enjoys a safer and more attractive environment. Bless the folks who came to work and the neighbors who saw us praying as we started our day. Thank you, Lord, for a truly great day. AMEN

This morning the weather was cool and overcast, perfect for my scheduled time helping out on the landscape team at church. Most of the folks there, it seems, have about 15 years on me and I could not keep up too well. But they were delightful people with far more knowledge and skill in planning, planting and tending than I have. The Landscape Team rocks and I am grateful for them any time I walk the paths or visit the campus because their efforts both feed the deer and my soul.

But we were working in a rather frustrating area, a larger section on the Stations of the Cross area where we have begun an ambitious design implementation that has been particularly challenging with the extensive rains interrupted by 100 degree heat-index days. The mulch has shifted, the pre-emergence has washed down hill, the weeds are aggressive, but also we are blessed by a delightful design professional who is volunteering his gifts; that rarity at church, more men that women showing up to work which helps with rock moving, hole digging and wheel barrel operation that are beyond my capacity; a volunteer coordinator that communicates clearly, offers plenty of kindness and has a gift for finding good deals; and the so slowly developing delightful progress on what is expected to be a three year process.

Today I am struck by how I wish I had taken up gardening much earlier because it is such a good metaphor for my faith journey. I might have figured out much earlier that this thing called faith is not an event so much as a lifetime of maintenance, adjustment, growth, and readjustment. I can never design, fund, and implement a delightful garden and then sit back like I've poured a quality patio that will last decades with little maintenance. Instead I must water or deal with standing water, adjust where plants have played out or are overgrown, weed, apply pre-emergence and mulch and weed again, add new varieties of plants that may offer new colors or be more robust, and adjust when growing trees cause a garden to change from mostly sun to mostly shade. And if I go on vacation for a couple of weeks in late summer there is a very good chance that I will have A LOT of catching up to do to have a delightful fall rather than many weeks of frustration.

I can fuss, I can fume, I can complain, but in the end I either keep on keeping on, doing the watering and hoeing and tending, or my frustrations and complaints rob me of my delight. So it is with this spiritual journey thing. The fruit of the spirit grows best when tended with persistence and enthusiasm. I'm blessed by the learning as well by the serving and for me it is all worship. But I am truly most effective and much happier when I embrace both with intentionality.

Thanks Miss J. for this morning's lesson in love and service. I'll be back to weed soon.

NOTE: some of the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 

Have you ever studied a foreign language? It is not something that can be learned by spending an hour a week or 5 minutes a day and certainly not by learning verb conjugation one year and 1000 vocabulary words the next. It takes sustained attention and committed study and practice reading, writing, speaking and listening skills and persistent on-going use of the skills to be at all fluent.

For instance two years of high school German had deteriorated to a handful of phrases when I first had the opportunity to visit Germany 40 years later. One phrase firmly stuck in my gray matter (die plattenspieler ist kaput/the record player is broken) proved decidedly unhelpful in every situation. But even remembering that was a surprise considering I had not even once used what I had learned over the ensuring decades!

The old adage that once you learn to ride a bicycle you will always remember does not mean that you can be off a bike for 20 years and then hop on for a 5 mile ride demonstrating peak skills and endurance. Academic learning, sports skills, how state government works, how shop equipment from high school functioned, basic algebra, how to get around the old neighborhood, even core knowledge that we use in practical ways but have not "recited" in years have to be dredged up with effort, and "brushing up" if needed.

Yet, somehow, we expect relationships to flourish spontaneously. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than in our relationship with God. If you have not had serious conversations with God recently, read the Bible or at least books based on Biblical concepts and applications, or engaged in fellowship with mature followers of the teachings of Christ, then please refrain from loudly declaiming your conviction that religion is superstition or childish or pointless based on your Vacation Bible School memories from 5th grade or even your cursory consideration in your early 20s. And please, please, please don't mock people who are working in serious ways to live a more hopeful and joyous life in fellowship with like-minded fellow travelers.

We would love for you to travel with us, sharing your honest questions and struggles. And to the extent we have found good things on this journey, we are concerned that something worthwhile is not being seriously considered by people we love and value. (Think of us as spiritual vegetarians or new non drinkers or non-smokers who are so excited about our improved life that we get a bit preachy.) But just as I would hope you would not mock someone trying to live a life with more respect for their bodies, so please respect our efforts to live lives with more purpose.   

You see, we are serious about living with a different priority, walking what we talk, living with joy and hope and a freedom from the demands of a world that offers us no respect or safety or hope for the future. And we know honest, kind, passionate people who believe with their whole being that God does what God says. So when the Lord is recorded in Jeremiah 29:13 as declaring, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart,”
we are excited as we have begun to understand how that works.

It is hard. It replaces some other stuff that we used to think was important. It requires actions over opinions when life is hard and painful and the road is rocky. It calls us to respond differently to the hate, mean-spiritedness, brokenness, pain and loss in this world. It confuses folks who have not made a committed practice as we are trying to do: responding as we believe Jesus responded and continues to respond to us -- and who longs to reveal Himself to you.

So, wherever you are in your journey, we wish you well, are happy to share our spiritual recipes and training schedule hacks, are most willing to be your work-out buddy and we'll do our best to model our new life with a smile on our face (and sometimes a little tear of joy), and we stand ever prepared to offer you any comfort, aid and kindness that might be a blessing to you. And we'll try to do it without serving only spiritual tofu when we gather together!

Father's Day has it's humorous side. Most men I have known are only happy shoppers at a specialty store that lights up their interests (think Home Depot, Bass Pro or Dick's Sporting Goods). But the retailers and media outlets are relentless in driving their message of buy, buy, buy. Just once I'd like a commercial that says, "Hey Dads! Good job! Thanks for all  you do. Now, lay down the "to do" list, turn off the cell phones and play with your kids. Everybody wins!"

But today I want to speak to the folks for whom this is a challenging day: folks who have buried a father since last father's day, folks who have a living father who is not a part of their lives, folks whose father died when they were young and who continue to feel they missed out on something important, folks whose fathers are incarcerated, or deeply affected by failing bodies or mis-firing minds or so broken themselves as to leave them with little to offer their children, men who long to be fathers but for whom that has not been possible, men who have helped create a life but are excluded from that child's life by circumstances or choice.

Also, some of us had really deeply loved dads that were flawed or distant or not particularly skilled at parenting and the pictures of "perfect families" can rub us a little raw too. I can only imagine how painful it is for dads who are all too aware of their shortcomings and long for better relationships with their sons and daughters.

So as the advertisers poke at us with pictures of perfect families, we will summon our courage and peek around the edges of our determinedly happy faces and let our true faces meet other true faces that we might lay our brokenness open to God's healing touch, freeing us to claim our thankful hearts as we remember the times our dads tried, even when they came up short, and as we remember the men who helped fill in the gaps: good step-fathers and grandfathers and uncles and scout leaders and volunteer coaches and Sunday School teachers who had big hearts, big ears and a willingness to invest time in good kids who needed a little extra encouragement, and as we remember the single moms and grandmas who loved double hard.

We are so grateful that God, our Father, is both willing and able to help us sort through the challenges and heal the broken parts of our hearts; to free us to forgive those who failed to meet our longings; to inspire us and empower us to be available today to a child that can use a little encouragement.

Abba, Father, thank you for every good memory and every lesson learned from our fathers of birth, law and choice. Help us to forgive those who we longed to know and love even though they were not available to us, separated by miles, brokenness, illness, military service, conflicting priorities, incarceration or any of the things that disrupt or destroy relationships between children and their fathers. Help us to lean into you, Heavenly Father, for healing, renewal, restoration and the blessings of fulfilling the purposes for which we were created. AMEN

My heart is lifted by the people the news are calling victims. I doubted that term was accurate when I heard it based on the early information on who these people were. Oh, they were certainly targets of irrational hate and outrageous violence, but I am confident that these people were sitting in that church because of their desire to live unlike others who let fear and hate rule their lives. So many family members have stepped forward to speak of their power, faith and values. Some are already speaking in terms of forgiveness and preparing to honor the lives and faith of their loved ones' passing by living more victoriously themselves. But the folks in that body of faith have chosen life in the face of death and loss for nearly two centuries.* 

So how can we honor these martyrs? I suggest we live more victoriously ourselves, being more intentional in our actions, our words, and work, by joining their ministry of power, joy, love, faith, renewal and Amazing Grace, by allowing ourselves to be inspired and informed by the way they lived. We can learn much about shining God's light into darkness by their examples. 

Where do we start? What can we give? 

While money can do some good just throwing money at something to make ourselves feel better is less effective than investing time and energy to make sure the money is being used for good and not evil according to our best abilities. Being a hands-on volunteer is an excellent way to provide both support and accountability so good programs fulfill their purpose.

Got kids who take time? Take them with you to the homeless shelters to serve meals or to the thrift store to sort and price items or to play with children whose parents are exhausted from holding down two jobs to keep food on the table, not just for a day, but as a way of life.

Is your health poor? Then every time you are in a doctor’s office you can make the choice to be pleasant, paste a smile on your face and be kind to your care givers. Is your praying capacity broken? Make sure your prayers include not only your own needs, but the needs of others and asking God for awareness of ways you can still make a difference in this world.

Are you overwhelmed at work? (If this is not a temporary situation, then think about changing jobs or changing your job!) In the most egregious work stress a few kind words and a willingness to confront bullies and modeling kind behavior is ministry at its best.

I think the biggest thing is to quit buying the nonsense that “my situation is worse that everybody else’s.” How about we agree that lots of folks have lots of challenges and we can’t begin to know how those challenges match up to their abilities. I hate getting out of bed in the morning, but I would never compare that to someone fighting clinical depression and anxiety. So if things are bad for you, consider that at least today you may have more capacity to cope than a person who you think is on easy street. And every day each of us has something to contribute.

Reach out without judgement and with a humble heart. Most of us have a lot of work to do on ourselves, so much in fact that until we have dealt with our own demons there is little time, energy or space to be judging the behavior of others except in truly dangerous situations. There are plenty of kids that need mentors and tutors, plenty of homeless veterans and children, plenty of lonely single parents, and plenty of folks in nursing homes without family to visit and advocate for them. All around us are needs so great that we too often turn our faces away with the pain of it. And look for someone else to make responsible. But there is only one person that God gives me full authority over and responsibility for and that is myself.

So if you are outraged, get busy and lend a hand. It is why we are all here.

* http://www.emanuelamechurch.org/churchhistory.php 

How often we respond in exactly the worst way possible, we who call ourselves followers of Christ! I just read an email where our very large, white, Christian, suburban church is reacting with concerns about security for our congregation in the wake of the Mother Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church slaughter. Really? Our best response to this is fear?

How about being aggressive about asking every Bible class, small group and pulpit to speak of the need to rid ourselves of hatred and, most importantly, to stop justifying hatred by ourselves and others. Even trendy, funny and socially acceptable hatred. I give you full permission to take exception with the actions of another if you find them frightening or dangerous or even just plain wrong. But hating is an entirely different animal.

As Christians we can never be afraid to call hatred the sin that it is. If you can't disagree with someone without anger and violence then your anger needs a good look, because righteous disagreement does not include hate. That is because hate derives from fear and with God we have nothing to fear that is essential. When we hate we mock God in the truest sense of the word.

Let's be clear. There is no group, subset, family, individual, political activist, corporate board member or employee, not-for-profit worker, government staffer, unemployed person, welfare recipient, teacher or student, preacher or church member, law enforcement personnel or inmate, doctor, nurse or patient, merchant or customer, blue collar worker, white collar worker, athlete,entertainer or sinner who is (1) outside of the family of God; (2) unworthy of God's love by the blood of Jesus; or (3) who does not long for safety for themselves and their families, but can never guarantee physical safety for even one moment.

In short, we are all in this together: grieving, stunned, afraid, outraged, broken and uncertain what to hit, who to blame, how to fix this. But this thing is sin pure and simple: usually it is a string of sin from advocating hate to tolerating hate to believing we poor human beings can make a difference by “being nice” without the Grace of God. It is being complaisant about the evils we can challenge. We are too broken, too willing to condone and justify evil, too afraid that when we take a stance we might meet violent resistance, loss of stature or feel less safe than ever. 

Two recent PBS programs, one Ken Burn's series Prohibition documents "solid citizens" teaching their children to eschew lawfulness and tolerate bullies; today's Secrets of The Dead: Bugging Hitler’s Soldiers exposes tapes made surreptitiously as German POWs, officers and enlisted, speak with chilling complacence about the massive, broadly known and soul crushing mass murder in the name of the godless nationalism that destroyed Germany in less than three decades.

Lawless is not new, of course, but the truth that both of these programs shine on the human condition is the ease with which any one of us can be sucked into rage and anger against those different than ourselves by those who abuse, censure, condemn, criticize, declaim, decry, denigrate, denounce, disparage, fulminate, impugn, inveigh, vehemently protest, rave at, rail at, remonstrate against, run down, vilify or vituperate anyone or anything because they are themselves aggravated, angered, annoyed, antagonized, bugged, exasperated, frosted, galled, gotten to, incensed, infuriated, irked, irritated, annoyed, impatient, maddened, miffed, needled, nettled, peeved, piqued, provoked, rankled, riled, rubbed the wrong way, ruffled, teed-off or ticked off.

Please note that none of these states of being include being in eminent danger, terrified, horrified, at high risk or in immediate peril. It is as though we are so overwhelmed with the truly dangerous in our communities, nation and world that we prefer to be piqued about an inanity rather than passionate about investing in making things different. 

If you identify yourself as Christian, I challenge you: get centered and take a stand, calmly, advocating for love of all of God’s children at all times, in all places. Live with courage and speak the truth. Because to do less is to surrender to the lost, broken, angry, impotent folks who so desperately need the love of God in their lives. God is bigger than all this, but God requires of us our personal participation to invoke healing, restoration, rehabilitation, hope, faith and love! 

And no where in the Old Testament or the New does it say to build a better fortress against the evils of the world! But it does say to step out in faith, being the hands and feet of God in a broken and lost world. This is where our true security is found.

I'm grateful I don't play professional baseball. Of course, I can't play kickball with any skill and have never been able to do so, but today I'm thinking about all the folks whose work is affected by the weather and those delightful "boys in Royal's blue" have had some challenges this summer.

Also dealing with this are road work crews, house painters, swimming pool managers, cable guys, police officers, EMTs, tow truck drivers and ice cream truck drivers just to name a few. So often those of us who can duck in and out of air conditioning or coordinate our errands to avoid the dampest and hottest weather forget folks whose work blesses us no matter the weather.

I was in a post-hurricane world for a couple of weeks once and I learned to carry water around in my car to offer the folks working to keep traffic flowing and restart cell phone towers, land lines, electricity, internet and cable. Today my church provides plastic bags filled with water, granola bars, and small personal care items as a gift for homeless folks. Where I used to live I saw them nearly every day; in this huge city I can go weeks without seeing even one. It is not because they do not live here, but rather because they are clustered around public transportation and social services.

There are crews working in flood areas and fire areas and plague areas around this country and the world helping folks like us who have found themselves in great distress.

My point is this: let's keep our eyes open for opportunities to express appreciation, offer small comfort like water and strew small acts of kindness and love. Pray for folks you meet (and you are not required to tell them that you are unless you feel certain they would welcome knowing it.) The possibilities are endless.

And if you enjoy this as much as I think you will, there are some larger projects that would welcome your hands, feet, smiles, loose change, love and prayers.

Thank you for singing our anthem, Matthew West. I have found great joy when I quit waiting for someone else to fix a problem and instead am stepping out to "Do Something."*

*Words and music by Matthew West

Our most essential reaction in time of tribulation is to turn our face to God. Even folks who do not have a relationship with God or who have no name for God have this deep instinct. For those of us raised up in faith, who cultivate the habit of praying in good times as well as challenges, certainly we are quick to ask for help when we are afraid or uncertain or anxious.

But even people active in faith are often quick to have an attitude of "What have you done for me lately, God?"

It is not a new phenomenon either--something only the "current generation" experiences. King David wrote two millennia ago in (Ps. 78:42) "They did not remember his power in the day when he ransomed them from the enemy." He was recounting the activities of the Israelites who lost patience with God's timetable. Maybe if it were in this age it might have been better -- if there were digital photos of the plagues that had gotten Pharaoh's attention and phones with older text message of having been spared the final plague, and being given safe passage from the soldiers through the parted sea, and manna and quail provided for provisions, or the clothing they wore for decades without wearing out as they wandered in the desert. It is hard to understand how they could have forgotten all that.

But we do it every day. We ask for help from infertility, to work and the ability to feed ourselves and our families, to finding the right place to live, and how to get along in a new situation, to keeping or getting healthy, to caring for our children with wisdom and our parents with dignity, and a thousand other things that keep us focused on God as our Lord and source of help. But it seems the further I get from that time of deep reliance, the more casual I get about the miracles large and small that got me through.

So, today I am turning that question around and asking myself, "What have I done lately that makes God happy?" Sometimes folks are called to commit their lives to working among the poorest of the poor and I am are both blessed and intimidated by their commitment to such important work. But in truth every day God places folks in my way that need a smile, a conversation, a meal, a prayer and we are so distracted by the very blessings God has given us we don't notice or we believe we don't have enough to help.

Today I will take the time to be the person who offers a bit of encouragement, help, attention, time, effort, cash, prayer, kindness or courtesy in a way that is informed by the memories of all the times God sent someone to offer these things to me at times of challenges, loneliness, anxiety or need.

Will you join me?

I'm comforted by so much I read in the Bible. This morning I have been reading Exodus 33:12-23 where Moses (who was a very big deal in the Old Testament) is arguing with God. Really, pretty nervy, huh? But I must confess that I have had just such a conversation this morning as I was on the treadmill at the gym. (Yes, I have started back yet again and again I'm feeling deep compassion toward gerbils.)

But I digress. I am trying to figure out where God is directing me in my ministry and it has become so frustrating. I know sometimes God's timing is just better than my own, but often I know I also am given time to learn during this time of waiting, something I'll need going forward. 

So when I read that Moses said to God, "You have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight." Moses replies,  "Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in Your sight."* You will note the cyclic nature of this when Moses said. "I want to know more clearly where we are headed in all this because if I know more about what is coming I'l be better prepared." I truly understand Moses' point of view and today I truly needed to hear God's response: " The Lord replied, 'I’ll go myself, and I’ll help you.'”

Wow, so Moses say "Since You have found favor with me, help me find more favor with you." And God is going where I'm going (and is already there), and God says He helps me. Therefore the more I seek to draw closer to God, to know God's plans for us and experience an awareness of God's presence in our lives, the more we please God. And, this is big, maybe fretting about this is not really helpful, because it focuses on how needy I am more than the more important part, which is how powerful and loving and attentive is God.

Yes, I am small and seem unimportant in the universe, but more importantly I am beloved of God who knows me by name and helps me. Yes, Moses was a big wheel in the Old Testament, but God does not say that is why God found Moses worthwhile -- this murderer who fled his people and is dragging his feet in getting with the program. Moses is important for the same reason you and I are important, even when we are dragging our feet getting with the program, because God created us to love Him and God pursues us passionately and persistently.

OK, God, I don't do too well when I try to do things on my own, so here I am asking You to give me a heart for You, lead me, guide me, love me, correct me so that I might be and do that for which I am created, Your beloved daughter, O King of Kings. I love you. I long to serve you. Thank you for loving me and being so persistently patient when I loose focus and become fearful. AMEN

* Exodus 33:12-23

Someone once asked me if I believe we are created for a specific purpose. (We were discussing the movie Simon Birch from John Irving's Prayer for Owen Meeny.) I remember saying something like, "No I believe we are created to do many kinds of good," which point I felt the movie made. Owen/Simon had a challenging life, but he was a blessing to folks before he saved the bus load of drowning children. And his memory was important to those same people after his death at a young age.

In our lifetime we have an infinite number of opportunities to be a positive or negative force in the lives of those around us. Many times in a day we choose to be kind, to be attentive, to be willing to be inconvenienced for the good of another, even someone we do not know and who cannot possibly ever repay us. Or we don't. This is the core of my faith, the ultimate answer to the question, "What Do I Believe Jesus Would Do if He Were With Me Today?" (Not as trendy as the WWJD, but I feel more to the point.)

Today I attended a family reunion, 95 of my closest relatives! We have our share of warts and bruises and have unthinkingly carried from one generation to another errs, attitudes and behaviors that need a good look followed by serious adjustment. But we are also strong, funny, smart, kind, loving, hard working and darn good lookin'. We are six generation of descendants of New England stock who immigrated to the Great Plains, before the beginning of the 20th century who were themselves descended from folks who arrived in the New World 250 years and more ago.

Each of our ancestors endured hardship, challenges, changing times and changing locales in ways that made our life today possible. I was the oldest of the "grandkids" since my slightly older cousin could not make the trip, making me part of the top half on the age scale and I saw a lot to be delighted with and hopeful about in those younger generations. Tender, caring parents with humor, generations enjoying and care for one another. Folks lovin' on one another, some almost certainly for the last time, given the fact that any of us can be called home at any moment and many came from long distances.

So maybe it is not too surprising that today's reading from Esther 4:14 paraphrased struck a cord: "Perhaps this is the moment for which you were created." Or maybe one of the moments for which you were created.

What legacy will our heirs six generations out understand from what we do here today, and tomorrow and for the rest of our tomorrows? Are we stepping toward God or are we distracted and unintentional as we move ahead? What choices might be worth considering?

We are important, each of us. We make a difference every day. What difference will you make today?

I often think about how many people are affected by a crime. Oh, I know how popular it is to talk about "victimless crime" and I really don't see how that works. But for every handbag snatched to every drug sold to every target of sexual assault or physical assault or financial assault the circles of pain keep radiating out. 

At some point folks who have been the target of crime pick up the pieces and, depending on the level of damage wrecked, move on to rebuilt as best they can. "Victim restitution" has unfortunately devolved into a massive grant distribution program with little accountability so most must put things back together with Grace alone. I remember them in my prayers.

Then there is the way the world moves forward as we as a community and culture deal with the person who committed the crime. Because ministry to the incarcerated and their families and those working in prisons and jails are deeply important to me, I make a point of reading and talking about this.

Today I am deeply troubled. I'm not sure how I wound up on the Nebraska Corrections web-site but I'm always interested in learning more about how things are rolling at various correctional institutions and the way spiritual development programming and volunteer recruiting is handled. 

So I was most disconcerted to find this on their website regarding religious services: 

"The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) provides opportunities for inmates to practice their religion in the form of worship and religious educational services. Offenders under NDCS jurisdiction represent more than sixteen different religions. In order to accommodate inmates’ spiritual needs, each institution has or has access to a qualified Religious Coordinator. The Religious Coordinators assure that impartiality, consistency and equality for time, space, and resources among all recognized religions is a prime consideration. The NDCS religious program uses clergy and lay religious volunteers to provide services under the supervision of the Religious Coordinators."

No information is provided about how to contact said Religious Coordinators who may or may not be connected to a specific facility.

Those who are recruiting volunteers have buried this on the website:

"By volunteering your time, you can experience a sense of reward and challenges that strengthens your professional and personal capacities. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, please complete the volunteer application. Mail the completed application form to, Attention: Volunteer Coordinator of the Facility that you are interested in providing services for. Facility addresses are located under the Institutions link on this page." (NOTE: There is no link to institutions' addresses on the page.)

I can hardly express my concern about this because not only to do volunteers provide skills and free-world contacts that improve the inmate's experience upon release in ways that have often been demonstrated to reduce recidivism, but I believe at least as important is that visitors from the outside world make the facility a better place for COs and administrative staff to work because altruistic oversight by voters and citizens from the free-world have to reduce temptations to act impulsively or loose perspective.

This adds to my own interest in volunteering at a prison in my state where I have learned that the prison is not currently providing volunteer training. Folks, an awful lot of us who have found our way to prison ministry are not spring chicks so no volunteer training does not help in keeping a flow of ministry volunteers and literacy volunteers and AA volunteers flowing.

Again, outside eyes are better for everyone concerned!

How blessed I am to know that God's authority does not require volunteer training and the love of God reaches not only prisoners but prison staff members at all levels. It is such a challenging situation for everyone. Won't you pray for a facility in your area? Pray for the inmates, the chaplains, the DOs, the administrative staff and the Warden or Director, Prisons Boards, Parole Boards, probation and parole staff? Each of these folks deals with lots of negativity, stress and danger. No where is an awareness of God's presence needed more. No where is God's hope needed more.

Almighty God! You love us at all times and in all places. Your capacity to love and heal and stir up hope and inspire better choices is present for all of us: committers of crime or victims of crime; those living behind concrete and bars or in the free-world or those who move back and forth between these worlds. When we meet those who have experienced crime and when we visit prisons give us sweet words and kind hearts for all: our loved one, for those we minister to, for all others incarcerated, for chaplains, DOs, administrative staff, wardens and directors, for the families of blood and choice who love all these folks, for volunteers and, Lord, for all those still struggling with the damage caused by crime. We ask healing and restoration for those who experience crime in any way. No part of this experience is easy, Lord, but it is possible with You doing the heavy lifting. Thanks! AMEN

Is it possible that part of the chaos in our current culture comes from "perfect fatigue"? For any celebrity the media at least thinks we are all hanging on the inferred, the rumors or late breaking story of any person of note with feet of clay and whether a child star running amok or a divorce yet-again rumored or, most unforgivable of all a rude comment. Then let someone who is proud of their 'bad boy' or 'bad girl' image begin a very public slide into rehab or broken families or bankruptcy and it seems we almost cheer as they fall further and further from functional parenthood and good citizenship.

Are we so naive that we believe anyone is perfect? And how exhausting to wear that mask. 

We demand our ministers and doctors be perfectly available at any time for our family's emergency but fail to consider that his or her family has legitimate claims on their time too. And their children must be perfectly behaved and their wife always sweet tempered and willing to serve on any board, panel or committee anytime someone "drops out at the last minute."

We are tired from a stressful day of work and balancing kid's needs but we snap at a spouse who is also struggling with balance and getting needs met. We expect our boss to understand how our mother's illness has not helped our work efficiency, but expect perfect courtesy and even tempered, total focus without regard to the boss's conflicting responsibilities. We want our child's teacher to be cheerleader, coach and shrink but are quick to point out that we work and can't show up to help in the classroom or volunteer at the PTA open house.

Do you see a theme here? It truly does seem that we have slithered into a firm "it's all about me and mine" mind-set where we mock other people's pain and judge other people's smallest slip while demanding immediate understanding and full pardon for even our most egregious and outrageous failures to provide a little courtesy or demonstrate a little decency or exhibit a modicum of common sense. 

We need more adults to supervise the playground.

Next time we hear or see a public person with a private sorrow, let us lift them and their families up in prayer. When a stressed and wholly human person demonstrates her human imperfection, let us consider how we would like a loved one to be treated in the same circumstances. Let's demonstrate for our children a willingness to respect privacy, being slow to believe the worst and quick to offer compassion.

We got ourselves in this mess. With God's abundant Grace we can make better choices going forward.

I finished a book last night that might end up on the "Books" tab above but I have reservations. Someone did something both amazingly good and very rare and it is not that I object to what was done at all. But she stated she had given up worrying about God basically since she had been able to be so good without God's help. That is in some ways a complete whole blog in and of itself, but here is the point.

She is a woman who has had rare resources. She was raised in a loving and supportive family, is well educated and has had two supportive, able, good-earning husbands. And she has left some carnage along the way which she seems to feel is healed if folks can smile at one another and share a hug. She has had periods where she has been able to forgo employment in order to follow her passion and passion is not a highly worthwhile entity that supports her passion, at least to some extent. She has loving and able people to help when conflicts between family and passion collide.

In short, even if she did do it 'on her own' her passion for making this a better world will not make the sweeping changes at all levels of society that I believe she longs for when she leaves so many of us out of the equation.

Please understand, I am a huge supporter of Howard Zehr's work in restorative justice and I grow more enthusiastic every time I learn more. And I am not opposed to the culture trying to advocate for this outside of the church on earth when so many churches are not practicing this even within their own congregations.

But what if the sinner is not just a very young person with no prior record who just acted with poor judgement resulting in horrid damage to those who are not held in high regard in their community? It is hard enough to get church people to ACT as though they actually believe in redemption and reconciliation and rehabilitation. Really, if we are squeamish about including God in the discussion how can we help to make redemption a matter of universal availability. So if the position is, "in this instance the person who made the mistake is worth trying to save" then we are only more altruistically judging who may or may not find the response of the offender worth our forgiveness.

Now, I need to make something clear here. I am not suggesting that we throw the 21st century's vision of the old testament fire and brimstone Zues-ish sort of God at them with a heap of judgement and condemnation. Instead I am talking about sharing our faith, hope and experience with the God who sent His only Son to live and die in this weary, angry, mean-spirited world that we might be redeemed, and today sends the Spirit of God to tend us, instruct us, heal us and restore us,  That God. Our God who did not create us to expend our time passing judgement on everything from someone's make-up to their criminal past.

I read this quote today attributed to the evangelist, Billy Graham: “It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge and my job to love.” His son, Franklin, having established his own intimate relationship with God separate from his father's ministry, lives this vision everyday as his organization provides practical "hands & feet" acts of love to suffering people across the world. It is full-time work that beautifully reflects his commitment to love.

This is the difference between restorative justice without God and restorative justice with God: Restorative justice without God advocates for "another chance". Restorative justice with God advocates for relationship and reconciliation that offers each and every one of us the opportunity to start a new life today, no matter how badly we have messed up, no matter how unacceptable we are to society, no matter how many times we have fallen because God is wholly with us where we are and longs to give us hope and a future of purpose and love. And God is bigger than our mess every time.

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.  Matthew 10:29-31

I have studied many ideas about grief and one that always sticks with me is the common human response to just ignore the facts until they can be assimilated at least a bit. Oh, we address an immediate emergency with efficiency, almost as though it were an acquaintance rather than a piece of our heart being loaded into an ambulance or stunned by a cancer diagnosis or a the phone call says they will never be coming home again.

But then there is a time, maybe a moment or maybe a space of time, when part of us shuts down to put one step in front of another to get the needs of each day met, but part of us is "lights out, no body home" until we can catch a bit of our breath, begin to think, start to clear the fog. Sometimes we move in and out of that state for some period of time as we "move through the grieving process."

And this same process includes having triplets or really any addition to the household, getting a promotion that will stretch our abilities, buying a house in a new neighborhood or joining a new church where we don't know folks, natural disasters, divorces, professional changes ... really all of life is about changes great and small and each change brings uncertainty, anxiety and adjustments. Good changes, bad changes, neutral changes vary by degree but change in reality or even a change of perception about our lives or our selves disturbs our space, our minds, our hearts--oh and usually our budgets.

So I would expect to be better at it. Oh, I have gotten better over the years, especially since I realized that it was not going to stop. But I still drag my feet when I need to change jobs, go back to school, develop new spiritual habits, spend time doing important things instead of killing time.

But pursuing the goal of gently moving forward is such good advice, every day, in every change, in every change we fear might happen, in every change in thinking we need to seriously consider. In fact, every day or more often. And I always feel so much better when I quit dodging the issues, the challenge, the need to change ... so WHY do I keep dragging my feet?

O Spirit of God, today will bring challenges. Each one does. Some I see on the horizon. Some will jump up out of nowhere. None will be exactly what I expect or fear. Surprise is a constant. But I know that none of this is a surprise to You. You have woven my live with perfect love, perfect knowledge, perfect planning so that You have already supplied what I need to get where You are leading me. I've learned things I will need in my tomorrows even though I don't yet know how or why they will be applied. I've got amazing surprises, miracles really, waiting at just the right moment ahead. So help me to run with perseverance the race that is set before me, looking to Jesus, deeply at peace that I am not running alone, not running away, not running amok, but rather running the path laid out for me from forever. AMEN

Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. - Hebrews 12:1-2 

Today we honor folks who have experienced cancer, either themselves or as people who have traveled with a loved one who has dealt with the diagnosis. Much of the celebration is for those who were treated and are here to celebrate, but always those who are not there are in our hearts and on our minds too.

Our church has a close relationship with local cancer support volunteers and two beloved staff members are all too familiar with this journey. So today we offered services of hope, gratitude and grief honored. I like seeing churches walking along side community organizations in love and service. I'm frustrated when a church acts proprietarily about their mission outreaches because I don't believe this is God's pleasure at all.

Our church also has a large number of people who have been studying and sharing as they seek to be more aware of opportunities for loving on folks. Folks are being gently bold in connecting to neighbors, seeking ways to mend broken or damaged relationships, serving strangers from kind words to picking up the tab for lunch for a lonely senior or harried young mother. It is kind of a "blessed are they who respond in love to their fellow earthlings because they shall draw closer to God's design for our lives."

It is all about relationship: our relationship to God changes our relationships to our families of birth and choice, our churches, our communities and other communities and individuals around the world which in turn helps us understand more about God's love for us and the purpose for which we were created, which in turn gives us hearts more attuned to spiritual growth and practical service.....a lovely and joyous circle of spiritual life!

Matthew 30: 25-30 At that time Jesus said,  ... Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.”

This is a summer of reunions for us, from the descendants of great-great grandparents, to retired professional colleagues to high school buddies and two delightful gatherings of extended family, some of whom have never met each other before. At each event folks will remember those who have died and rejoice in meeting or hearing about new members of the family. We will share stories that bind us together, revisiting and reinterpreting earlier events in light of new experience and understanding.

Sometimes I will be the new wife at a reunion where I know few people and it is a lot about smiling, nodding and trying to find one of the handful of people I have met before. Other times there will be plenty of folks I know well and enjoy (and sometimes not so much) where each face represents beloved memories and the promise of new adventures around the next corner. Sometimes I will have secondary hopes for the day that I might snag new information for my family tree research or meet a cousin I have only "met" on-line or find a new recipe from the buffet pot-luck.

This is how I feel about church on Sunday morning. It is a big family reunion where sometimes I'm still learning folks names with their faces and finding ways to be helpful. At other times it is full of laughter and memories and sharing new ideas about ways of living and learning and serving. We sometimes eat together after church, but we always come to the Communion Table in fellowship with our extended family in all times, at all places, from all ages.

I realize for some folks churches have be the place for everything from family-style spats to raging bad behaviors at churches. I am so sorry. I offer you my deepest respect for your pain. I acknowledge that in a perfect world churches will be safe places where everybody is on a high plane of spiritual development and the members will have stopped letting their personal baggage spew onto those around them as they try to find their way. In the meantime I can only say, we are not at church because we are perfect (although some are at times unclear about this), but rather because we are broken and seeking reconciliation with the child God created us to be.

So, if you haven't been to church in a while or if you go and come home frustrated and unfulfilled I want to invite you to find a church (or help your church become a church) where we are welcoming to each other, offering hope, love, instruction and acceptance, a place to review our past and equip ourselves for the future, on Earth today and in Life Everlasting.

I hope to see you there, if not tomorrow then in the Church Eternal. Please introduce yourself and I'll do the same.

I'm looking at my own family and thinking how little I thought about a great uncle who was incarcerated. Until recently I did not feel he had much weight in our family, contributing little besides three beautiful daughters. But I have become more aware of the suffering his choices caused for his daughters, his mother, the mother of his children, each of whom bless my life. I think I am saddest of all because he never seems to have made any effort to heal those wounds and his life seemed to slide into ever increasing circles of his self-will running riot to end in his violent death. Since it seems possible that it was rooted in the broad lawlessness of Prohibition and unchecked political corruption and that time seems similar to these times, it seems a cautionary tale.

I'm so grateful for the men and women who are called to minister to the young people, women and men who are in jails and prisons across this country. There are some terrific programs that help these people heal and people who are working to empower them to return to their communities able to lead productive and useful lives. These folks help them conceive of a life where they are a blessing and an asset to their families. They offer daily living skills classes from basic literacy to GEDs, parenting to financial literacy, and job skills from horticulture to dog training. 

But most important of all, folks reach out to remind them of their place in the world as a forgiven child of God. They introduce or reintroduce them to the God who created them, loves them and longs to heal them, coach them, forgive them, rehabilitate and renew them. God wants them to understand this basic fact: they are valuable, important and able. God has a plan for them that they might live the life they were created for, doing the good that they were created to do.

As dark as things seem, God is greater than the problems we face, even when we helped create them ourselves. God does not ever give up on us. God always knows exactly what we need, even when we have not a clue.

What is on your heart? Won't you speak with God today? He is waiting and He has good news.

Being a numbers kind of gal this information took my breath away:

                                      5% of all the people in the world live in the United States

                                    25% of all people in prisons in the world are in United States prisons


Do our political types and law makers believe that we are five times more criminally behaved in the United States than others in the world? It is a wonder we ever pop out of our homes for a stroll around the block. It is certainly amazing that tourists come here to visit!

It is beyond time for some changes. We need to save our struggling young generation where 1 in 15 has experienced legal issues. We need to be working to make sure our schools teach reading, writing, math and critical learning and thinking skills. When we have management and ownership authority, we need to be willing to hire folks trying to support their families with honest dollars (and their communities by paying taxes).

Our churches need to be helping in practical, welcoming ways. We need to be supporting families who are trying to rebuild on solid ground. We need to take a stand and offer practical support and ask ourselves if we would have welcomed a tax collector, a woman with a dicey reputation, a government leader with blood on his hands, a terrorist, or thief, or liar or any of the other wholly broken, sinful and disgraced people upon who Christ built His church on earth in both Old and New Testament times. Sometimes I think one of the biggest problems with churches is the pressure they put on folks to have perfect histories and perfect lives. 

How can real people take us seriously if we pretend we never make mistakes? Never have to seek God's help when we slip off the way and need God's help to even stand again? Never look at people we love and realize that, though we were doing what we thought best at the time, it was actually far from helpful and even damaging?

Are you praying for the incarcerated, those in law enforcement, courts, penal and probation/parole jobs, victims of crime, and neighborhoods decimated by criminal behavior? What is your church doing to help? What are you doing to help?

This is a growing problem and we all need to become informed, ask questions of those in authority and pray God will show us how we might "do something" in His Name.