God through Christ through the church holds us, just holds us, and then holds us responsible for what we do to ourselves, each other, and the world

The passionate, joy-full life is not an individual sport or achievement. It is a gift that the life resurrecting God gives to those who love and care for each other like Jesus loved and cared for people, even people like you and me. 

For all of us who have felt angry, hurt, and cheated because of the unfairness of it all, there is one more innocent than we will ever be who has been where all the innocent sufferers of earth have been: hanging alone. Never again, can one of us say, "No one understands how hurt, frustrated, and angry I feel." Jesus the Christ has been there and is there with us.

Only as I am loved as I am, am I empowered to change and improve myself. If I experience only criticism from those I love most, I have no strength to do much more than be resentful. Thus, we need the strength to permit others to be human, especially the particular human they are.

But there comes a time in our lives when we have really tripped up, and like wine served at its right time, the possibility of forgiveness and relief from our shame is miraculous; it just means the difference between giving up or going on.

The birth of Jesus, Christmas, is about the incarnation – the enfleshment. God makes his moves in the world through humans. That's a bit shocking, a bit scandalous. That offends those who want to keep God in a sacred and spiritual never-never land That offends those who see God as just so much superstition for a sophisticated secular world. And both are not quite right. 

Getting it right, getting it wrong, but going on. It was that way with Peter. It is that way with you and me. It is called growth. Indeed, it is the way God grows us into the people he wants us to be

Church people should live in a way that challenges and takes the wind out of the sails of worldly ways that tear down instead of build up people. And that is hard because the world is a tough place and even we Christians are part of the problem.

What I am getting at is that if profanity can sometimes be prayers, then sometimes what seems to be innocent use of God's name can be profanity. And if not profanity at least vanity, that is the trivializing and the perversion of the mystery's name who gives us life and everlasting love.

The Holy Spirit is the mysterious strength beyond our own that God gets to us to do what we could never do alone. 

Letting go is one of life's most difficult feats. Oh, how we want to hold on to the way it was instead of facing the way it is now. After the death of someone, the end of a relationship, moving to a new place, leaving a job, it is hard to let go. There is the temptation to be so fretful and self-pitying that we miss what is going on in the now.

Being God's kid keeps you on the road in a faith journey with God all of your life. Being a Christian does not mean that we have God all figured out; it does mean that we commit ourselves to searching for him all of our lives until he finds us.

For John writing to the early Christians three generations after Jesus, Thomas, Mary, Peter and the rest were witnesses of God's death and evil conquering love. Now you and I are the witnesses to God's death defying love in the world. And there are only two choices. We either light candles in the darkness or we blow out what light there is.

More than once, I have heard someone in the throes of a personal problem, loss of a loved one, or illness say: "No one can help me. No one knows how I feel.” The power of Jesus is that you can't say to him, the betrayed one, the spit on one, the young dying one, the pain racked one, "You don't know how I feel." Because he did and does.

I have met more than one person in their 30's, 40's, even 50's who have spent their lives in bondage to the expectations they felt their mother or father had for them. Oh, what pain we cause our children, spouses, and loved ones when we communicate to them that our approval of them is dependent upon their jumping through the hoops of achievement we set or them. No one needs a hug to know they are okay with a good report card, but do they know it when their school or life grades are not so good and the shoulders are cold?

Jesus has shown us that really loving people can be crucifying. But without the crucifixions there can be no resurrections in our relationships.

Neither parents, preachers, nor super-pious Bible quoters can demand or command God-belief in anyone. No one can do it for you, no one may do it exactly like you, but dare to struggle with your questions and doubts about God. For if God is not to be found on the raw edges of life, he is not worth finding.

Being God's Monday minister does not mean being a holy Joe. It means being a LIFE BUILDER, an enabler of people not an exploiter of them in what we do.

God did par excellence with Jesus what he continues to do: holds us up...pushes us on...and pulls us together.

Our lives are made complicated by square peg people who just will not fit into the round holes of our look-out-for-number-one and get-the-other-guy-before-he-gets-you conformity. They are obnoxious Ignatiuses, wiggly kids, little girls with exasperating questions we can't answer, cranky people we have to deal with, renegade priests, little voices inside us, and even the ragged figure of Jesus running around in our hearts and history.