“The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.” Proverbs 20:5 Since I turned about fifty I gave myself permission to think and act like a “mentor.” Helping a number of young spiritual leaders in the City (San Francisco) is one of my most exquisite joys these …
Sowing in tears, reaping in joy…
If you can be devastated by someone else's pain and loss, and yet stimulated to action at the same time, this story will do it. I read it in a coffee shop while wiping tears away. So, if you don't like weeping in public places, read this at home. I didn't write this account, but …
Losers make the best dancers
“You turned my mourning into dancing.” Psalm 30:11 Mourning is nonnegotiable. It can’t be avoided in any life fully lived. Mourning and grieving are identical twins, and when we’ve irretrievably lost something, the healthiest thing to do is grieve. Anyone who doesn’t “grieve their losses” – the small ones and the big ones – is …
The ministry of listening…
The neighborhoods I frequent in order to make friends with God host hundreds of men and women who talk to themselves and yell at invisible antagonists. Their minds are mush from birth or from abuse or from profuse amounts of Seagrams, crack, heroin, or meth – or all of the above. The people there are …
Lessons of a Loser (part four)
Alcoholics Know How To Pray A while back I ran across the prayer often used by Alcoholics Anonymous groups. Anne Lamott calls it a "Greatest Hits prayer" and posits an alternative to the opening part: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can't change, the courage to change the things I can, …
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