9/2: God finds room with people who aren't full, but who are empty. God finds a dwelling place with those who aren't totally satisfied with themselves, but who experience some godly sorrow, some wish they had done better and some knowledge that they haven't. God dwells with those who know their need of God. When that's where we live, when our address is "Broken Spirit" or "Contrite Heart," God can and will find a dwelling place with us.
-Anthony B. Robinson- (StillSpeaking Daily Devotional 09-01-10)
9/1: As I explore the height and the depth and the breadth of life, each discovery I make about life is a discovery about God, each is a step with God, a step toward God.
- John S. Dunne-
8/31: There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God ... But more often stones and grit block the well, and God is buried beneath. Then God must be dug out again.
- Etty Hillesum-
8/30: If you desire peace, cultivate justice, but at the same time cultivate the field to produce more bread; otherwise there will be no peace.
- Norman Borlaug-
8/26: God, of your goodness give me yourself for you are sufficient for me. I cannot properly ask anything less, to be worthy of you. If I were to ask less, I should always be in want. In you alone do I have all.
- Julian of Norwich-
8/25: Reflection by William C. Green
My doctor's office is on the fourth floor. I take the stairs because the elevator has a mind of its own, sometimes going down to the basement before it goes up.
I can be like that elevator. Going up I end up in the basement instead. High on what I believe and care about, without realizing it I can look down on others who see things differently. It doesn't have to be that way.
Recently, Amish furniture builders in Cleveland toured college dorm rooms and apartments so they could build furniture suited for them. A college dean served as the tour guide. Shortly after the tour began, the group of 30 Amish men, wearing traditional hats, beards, and suspendered trousers, came face to face with a half-dozen young women heading to the Lady Gaga concert downtown. The fans wore clothing, or the lack thereof, that paid homage to the sizzling pop star. The dean described this as one of the more bizarre scenes he's encountered on Cleveland's streets. One of the Amish builders leaned over to him and said, "We're trying to figure out which one of us thinks the other is stranger."
This is the humor and humility essential to a sane and just society, and a safe world. There's no room to stand apart from others when we're all in the same boat.
Prayer
O God, help me to walk more humbly with you and with all those who need your love as much as I do.
8/24: The word of the Lord is abidingly new; it is a challenge that can radically change our lives, a grace that shakes us from our inertia, an answer that cannot be shackled by our questions.
- Gustavo Gutierrez-
8/23: How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
-Anne Frank-
8/19: The journey by which we discover God is also the journey by which we discover, or uncover, our true self hidden in God. It is a journey that we all have to make.
- Esther de Waal-
