Imperfect Thoughts on Loving Well

Nurturing relationships and hearts

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In the Hebrew Scriptures, is it possible that after the physical liberation of the Hebrew slaves the very laws handed down in the Exodus were in fact a culturally specific treatment plan crafted to liberate an oppressed people from internal slavery to trauma?

Mike Petrow, PHD

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Belief in God is a lot more like falling in love than it is proving something

Paraphrase, Bernard Mardigan

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A friend sent me a quote recently. It reminds me that vulnerability is both ordinary and divine. I hadn’t heard this quote before and I don’t know who originated it but it summed up well what I seek internally and what I hope to offer others. I have formed it here as a blessing-

May we become the people our younger self would run to for protection.

For me this means understanding we are becoming. We are growing, evolving human beings.

This means remembering, knowing and honoring our younger self with all our vulnerabilities.

This means owning the gifts of wisdom, strength and resilience we’ve received and honed.

This means leading with tenderness - offering compassion, care, guidance and a safe place to our vulnerable, younger self and that of others.

May we become the people our younger self would run to for protection.

What does this mean to you?

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May we become the people our younger selves would run to for protection.

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Story- maybe it’s because of the anxiety of trauma these days, but I’ve forgotten the significance of story and the meaning it brings to our lives.

Can we now take a page out of the book Sacred Romance, and remind ourselves that on a day-to-day basis we are witnessing only the small story?

There is a larger story. Its setting is all of time and its main characters are humanity and The Triune God. Let us try to pull back the curtain to look for it. I believe it’s possible to find hope and some sense of peace there.

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Meet my Glory and my Ruin

My True Self knows my Glory and my Ruin

Daily she walks with these parts of me unafraid

She isn’t thrown by either vanity or shame

She is calm

She isn’t angry or disappointed

She has compassion

She refuses to judge and remains curious

And she gently nudges all of me to grow

Her heart is broken open and Christ is there- together they hold my Glory and my Ruin. Together they understand the Glory and Ruin in others and can be present to all unflinchingly.

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2020

In 2020 we laughed. We laughed a lot. We laughed, mostly because we couldn’t think of what else to do.

We laughed because at some point the pain became too great. We laughed because it felt hard to go on.

But underneath we were scared. We were scared of the many years of hatred come to roost in our house, in what was supposed to be the people’s house. We were scared of the fires that burned in our backyards and we were scared of the great sickness.

But most frightening of all, we grew scared of one another, in a deeper way, in a way that grabbed you by the stomach and refused to let go.

And so we worked at it. We tried kindness and loving our neighbors in new ways. We tried more meditation and exercise. We learned new skills. We developed our techie selves. We tried outrage and submission.

But we suffered.

We continue to suffer.

Can we let this suffering grow us?

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“Law is an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by one who has care of the community.” — Thomas Aquinas

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When human beings are envious and afraid they seek power over the Other, their perceived enemies, in order to overcome their fear. They do this by condemning the Other for the same behavior they applaud in those they idealize.

“…it is the way of malicious people, especially the malicious persecutors of Christ and Christianity, to condemn the same thing in those they hate, which they approve of and applaud in those they have a kindness for: the judgments of envy are made, not by things, but persons; not by reason, but prejudice.”

Matthew Henry

From Matthew Henry Bible Commentary

On Matthew 12:26, addressing the Pharisees’ maligning of Jesus with intent to control

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This, my dear is the greatest challenge to being alive. To witness injustice in the world and not allow it to consume our light.

Thich Nhat Hanh

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I will use to the full every resource in me and about me to answer life with life. In so doing, I shall affirm that this is the kind of universe that sustains, upon demand, the life that is in it.

Howard Thurman

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Death of Alex…And Jesus Weeps

He didn’t wake that morning expecting to die, nor did all the other souls who have died in this way. He was helping, as he did day after day in his work, helping those who need protection, healing, a loving hand. He helped the vulnerable and weak.

And Jesus weeps. “ I didn’t rise this morning, wanting pain and violence for you. I’ve not created you for this. If this day, you only knew what makes for peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes. If only you had put my face before you, but now I am hidden from you.

And I am not hiding

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Everything is on fire, but goodness, look at you living anyway

Lauren Thomas

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How do we get beyond a life in which it’s “always winter and never Christmas”, (CS Lewis ) or “always Election Day and never Easter”? (Russell Moore)

We must face our own sense of entitlement and then do something specific about it.