The Insanity Virus
Schizophrenia has long been blamed on bad genes or even bad parents. Wrong, says a growing group of psychiatrists. The real culprit, they claim, is a virus that lives entwined in every person's DNA.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
A Book With No Words
I am re-posting this entry from Seeing Creation Reflections on God & Nature by Chuck Summers & Rob Sheppard. You should be able to go to the site by clicking on above or the title below. If not, the url is http://www.seeingcreation.com/ I lived in West Virginia for six years and have been to the locations pictured; enjoy!
A Book With No Words
St. Augustine is one of the most significant figures or voices in church history. In seminary I read his Confessions and came to see why it is considered a classic of Christian devotional literature. In this book Augustine notes, “God has made us for Himself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him.” I consider this passage to almost be on the same level as Scripture. It rings true in my heart and explains a lot of things.
I also appreciate what Augustine had to say about God and nature. Writing in the fourth century he said “Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book; the very appearance of created things. Look about you! Look below you! Note it. Read it. God, who you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead He set before your eyes the things He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?”
I happen to be one of those people Augustine wrote about when he said some people read books to discover God. I have a personal library of over 15,000 books. I love to read and have learned much about God through the books I’ve read. Still, I, and others, need Augustine’s reminder that there is another book that we need to be turning to—a book not written with ink. In Creation we find a wonderful volume that will teach us much about the God we seek to discover.
Augustine is pretty emphatic about this. He says “look about you!,” “look below you!,” “note it,” “read it.” It was his conviction that we hear God speak louder here—in Creation–than in all the books written about God. I suspect he would have even included his own books in this great claim.
If you are one who longs to “discover God” or want to know Him better, I encourage you to take Augustine’s advice. Start reading that “book not written with ink.” Get outside and get to know God.
–Chuck
(I took the images above in West Virginia last week. The top image was captured at Blackwater Falls State Park. The bottom image was taken in the Monogahela National Forest.)
Augustine is pretty emphatic about this. He says “look about you!,” “look below you!,” “note it,” “read it.” It was his conviction that we hear God speak louder here—in Creation–than in all the books written about God. I suspect he would have even included his own books in this great claim.
If you are one who longs to “discover God” or want to know Him better, I encourage you to take Augustine’s advice. Start reading that “book not written with ink.” Get outside and get to know God.
–Chuck
(I took the images above in West Virginia last week. The top image was captured at Blackwater Falls State Park. The bottom image was taken in the Monogahela National Forest.)
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Hiatus Interrupted
It's been a while; not that it's been that long or that I stopped writing or thinking about things to write. I just have been on something akin to a blogging hiatus. As we all know, things happen. In my case it was primarily two things that happened: one good and one not so good. The first thing, which was and is exceedingly good, was the birth of our first grandchild, Edward Riley Tompkins, in May. Silly almost how something for which I can take very little credit, if any, can be the source of great pride and joy. Maybe that's the grace of it all.
The second thing that happened resulted in our leaving the church I had served for four years and move to another church and community. That's what happens to Methodist preachers from time to time. Often it's time to move or there's a good reason for it to happen. Sometimes the logic is less clear. However, as a full time hospital chaplain, I supply smaller churches part time and serve at the pleasure and discretion of the bishop and her cabinet. Without re-hashing all the nuances of what happened, I have spent the past few months packing, saying goodbye, moving, unpacking, saying hello all during one of the hottest and most humid summers I can ever remember. None of what happened reflects poorly on my new congregation. They are lovely folks and I'm honored to serve as their pastor. But the transition to a new church and community does explain partially the hiatus I allowed myself.
So now that I have once again picked up the metaphorical blogging pen, what next? Well, I expect occasional bursts of grandfatherly prerogatives with cute pictures and whimsical anecdotes so consider yourself forewarned although I will attempt not to abuse the privilege.
I will probably give in, now and then, to my semi-obsessive affection for the elegant and intuitive devices made by Apple as I have added an iPad and iPhone to my long standing solitary iMac. I expect a tidbit now and then from a recent sermon or a reflection after a long night at the hospital will find their way here. But I imagine more will come from thoughts elicited from those coveted occasions of being outside on the river, at the lake, in the mountains, on the beach, sitting around a campfire with a tin cup in hand, always in awe and newly surprised by the beauty and wonder of it all.
"Ite in pace, ad Deum laudandum et serviendum ei"
The second thing that happened resulted in our leaving the church I had served for four years and move to another church and community. That's what happens to Methodist preachers from time to time. Often it's time to move or there's a good reason for it to happen. Sometimes the logic is less clear. However, as a full time hospital chaplain, I supply smaller churches part time and serve at the pleasure and discretion of the bishop and her cabinet. Without re-hashing all the nuances of what happened, I have spent the past few months packing, saying goodbye, moving, unpacking, saying hello all during one of the hottest and most humid summers I can ever remember. None of what happened reflects poorly on my new congregation. They are lovely folks and I'm honored to serve as their pastor. But the transition to a new church and community does explain partially the hiatus I allowed myself.
So now that I have once again picked up the metaphorical blogging pen, what next? Well, I expect occasional bursts of grandfatherly prerogatives with cute pictures and whimsical anecdotes so consider yourself forewarned although I will attempt not to abuse the privilege.
I will probably give in, now and then, to my semi-obsessive affection for the elegant and intuitive devices made by Apple as I have added an iPad and iPhone to my long standing solitary iMac. I expect a tidbit now and then from a recent sermon or a reflection after a long night at the hospital will find their way here. But I imagine more will come from thoughts elicited from those coveted occasions of being outside on the river, at the lake, in the mountains, on the beach, sitting around a campfire with a tin cup in hand, always in awe and newly surprised by the beauty and wonder of it all.
"Ite in pace, ad Deum laudandum et serviendum ei"
Friday, May 28, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Millions of Sea Turtles Trapped by Fishing Nets
I'm passing this on from Guy Kawasaki who writes the blog
The number of sea turtles inadvertently snared by commercial fishing gear over the past 20 years may reach into the millions, according to the first peer-reviewed study to compile sea turtle bycatch data from gillnet, trawl, and longline fisheries worldwide. Six of the world’s seven species of sea turtles are currently listed as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Full story at Futurity.
Holy Kaw! All the topics that interest us
Millions of sea turtles trapped by fishing nets
“Fisheries bycatch is the most acute threat to worldwide sea turtle populations today. Many animals die or are injured as a result of these interactions,” says Bryan Wallace, lead author of the study and an adjunct assistant professor at Duke University. “But our message is that it’s not a lost cause. Managers and fishers have tools they can use to reduce bycatch, preserve marine biodiversity, and promote healthy fish stocks, so that everyone wins, including turtles.”Conservation International has posted some amazing and heartbreaking sea turtle images.
Full story at Futurity.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Vanderbilt Republic: “The Mechanical”
THE VANDERBILT REPUBLIC is non-profit creative agency that partners with arts/culture/human justice organizations to assist in the realization of their goals.
A “MECHANICAL” is a prepress proofing tool, and this one was made as part of the process of creating the top-tier reward from our last, record-setting project.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
All funds raised from this project will go towards the processing of the 1,600 sheets of 4” x 5” film we brought back from Cambodia. Resident within each of these unprocessed sheets are the building blocks of an entirely new kind of iconography.
CAMBODIAN LIVING ARTS (CLA) is our current partner organization. The CLA has the vision “that by the year 2020, Cambodia will experience a cultural renaissance so dynamic that the arts have become the country's international signature.” To guarantee this, we staged a 6-week, large-format, film-based shoot in Cambodia, applying professional-grade creative concepts and solutions to the formulation of a new Cambodian iconography. Our plan is to make the CLA's vision a concrete reality, and sooner than 2020, by harnessing the power of the photograph.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
This really is "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away"...
Read the full article from the Yale Bulletin and gain a new appreciation for the Cosmological Argument for God's existence at Deepest Image of Universe Yet Reveals Most Distant Galaxies Ever Found
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
First Thoughts on My Fifty-eighth Birthday
The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down. - T.S. Eliot
It is not by muscle, speed or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment; in these qualities old age is usually not only not poorer, but is even richer. - Cicero
A wise professor of mine in divinity school, Paul L. Holmer, said in response to my perpetual questions whether he had read this new book or new article or new theory: "For every new book published, I go back and read two old ones." I didn't understand him at the time; I do now.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. - Psalm 90:12
Friday, February 19, 2010
American Health Care "TBTF"?
A good friend of mine just observed the two year anniversary of his open heart surgery with dutiful appreciations to his surgeons. I too am grateful for his successful surgery and continuing health and presence among us; he is a good friend with whom I shared, among other experiences, many delicious meals and refreshing beverages. Yet my friend's "good outcome" reminds me of far too many "negative outcomes". I work in a nationally recognized hospital and in spite of highly trained specialists, new equipment, new ICUs, new diagnostic scanners and so forth, I spend most of my time with patients highly anxious about their health, family members worried about their loved ones, and staff heroically caring for patients while operating in a health care system badly in need of reform. Immersed in the massive environment and campus of my hospital, a troubling thought often percolates to the surface. Could it be that our American "health care system" is actually an entity more "TBTF" (too big to fail) than some of the financial institutions bailed out by our government in the recent financial upheaval which is still sending tremors through our economy?
Sadly, most of the so-called debate I hear and read about regarding health care reform is of the most pedantic and polarizing of political partisanship. Most of what I hear and read is shrill and vitriolic, far from thoughtful and civil. If those elected "public servants" and public personalities so opposed to reform, who happen to have quality insurance and financial resources, would spend the night with me in our Emergency Room or in the Operating Room waiting area or on the floor for Labor & Delivery, I believe they might have a change of perspective, if not a change of heart.
As the sun rises, I walk to the parking garage by way of the ten story out patient treatment tower adjacent to the Eye Institute and the Children's Hospital. It sometimes feels as if my hospital is "TBTF", is impersonal, too concerned with ever shifting bottom lines. If my hospital environment can feel that way, how about the entire health care system in our country. I feel like a tiny piece in a complicated puzzle. Yet I hear far too little from local physicians and hospital administrators and nurse managers, chaplains and others about health care reform.
I have been reading, in addition to the "less than all the news fit to print" on this subject, three books entitled And a Time to Die: How American Hospitals Shape the End of Life by Sharon R. Kaufman,
Sadly, most of the so-called debate I hear and read about regarding health care reform is of the most pedantic and polarizing of political partisanship. Most of what I hear and read is shrill and vitriolic, far from thoughtful and civil. If those elected "public servants" and public personalities so opposed to reform, who happen to have quality insurance and financial resources, would spend the night with me in our Emergency Room or in the Operating Room waiting area or on the floor for Labor & Delivery, I believe they might have a change of perspective, if not a change of heart.
As the sun rises, I walk to the parking garage by way of the ten story out patient treatment tower adjacent to the Eye Institute and the Children's Hospital. It sometimes feels as if my hospital is "TBTF", is impersonal, too concerned with ever shifting bottom lines. If my hospital environment can feel that way, how about the entire health care system in our country. I feel like a tiny piece in a complicated puzzle. Yet I hear far too little from local physicians and hospital administrators and nurse managers, chaplains and others about health care reform.
I have been reading, in addition to the "less than all the news fit to print" on this subject, three books entitled And a Time to Die: How American Hospitals Shape the End of Life by Sharon R. Kaufman,
Living Well and Dying Faithfully: Christian Practices for End-of-Life Care by John Swinton, Richard Payne, and Stanley Hauerwas, and Accompany Them with Singing--The Christian Funeral by Thomas G. Long. When I started them, I wasn't consciously thinking of the first dealing with end of life, the second with dying, and the third with the funeral but they have turned out to be an interesting constellation of viewpoints on issues that I deal with on an almost daily basis. I wish I could report that the insights imparted from them have been revelatory and life-changing. They haven't been; at least not yet. However, the books have provided a tremendous amount of food for thought and reflection. Depending on what one does with the majority of one's working day, I recommend at least one of these books to you.
I continue to struggle and be disappointed with the health care reform debate in our country. I believe we can do better. In a blog dated February 12, 2010 entitled Frozen Reform, Robert D. Francis writes: "The federal government finally reopened today after four days closed due to record snowfall in the DC area. As for health-care reform, it’s seemed frozen since Scott Brown was elected to the Senate last month." It doesn't have all the answers, but at least it's a thoughtful attempt at addressing the "TBTF" elephant in the room. Follow this to rest of blog: http://theolog.org/2010/02/frozen-reform.html.
If our health care system is "TBTF", what are we going to do? Run back into our burrows like Punxsutawney Phil and hide? Let those with other agendas make decisions in their best interest, not the interests of patients and taxpayers? I hope the spring thaw arrives soon; Lord, real soon.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Massive Star Blows Fancy Hourglass Nebula
I love these pictures. Words seem inadequate; but that is why we have poets:
A Clear Midnight
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou
lovest best,
Night, sleep, death and the stars.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Another Night Poem
The Want of Peace
All goes back to the earth,
and so I do not desire
pride of excess or power,
but the contentments made
by men who have had little:
the fisherman’s silence
receiving the river’s grace,
the gardener’s musing on rows.
I lack the peace of simple things.
I am never wholly in place.
I find no peace or grace.
We sell the world to buy fire,
our way lighted by burning men,
and that has bent my mind
and made me think of darkness
and wish for the dumb life of roots.
Wendell Berry, “The Want of Peace” from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Copyright © 1998.
Monday, February 1, 2010
The Feast of St. Brigid of Kildare
There are a lot of things about the "South" that cause me to pause but one aspect that I have experienced and try to emulate is the notion of Southern hospitality. I confess that we Protestants, especially ones in the South, have been a bit impoverished by our lack of knowledge, understanding, and appreciation for the saints of the church, particularly female ones. One source that has helped me in this is Jan Richardson's "The Painted Prayerbook". I commend to you her thoughts on St. Brigid in a meditation entitled "A Habit of Wildest Bounty" at http://paintedprayerbook.com/2009/01/31/a-habit-of-the-wildest-bounty-the-feast-of-st-brigid/
Friday, January 29, 2010
Trying to finish column for the church newsletter...
(Lord, help me write this article.)
In Flannery O’Connor’s short story "Revelation," Ruby Turpin is sitting in the doctor’s waiting room, evaluating each person around her. Ruby judges herself to be superior, by more than a grade or two, to everyone there, especially to a poor, unkempt, teenaged wretch seated across from her who is reading a book. Ruby thinks it sad that the girl’s parents did not groom her more attractively. Perish the thought of having a child as scowling as this one. No, scratch that one.
(God, pleeease send an idea my way.)
The gospel expresses a depth of love that is more radical and more inclusive than the fragile relationships we mere mortals are ever able to create. In matters related to Christian relationships, we are always called to struggle for a depth of love and acceptance that reflects the amazing inclusivity of God's love. No, not it.
(What word, O Lord, do you want me to say for your people?)
Calling it "way better than a laptop, way better than a phone," Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled his company's long-awaited iPad tablet-style multi-touch device Wednesday, calling it more intimate than a laptop and more capable than a smartphone… No, no, no…definitely not.
(Perhaps you want me to write about some timely, relevant issue like…)
In the April 13, 2009 issue of Newsweek, the cover story was “The End of Christian America” stating that the “percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades”. No, not that’s not it…
(Prayer, reading the Bible, loving one another are topics that folks always seem to like.)
According to a Jan. 26, 2010 UMNS report “Food. Potable water. Shelter. Those are the top needs a group of 29 church and community leaders told three executives from the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Asked which is the most important, the group said all three…” No, too much…
(Of course the most popular ones are funny stories about children or bulletin bloopers.)
In Luke 4:18 Jesus said “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
(There he goes again with all that stuff about the poor and downtrodden, the sick, and the captives. What does he expect me to do?)
“Say that again, Lord. You expect me to do what? You’re kidding right?”
In Flannery O’Connor’s short story "Revelation," Ruby Turpin is sitting in the doctor’s waiting room, evaluating each person around her. Ruby judges herself to be superior, by more than a grade or two, to everyone there, especially to a poor, unkempt, teenaged wretch seated across from her who is reading a book. Ruby thinks it sad that the girl’s parents did not groom her more attractively. Perish the thought of having a child as scowling as this one. No, scratch that one.
(God, pleeease send an idea my way.)
The gospel expresses a depth of love that is more radical and more inclusive than the fragile relationships we mere mortals are ever able to create. In matters related to Christian relationships, we are always called to struggle for a depth of love and acceptance that reflects the amazing inclusivity of God's love. No, not it.
(What word, O Lord, do you want me to say for your people?)
Calling it "way better than a laptop, way better than a phone," Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled his company's long-awaited iPad tablet-style multi-touch device Wednesday, calling it more intimate than a laptop and more capable than a smartphone… No, no, no…definitely not.
(Perhaps you want me to write about some timely, relevant issue like…)
In the April 13, 2009 issue of Newsweek, the cover story was “The End of Christian America” stating that the “percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades”. No, not that’s not it…
(Prayer, reading the Bible, loving one another are topics that folks always seem to like.)
According to a Jan. 26, 2010 UMNS report “Food. Potable water. Shelter. Those are the top needs a group of 29 church and community leaders told three executives from the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Asked which is the most important, the group said all three…” No, too much…
(Of course the most popular ones are funny stories about children or bulletin bloopers.)
In Luke 4:18 Jesus said “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
(There he goes again with all that stuff about the poor and downtrodden, the sick, and the captives. What does he expect me to do?)
“Say that again, Lord. You expect me to do what? You’re kidding right?”
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Today's sermon
My sermon today was entitled "Life's Persistent Questions", with thanks to Guy Noir, private eye on Prairie Home Companion. It was an attempt to respond to the persistent question of why God "allows" or "causes" or "sends" disasters, tragedies, pain and suffering. I broke no new theological ground but attempted to affirm God's presence in the midst of tragedy and suffering as well as admit there is a mysterious element to God's presence and activity in our world. In other words, there's no ultimately satisfactory answer to the "why" question. It probably is not even the right question, but it's the one that invariably pops up. And sometimes, in asking questions, we discover some truth about ourselves and God.
I occasionally feel like Kierkegaard who wrote that many great minds of his century had given themselves to making people's lives easier by inventing labor-saving machines and devices. He said that he would dedicate himself to making people's lives more difficult. He would become a preacher.
Sometimes life is just hard, challenging and difficult. I believe our God cares greatly and deeply about what happens to us, is present in and among us, and uses us to embrace, share and love others who are suffering. More can be said but at least that's one hook on which I can hang my hat.
I occasionally feel like Kierkegaard who wrote that many great minds of his century had given themselves to making people's lives easier by inventing labor-saving machines and devices. He said that he would dedicate himself to making people's lives more difficult. He would become a preacher.
Sometimes life is just hard, challenging and difficult. I believe our God cares greatly and deeply about what happens to us, is present in and among us, and uses us to embrace, share and love others who are suffering. More can be said but at least that's one hook on which I can hang my hat.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Prayer to close four nights at the hospital...
Lord it is night. The night is for stillness. Let us be still in the presence of God. It is night after a long day. What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done. Let it be. The night is dark. Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives rest in you. The night is quiet. Let the quietness of your peace enfold us, all dear to us, and all who have no peace. The night heralds the dawn. Let us look expectantly to a new day, new joys, new possibilities. In your name we pray. Amen (from the New Zealand Prayer Book)
For an interesting video by saintnonsbay with "paintings by Marc Chagall and chant from the 12th Century French composer Perotin are an unusual but rich setting" for this prayer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx1NYyrwRwM
I found the link to this prayer on The Homily Blog at http://homilyblog.blogspot.com/
For an interesting video by saintnonsbay with "paintings by Marc Chagall and chant from the 12th Century French composer Perotin are an unusual but rich setting" for this prayer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx1NYyrwRwM
I found the link to this prayer on The Homily Blog at http://homilyblog.blogspot.com/
Friday, January 22, 2010
Why Another Blog...?
Perhaps it has to do with working at nights. My wife thinks I over-process things (though she would never use those words). Maybe I am overly curious. I wonder a lot about why people do and say the things they do, and conversely the things they don't do and don't say. I was taught in divinity school that all truth is God's truth. So I guess I figured I always have a lot more to learn.
I am married to my high school sweetheart. We have two beautiful daughters, one son-in-law, one boyfriend, and two spoiled rescue dogs (down from the original menagerie of three (different) dogs, a cat, parakeet, and ferret). I have been blessed in more ways than I can enumerate or express.
I am a United Methodist clergy, a staff chaplain at the Medical University of South Carolina, a supply pastor for a small but active local congregation, a person constantly surrounded and involved in the often messy aspects of people's lives who longs for the solitude and serenity of being on or near the lake, in the forest or mountains, standing in a river trying to fool a fish into biting a lure that really doesn't look like a bug.
I hope you find some things here that interest you or cause you to stop and think if only for a moment or sends you off in your own direction. I used to call myself one of the last yellow dog Democrats (this is SC) but now I think I'm just more of an old yellow dog, scratching this, sniffing at that, and growling a little now and then. I still believe my heart is "slightly left of center" but no longer believe politicians have the wherewithal to serve the public good; they seem to all start out wanting to do good but end up doing well (which is certainly true of preachers). As my old camp counselor and preacher Brother Jim Grigsby said: "Money makes liars of us all." He never served a tall steepled church but he sure was a wise man.
If you've taken the time to read this, thanks.
Peace and blessings.
Reggie
I am married to my high school sweetheart. We have two beautiful daughters, one son-in-law, one boyfriend, and two spoiled rescue dogs (down from the original menagerie of three (different) dogs, a cat, parakeet, and ferret). I have been blessed in more ways than I can enumerate or express.
I am a United Methodist clergy, a staff chaplain at the Medical University of South Carolina, a supply pastor for a small but active local congregation, a person constantly surrounded and involved in the often messy aspects of people's lives who longs for the solitude and serenity of being on or near the lake, in the forest or mountains, standing in a river trying to fool a fish into biting a lure that really doesn't look like a bug.
I hope you find some things here that interest you or cause you to stop and think if only for a moment or sends you off in your own direction. I used to call myself one of the last yellow dog Democrats (this is SC) but now I think I'm just more of an old yellow dog, scratching this, sniffing at that, and growling a little now and then. I still believe my heart is "slightly left of center" but no longer believe politicians have the wherewithal to serve the public good; they seem to all start out wanting to do good but end up doing well (which is certainly true of preachers). As my old camp counselor and preacher Brother Jim Grigsby said: "Money makes liars of us all." He never served a tall steepled church but he sure was a wise man.
If you've taken the time to read this, thanks.
Peace and blessings.
Reggie
Who knew? You surprised? I'm not!
I took this quiz "What's Your Theological Worldview" at http://quizfarm.com/quizzes/Theology/svensvensven/whats-your-theological-worldview/ and the result:
You Scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 82%
Emergent/Postmodern 68%
Neo orthodox 64%
Roman Catholic 61%
Modern Liberal 43%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 36%
Classical Liberal 29%
Reformed Evangelical 21%
Fundamentalist 0%
You Scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 82%
Emergent/Postmodern 68%
Neo orthodox 64%
Roman Catholic 61%
Modern Liberal 43%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 36%
Classical Liberal 29%
Reformed Evangelical 21%
Fundamentalist 0%
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The Last Thing I'll Ever Write About John Edwards by Ken Rudin
I liked John Edwards; voted for him in the SC Presidential primaries; ate lunch with him, Danny Glover and 200 of his closest political allies in a crowded restaurant in Florence, SC. But I'm done; have been. Voltaire famously declared, “God forgives because it’s his business.” Yet Edwards has so lowered the bar that it's hard to find any room for forgiveness. Here's what Ken Rudin wrote:
The Last Thing I'll Ever Write About John Edwards
4:02 pm January 21, 2010
NPR Political Junkie Ken Rudin
I'm usually of two minds when it comes to the "sex scandals" of politicians, especially when it comes to this blog.
My immediate gut feeling is that it's nobody's business. Yes, it's often despicable and yes, it says a lot about character. But ultimately it's not the kind of stuff that should be paraded on the front page of newspapers, or on TV, or here. It's something for families to deal with. I feel that way about Tiger Woods as well. So he wasn't the guy we thought he was. So what.
Then there are the gray areas. A senator is arrested in a sting operation. A governor disappears for five days without telling anyone. Public funds are used. Blackmail is involved. Then it becomes less about sex and more about the law, the public's right to know, or not doing the job voters elected them to do.
There's another gray area: the issue of so-called "hypocrisy."
The rest of this sad commentary is at http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2010/01/the_last_thing_well_ever_write.html
The Last Thing I'll Ever Write About John Edwards
4:02 pm January 21, 2010
NPR Political Junkie Ken Rudin
I'm usually of two minds when it comes to the "sex scandals" of politicians, especially when it comes to this blog.
My immediate gut feeling is that it's nobody's business. Yes, it's often despicable and yes, it says a lot about character. But ultimately it's not the kind of stuff that should be paraded on the front page of newspapers, or on TV, or here. It's something for families to deal with. I feel that way about Tiger Woods as well. So he wasn't the guy we thought he was. So what.
Then there are the gray areas. A senator is arrested in a sting operation. A governor disappears for five days without telling anyone. Public funds are used. Blackmail is involved. Then it becomes less about sex and more about the law, the public's right to know, or not doing the job voters elected them to do.
There's another gray area: the issue of so-called "hypocrisy."
The rest of this sad commentary is at http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2010/01/the_last_thing_well_ever_write.html
Yeah, this will work in Main Street's best interests...
Supreme Court Rips Up Campaign Finance Laws
by Deborah Tedford
January 21, 2010
The decades-old system of rules that govern the financing of the nation's political campaigns was partially upended by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued just ahead of the pivotal 2010 midterm congressional election season.
Thursday's landmark decision, approved by a 5-4 margin, could unleash a torrent of corporate and union cash into the political realm and transform how campaigns for president and Congress are fought in the coming years.
Read rest of story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122805666
by Deborah Tedford
January 21, 2010
The decades-old system of rules that govern the financing of the nation's political campaigns was partially upended by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued just ahead of the pivotal 2010 midterm congressional election season.
Thursday's landmark decision, approved by a 5-4 margin, could unleash a torrent of corporate and union cash into the political realm and transform how campaigns for president and Congress are fought in the coming years.
Read rest of story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122805666
Folks often ask me what I do all night... here's one answer
Midnight calm: Hospital chaplain helps keep faith during the night shift
It’s minutes after midnight, an eerie calm has come to the halls of Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, and Dan Ocampo is racing to bring peace to a world where it seldom exists.
In intensive care, Ocampo encounters a 40-week-old boy, Ethan, fighting for breath inside a plastic incubator. He joins hands with the overnight nurse and places an open palm atop the case. With heads bowed, Ocampo recites a prayer barely audible over the buzzing monitors and wheezing machinery.
In labor and child delivery, Ocampo gathers the nursing staff in a circle and offers words of support to power through the dark morning hours ahead.
“And God said, ‘For I know the plans I have for you.’ We are designed for prosperity and not for harm,” Ocampo said. “Go on and adapt to all those things that God has given you … go on and accept change.”
In this era of nurse burnout and growing stress, the Adventist hospital system in suburban Chicago has hired a full-time chaplain to work the overnight shift, when fatigue and loneliness are at their apex. As hospitals push for new ways to comfort patients and aid staff during difficult times, they’re increasingly turning to chaplains such as Ocampo, whose faith and training provide a different kind of support.
Fifty years ago, churches were likely to re-assign clergy who performed poorly in the parish to hospital settings where they had smaller and more captive audiences, said Jim Gibbons, executive director of the Association of Professional Chaplains in Schaumburg. But most hospitals now require chaplains to become certified in pastoral care and medical training. Some have clinical internships.
Whether full-time employees or on-call volunteers, chaplains are now commonplace in hospitals. But few work solely overnight, when the chaos of day has given way to a cold and brooding stillness. These are the hours in the hospital, doctors and nurses note, when visitors have gone home, when well-wishers have stopped calling and when patients, often medicated and frightened, are left alone to think about what may lie ahead.
“The issue of loneliness and detachment is very real in hospitals, particularly at night,” Gibbons said. “A chaplain helps provide that link to the outside community that can be comforting, for staff and for patients. The kind of people who become chaplains today have an aptitude and an appetite for it – they feel like they’re drawn to it.”
Ocampo, 43, walks the corridors in these bleak hours, slapping backs and flashing a wide grin. He encourages staffers who are struggling with difficult cases. He counsels worried patients as they prepare for surgery. He provides care and comfort for families coping with grief. And often he’s called to deliver a special prayer to patients in the moments before death.
“The last thing to go is the hearing,” Ocampo said. “So I will bend down and whisper into the patient’s ear and tell them that they are not alone. Sometimes, just being there is the most important thing I can do.”
Ocampo and his wife have three children, ages 12, 14 and 18, so when the Adventist hospital system hired him as a full-time night chaplain last fall, it was a life-changing endeavor that meant rearranging his schedule around a nine-hour work shift that begins each weeknight at 9. He spreads his time among the four Adventist hospitals in La Grange, Bolingbrook, Glendale Heights and Hinsdale.
“At first I felt guilty, like I was abandoning my family at a crucial time,” said Ocampo, a native of the Philippines and a Seventh Day Adventist who moved to Bolingbrook eight years ago to become pastor at a local church. “But I know God is looking after them when I am not there. And I know how much good work there is to do at these hospitals.”
Ocampo begins each shift with an unusual request, asking God to ensure a busy night at the hospital so that staff is allowed to fulfill its mission of caring for those in need.
“When I see a vacant room I cry just a little because I know someone out there is sick and needs our help,” Ocampo said, kicking off a recent stint at the 365-bed Adventist Hospital in Hinsdale. Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Pastor Dan, as he is often called, walks the hallways in and around the emergency room, the psych ward, intensive care, child development, cardio care and research labs.
“Hey, hey, how are you angels?” he asks a group of nurses in psych.
“How are you, brother? ¿Como esta?” he asks a night janitor waiting to take the elevator downstairs.
If the nurses are sleepy, Ocampo energizes them. If the mood is dark, he provides some levity.
“He’s such a positive spirit. He listens to us and never seems to rush; he’s never in a hurry,” said Sherry Clark, a registered nurse for the Adventist network. “It can be pretty lonely working these long shifts, and so it’s always a treat to see Pastor Dan. It always makes you feel a little bit better.”
One night recently, Ocampo was called to the bedside of a woman whose husband was rushed to intensive care because of internal bleeding. The injury had come at the end of a prolonged illness, and when it was over, when the man had been pronounced dead, Ocampo was struck by the wife’s stoicism.
“She said to me, ‘I cannot cry now because I’ve been crying for him for five years,’ ” Ocampo said. He stayed by the woman’s side for the next four hours.
On other occasions, he has helped feuding siblings work through the sudden death of a parent, and he once hastily scribbled out a will for a young woman about to enter surgery.
Despite his own strong belief in God, Ocampo said he’s careful not to push his ideology onto patients. And many times, even in the religious-based Adventist hospitals, he will encounter patients or families questioning their faith when faced with difficult choices.
“I don’t blame them,” he said. “But I tell them I’m here to let them know that even though things don’t go the way they want, that God does exist.”
In a way, night chaplain is a job Ocampo has been working toward since he was a boy in the Philippines and part of his job was to escort the elderly in his neighborhood to church on Sunday mornings. By the 4th grade, he’d decided he wanted to become either a doctor or a pastor.
“I chose the church because I could help people for free,” Ocampo said with a laugh and broad smile.
“There’s just a real comfort with him,” said Heather Elrod, a nurse at the Hinsdale hospital. “When he comes by, it just reminds us what we’re here to do, who we’re here to help.”
At the end of each shift, Ocampo retreats by himself to the small chapels in the hospitals’ lobbies. Inside, he kneels before the altar and asks God to relieve him of the grief he’s seen.
“When I leave there I’m feeling light, I’m feeling good again,” Ocampo said. “That’s how I survive.”
By Joel Hood
April 26, 2009
Chicago Tribune
jhood@tribune.com
It’s minutes after midnight, an eerie calm has come to the halls of Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, and Dan Ocampo is racing to bring peace to a world where it seldom exists.
In intensive care, Ocampo encounters a 40-week-old boy, Ethan, fighting for breath inside a plastic incubator. He joins hands with the overnight nurse and places an open palm atop the case. With heads bowed, Ocampo recites a prayer barely audible over the buzzing monitors and wheezing machinery.
In labor and child delivery, Ocampo gathers the nursing staff in a circle and offers words of support to power through the dark morning hours ahead.
“And God said, ‘For I know the plans I have for you.’ We are designed for prosperity and not for harm,” Ocampo said. “Go on and adapt to all those things that God has given you … go on and accept change.”
In this era of nurse burnout and growing stress, the Adventist hospital system in suburban Chicago has hired a full-time chaplain to work the overnight shift, when fatigue and loneliness are at their apex. As hospitals push for new ways to comfort patients and aid staff during difficult times, they’re increasingly turning to chaplains such as Ocampo, whose faith and training provide a different kind of support.
Fifty years ago, churches were likely to re-assign clergy who performed poorly in the parish to hospital settings where they had smaller and more captive audiences, said Jim Gibbons, executive director of the Association of Professional Chaplains in Schaumburg. But most hospitals now require chaplains to become certified in pastoral care and medical training. Some have clinical internships.
Whether full-time employees or on-call volunteers, chaplains are now commonplace in hospitals. But few work solely overnight, when the chaos of day has given way to a cold and brooding stillness. These are the hours in the hospital, doctors and nurses note, when visitors have gone home, when well-wishers have stopped calling and when patients, often medicated and frightened, are left alone to think about what may lie ahead.
“The issue of loneliness and detachment is very real in hospitals, particularly at night,” Gibbons said. “A chaplain helps provide that link to the outside community that can be comforting, for staff and for patients. The kind of people who become chaplains today have an aptitude and an appetite for it – they feel like they’re drawn to it.”
Ocampo, 43, walks the corridors in these bleak hours, slapping backs and flashing a wide grin. He encourages staffers who are struggling with difficult cases. He counsels worried patients as they prepare for surgery. He provides care and comfort for families coping with grief. And often he’s called to deliver a special prayer to patients in the moments before death.
“The last thing to go is the hearing,” Ocampo said. “So I will bend down and whisper into the patient’s ear and tell them that they are not alone. Sometimes, just being there is the most important thing I can do.”
Ocampo and his wife have three children, ages 12, 14 and 18, so when the Adventist hospital system hired him as a full-time night chaplain last fall, it was a life-changing endeavor that meant rearranging his schedule around a nine-hour work shift that begins each weeknight at 9. He spreads his time among the four Adventist hospitals in La Grange, Bolingbrook, Glendale Heights and Hinsdale.
“At first I felt guilty, like I was abandoning my family at a crucial time,” said Ocampo, a native of the Philippines and a Seventh Day Adventist who moved to Bolingbrook eight years ago to become pastor at a local church. “But I know God is looking after them when I am not there. And I know how much good work there is to do at these hospitals.”
Ocampo begins each shift with an unusual request, asking God to ensure a busy night at the hospital so that staff is allowed to fulfill its mission of caring for those in need.
“When I see a vacant room I cry just a little because I know someone out there is sick and needs our help,” Ocampo said, kicking off a recent stint at the 365-bed Adventist Hospital in Hinsdale. Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Pastor Dan, as he is often called, walks the hallways in and around the emergency room, the psych ward, intensive care, child development, cardio care and research labs.
“Hey, hey, how are you angels?” he asks a group of nurses in psych.
“How are you, brother? ¿Como esta?” he asks a night janitor waiting to take the elevator downstairs.
If the nurses are sleepy, Ocampo energizes them. If the mood is dark, he provides some levity.
“He’s such a positive spirit. He listens to us and never seems to rush; he’s never in a hurry,” said Sherry Clark, a registered nurse for the Adventist network. “It can be pretty lonely working these long shifts, and so it’s always a treat to see Pastor Dan. It always makes you feel a little bit better.”
One night recently, Ocampo was called to the bedside of a woman whose husband was rushed to intensive care because of internal bleeding. The injury had come at the end of a prolonged illness, and when it was over, when the man had been pronounced dead, Ocampo was struck by the wife’s stoicism.
“She said to me, ‘I cannot cry now because I’ve been crying for him for five years,’ ” Ocampo said. He stayed by the woman’s side for the next four hours.
On other occasions, he has helped feuding siblings work through the sudden death of a parent, and he once hastily scribbled out a will for a young woman about to enter surgery.
Despite his own strong belief in God, Ocampo said he’s careful not to push his ideology onto patients. And many times, even in the religious-based Adventist hospitals, he will encounter patients or families questioning their faith when faced with difficult choices.
“I don’t blame them,” he said. “But I tell them I’m here to let them know that even though things don’t go the way they want, that God does exist.”
In a way, night chaplain is a job Ocampo has been working toward since he was a boy in the Philippines and part of his job was to escort the elderly in his neighborhood to church on Sunday mornings. By the 4th grade, he’d decided he wanted to become either a doctor or a pastor.
“I chose the church because I could help people for free,” Ocampo said with a laugh and broad smile.
“There’s just a real comfort with him,” said Heather Elrod, a nurse at the Hinsdale hospital. “When he comes by, it just reminds us what we’re here to do, who we’re here to help.”
At the end of each shift, Ocampo retreats by himself to the small chapels in the hospitals’ lobbies. Inside, he kneels before the altar and asks God to relieve him of the grief he’s seen.
“When I leave there I’m feeling light, I’m feeling good again,” Ocampo said. “That’s how I survive.”
By Joel Hood
April 26, 2009
Chicago Tribune
jhood@tribune.com
With apologies to Shakespeare...
As a night chaplain at MUSC I had a relatively uneventful night as you can tell from the postings. And you can tell what has mostly been on my mind, and heart. Thanks for letting me "think out loud" by posting some of what I've been thinking about tonight. Soon I will be going home, feed and play with the dogs a bit and then try and sleep some before returning tonight...
and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
What's A Natural Disaster Without Pat Robertson To
Good grief! Not again!
What's A Natural Disaster Without Pat Robertson To Explain?
Posted using ShareThis
What's A Natural Disaster Without Pat Robertson To Explain?
Posted using ShareThis
"The Horror of It All"
I'm quoting two paragraphs of this article in hopes of piquing your interest in reading all of it.
The Underlying Tragedy
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: January 14, 2010
On Oct. 17, 1989, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Bay Area in Northern California. Sixty-three people were killed. This week, a major earthquake, also measuring a magnitude of 7.0, struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Red Cross estimates that between 45,000 and 50,000 people have died.
This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story. It’s a story about poorly constructed buildings, bad infrastructure and terrible public services. On Thursday, President Obama told the people of Haiti: “You will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten.” If he is going to remain faithful to that vow then he is going to have to use this tragedy as an occasion to rethink our approach to global poverty. He’s going to have to acknowledge a few difficult truths.
Read the rest at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html
The Underlying Tragedy
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: January 14, 2010
On Oct. 17, 1989, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Bay Area in Northern California. Sixty-three people were killed. This week, a major earthquake, also measuring a magnitude of 7.0, struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Red Cross estimates that between 45,000 and 50,000 people have died.
This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story. It’s a story about poorly constructed buildings, bad infrastructure and terrible public services. On Thursday, President Obama told the people of Haiti: “You will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten.” If he is going to remain faithful to that vow then he is going to have to use this tragedy as an occasion to rethink our approach to global poverty. He’s going to have to acknowledge a few difficult truths.
Read the rest at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html
Thoughts at 4:05 AM
The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things" from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Copyright © 1998. Published and reprinted by arrangement with Counterpoint Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group (www.perseusbooks.com). All rights reserved.
Source: Collected Poems, 1957-1982 (Counterpoint Press, 1985)
by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things" from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Copyright © 1998. Published and reprinted by arrangement with Counterpoint Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group (www.perseusbooks.com). All rights reserved.
Source: Collected Poems, 1957-1982 (Counterpoint Press, 1985)
A Favorite Quote
I fish because I love to; because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly; because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape; because, in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion; because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience; because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don't want to waste the trip; because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters; because only in the woods can I find solitude without loneliness; because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes better out there; because maybe one day I will catch a mermaid; and, finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant - and not nearly so much fun. -John Voelker (Robert Traver)
A Recent Website Devotion
Psalm 139:14 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Ministering in a hospital, I sometimes feel I’ve seen about everything. But I learned just recently from Fred Craddock in Georgia of a case of surgery so extraordinary that I assumed it was a singular case. I asked a surgeon who assured me it was not. Rare, yes, but unique, no.
The story in brief is this: a man in his mid-fifties was rushed to the Emergency Room of the nearest hospital. He complained of inability to breathe. Examination revealed that the cause of his shortness of breath was a growth, a large growth, on his upper back, between his shoulder blades. The man’s mother said she first noticed it when he was a teenager. She repeatedly urged him to have it attended to, but he never did. The growth was small when she first noticed it, and on subsequent occasions she could tell it was growing. Her urgings moved from cosmetic (it was becoming unsightly) to medical (it will put pressure on your heart).
When her son became an adult he moved away so she worried but did nothing more. The patient himself gasped to the doctor that the growth had enlarged very gradually and had been accepted as a part of his life. He grew unable to imagine himself without it; it became a part of his identity. It caused little or no pain; that is, until recently.
The growth had to be removed; there was no alternative to surgery. A team of surgeons began at 7:00 a.m. and finished at 3:30 p.m. One or two follow-up surgeries might be required, but the patient would live. Barring unexpected complications, he should enjoy a life free of unnecessary weight; a new life, one might say.
How much did the growth weigh? Everyone was curious to know. Slightly more that 40 pounds! How was he able to carry it, day and night? Because it grew so slowly. Would it have been fatal if not removed? No question. Did you send it to the lab for analysis, I asked? Of course, we always do. What was it? A grudge.
What if we were to give up all the feelings that we carry around that fester and grow and become a fatal weight in our lives? Maybe it’s a grudge, or anger, or jealously, or bitterness, or fear, or lust, or doubt, or pride; something that weighs you down and keeps you from being the fully alive human being God created you to be.
Give up that unnecessary weight. Your step, and your spirit, will be noticeably lighter.
Prayer: O God, your loving hand has made us in your own image: reach out your hand again and heal us that we may respond in kind, offering your hope and healing to all who are broken in body or spirit. We pray this in your holy and precious name. Amen.
Ministering in a hospital, I sometimes feel I’ve seen about everything. But I learned just recently from Fred Craddock in Georgia of a case of surgery so extraordinary that I assumed it was a singular case. I asked a surgeon who assured me it was not. Rare, yes, but unique, no.
The story in brief is this: a man in his mid-fifties was rushed to the Emergency Room of the nearest hospital. He complained of inability to breathe. Examination revealed that the cause of his shortness of breath was a growth, a large growth, on his upper back, between his shoulder blades. The man’s mother said she first noticed it when he was a teenager. She repeatedly urged him to have it attended to, but he never did. The growth was small when she first noticed it, and on subsequent occasions she could tell it was growing. Her urgings moved from cosmetic (it was becoming unsightly) to medical (it will put pressure on your heart).
When her son became an adult he moved away so she worried but did nothing more. The patient himself gasped to the doctor that the growth had enlarged very gradually and had been accepted as a part of his life. He grew unable to imagine himself without it; it became a part of his identity. It caused little or no pain; that is, until recently.
The growth had to be removed; there was no alternative to surgery. A team of surgeons began at 7:00 a.m. and finished at 3:30 p.m. One or two follow-up surgeries might be required, but the patient would live. Barring unexpected complications, he should enjoy a life free of unnecessary weight; a new life, one might say.
How much did the growth weigh? Everyone was curious to know. Slightly more that 40 pounds! How was he able to carry it, day and night? Because it grew so slowly. Would it have been fatal if not removed? No question. Did you send it to the lab for analysis, I asked? Of course, we always do. What was it? A grudge.
What if we were to give up all the feelings that we carry around that fester and grow and become a fatal weight in our lives? Maybe it’s a grudge, or anger, or jealously, or bitterness, or fear, or lust, or doubt, or pride; something that weighs you down and keeps you from being the fully alive human being God created you to be.
Give up that unnecessary weight. Your step, and your spirit, will be noticeably lighter.
Prayer: O God, your loving hand has made us in your own image: reach out your hand again and heal us that we may respond in kind, offering your hope and healing to all who are broken in body or spirit. We pray this in your holy and precious name. Amen.
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