Trusting the Unknown Path

Father Richard Rohr describes how he came to trust God in times of uncertainty and even apparent darkness:

I came out of the seminary in 1970 thinking that my job was to have an answer for every question. What I’ve learned is that not-knowing and often not even needing to know are—surprise of surprises—deeper ways of knowing and a deeper falling into compassion. This is surely what the mystics mean by “death” and why they talk of it with so many metaphors. It is the essential transition. Maybe that is why Jesus praised faith even more than love; maybe that is why St. John of the Cross called faith “luminous darkness.” Yes, love is the final goal but ever deeper trust inside of darkness is the path for getting there. [1]

My good friend Gerald May shed fresh light on the meaning of John of the Cross’ phrase “the dark night of the soul.” He said that God has to work in the soul in secret and  in darkness, because if we fully knew what was happening, and what Mystery/God/grace will eventually ask of us, we would either try to take charge or to stop the whole process. May writes:

The dark night is a profoundly good thing. It is an ongoing spiritual process in which we are liberated from attachments and compulsions and empowered to live and love more freely. Sometimes this letting go of old ways is painful, occasionally even devastating. But this is not why the night is called “dark.” The darkness of the night implies nothing sinister, only that the liberation takes place in hidden ways, beneath our knowledge and understanding. It happens mysteriously, in secret, and beyond our conscious control. [2]

No one oversees their own demise willingly, even when it is the false self that is dying. God has to undo our illusions secretly, as it were, when we are not watching and not in perfect control, say the mystics. We move forward in ways that we do not even understand and through the quiet workings of time and grace, as “deep calls unto deep” (Psalm 42:8). In other words, the Spirit initiates deep resonance and intimacy with our spirit, as the endless divine yes evokes an ever-deeper yes in us. [3]

As James Finley, one of CAC’s core faculty members, says, “The mystic is not someone who says, ‘Look what I have done!’ The mystic is one who says, ‘Look what love has done to me. There’s nothing left but God’s intimate love giving itself to me as me.’ That’s the blessedness in poverty: when all in us that is not God dissolves, and we finally realize that we are already as beautiful as God is beautiful, because God gave the infinite beauty of God as who we are.

A Dance of Intimacy

Richard Rohr reflects on the dance of divine intimacy:

The divine-human love affair really is a reciprocal dance. Sometimes, in order for us to step forward, our partner must step away a bit. The withdrawal lasts only a moment, and its purpose is to pull us closer—but it doesn’t feel like that in the moment. It feels like our partner is retreating.

God creates the pullback, “hiding his face,” as it was called by many mystics and scriptures. God creates a vacuum that God alone can fill. Then God waits to see if we will trust our God partner to eventually fill that space within us, which now has grown even more spacious and receptive. This is the central theme of darkness, necessary doubt, or what the mystics call “God’s withdrawing of love.” What feels like suffering, depression, uselessness—moments when God has withdrawn—are often deep acts of trust and invitations to intimacy on God’s part. On the soul’s inner journey, we meet a God who interacts with our deepest selves, allowing and forgiving mistakes. It is precisely this give-and-take, and knowing there will be give-and-take, that makes God so real as a Lover. [1]

A translator of Spanish mystic John of the Cross (1542­–1591), Mirabai Starr offers this stirring description of the dark night, in which God moves from dynamic presence to loving absence:

Say when you were very young the veil lifted just enough for you to glimpse the underlying Real behind it and then dropped again. Maybe it never recurred, but you could not forget. And this discovery became the prime mover of the rest of your life in ways you may not have even noticed….

Say these [spiritual] practices fill your heart. They make you feel holiness like wind through every fiber of your being and think rivers of holy thoughts…. The passion of your love for God intensifies….

Say prayer starts to dry up on your tongue. Sacred literature becomes fallen leaves, blows away. Meditation brings no serenity anymore. Devotion grows brittle, cracks. The God you bow down to no longer draws you….

Say each of the familiar spiritual rooms you go to seeking refuge are dark now, and empty. You sit down anyway. You take off your clothes at the door and enter naked. All agendas have fallen away…. This quietude deepens in proportion to your surrender.

Say what’s secretly going on is that the Beloved is loving you back. That your first glimpse of the Absolute was God’s first great gift to you. That your years of revelation inside his many vessels was his second gift, wherein, like a mother, he was holding you, like a child, close to his breast, tenderly feeding you. And that this darkness of the soul you have come upon and cannot seem to come out of is his final and greatest gift to you.

Because it is only in this vast emptiness that he can enter, as your Beloved, and fill you. Where the darkness is nothing but unutterable radiance

Saying Yes to Love

Friday, December 5, 2025

Father Richard describes intimacy with God as a loving yes to Divine Presence: 

For Christians who have gone to their own depths, there is the uncovering of an indwelling Presence—a deep, loving “yes” inherent within us. In Christian theology, this inner Presence is described as the Holy Spirit, which is precisely God as immanent, within, and even our deepest, truest self. God is the very ground of our Being. 

Some mystics have described this Presence as “closer to me than I am to myself” or “more me than I am myself.” Many of us would also describe this as the True Self, as Thomas Merton did. Yet it still must be awakened and chosen. The Holy Spirit is totally given and given equally to all, but must be consciously received, too. The Presence needs to be recognized, honored, and drawn upon to become a living Presence within us. 

From this more spacious and grounded place, one naturally connects, empathizes, forgives, and loves just about everything. We were made in love, for love, and unto love, and it is out of this love that we act. This deep inner “yes” that is God in me, is already loving God through me. [1] 

Seeking to experience God’s love more fully, spiritual director Colette Lafia asks a monk with whom she is friends, “How do I let God love me more?”:  

Without missing a beat, Brother Paul answered in his joyful tone, “God cannot love you more. God already loves you infinitely. You just need to become more aware of [God’s] love … by becoming more present to it. It’s like hearing birdcalls. By paying attention and delighting in it.”  

With Brother Paul’s wisdom etched in my mind, I prayed to be more receptive to the landscape of love within my heart and all around me, recognizing that I was already in a love relationship with the Divine, as are you…. 

In our journey towards a deeper and more abiding love relationship with the Divine, we grow by encountering and understanding our barriers. At the same time, stay open to the glimmerings of God’s grace that you can feel, see, or intuit. As you surrender all aspects of your inner knowing, grace, and resistance, you’ll enter into a fuller relationship with God’s boundless love.  

How do we make receptivity a foundation of our relationship with the Divine and of our life of prayer? To give love, we also need to be able to receive it. This invitation to receptivity encourages us to listen to the stirrings of love, release into communion with God, and become more present to Divine love. “God cannot love you more. God already loves you infinitely.” Embracing this love, we can respond to God, others, and all of life from our heart, which is the source of compassion toward all. [2]  

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John Chaffee 5 On Friday

1.

“We are creatures of sense and of spirit, and we must live an amphibious life.”

– Evelyn Underhill, British Poet and Mystic

The Christian mystics and theologians have always maintained that we are a mixture, synthesis, or hybrid of matter and spirit.

In some sense, the Chalcedonian Creed of 451 resolved this issue for us.  In that creed, the idea is that the two natures of Jesus (human and divine) exist “without confusion, division, separation, or change.”  Meaning, matter and spirit are not antagonistic or in enmity with one another.

We, though, who are with both a material and spiritual nature in our own way, must learn to navigate both worlds.  Some of us fail to live life well because we neglect the spiritual, and some of us fail to live the spiritual life well because we neglect the physical…

Which is why this insight from Evelyn Underhill intrigues me: we must learn to be “amphibious.”

2.

“I believe God is too delighted in you to have a plan for you.”

– Father Greg Boyle, Founder of Homeboy Industries

This past week, I have had two or three conversations about “God’s will.”

It can be discussed in a manner that is quite oppressive.

You and I must carefully navigate figuring out God’s will for our lives, and if we do not find it or follow it, we can somehow thwart God Almighty’s plan for our lives, as well as negatively impact the lives of those around us in concentric circles.

At one point, I even said to someone, “You know, none of us would force our agenda for our kids’ lives on them in such a way that would produce their suffering, and yet, we think that God would do that… But God doesn’t.  That kind of god, who imposes a foreign will on us, would be abusive.”

If anything, God is so enamored with us that God plans that we learn to follow our own desires and to discover who we are, our whole lives long, constantly, and to invite God along in that journey… simply because we know it would be a joyous adventure for God to join us in us following our healthiest and holiest of desires.

You know, I may write more on this topic in a blog or a book.  That sounds like a good idea.

3.

“Fanaticism is always a function of repressed doubt.”

– Frank Herbert in Dune

In my current context of North America, I am acutely aware of the fanaticism that I see in our religious and political spheres.

What worries me is how little we can admit and announce our doubts about anything.  Admitting or announcing doubts is seen as a weakness rather than a humble pursuit of firmer ground.

If we do not learn to appreciate and carry our doubts in a healthy and holy way, I unfortunately believe fanaticism will only continue to rise.

4.

“True godliness does not turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.”

– William Penn, Quaker Founder of the State of Pennsylvania

Either I did not know, or I forgot, that William Penn was a Quaker.

Regardless, I agree with his sentiment here.

Healthy religion leads us to be better in the world and to look for ways to improve it.  The problem is that for those who have succumbed to unhealthy religion, they may THINK they are better in the world and looking for ways to better the world, but…

The proof is in the pudding.

Or, as Jesus would say it,

“You will know a tree by its fruit.” (Matthew 7:15-20, Paraphrased.)

Suppose an interpretation of a faith system produces the “fruit” of angry, resentful individuals who are violent, scapegoating, and constantly threatening to the world around them.  In that case, that is a tree with “bad fruit,” and it absolutely deserves to be cut down and thrown into the fire. 

5.

“Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return.”

– Thomas Kelly, Quaker Mystic

Wow.

This is poetic.

It is VERY Quaker.

And yet, it also resonates with my understanding of the wisdom of Theresa of Avila’s Interior Castle.  That same insight also sounds similar to Thomas Merton’s insight about the Pointe Vierge in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. 

May it be a part of a universal and perennial wisdom?

Every generation must come to its own formulation or description of the mystery that God is deeply within each of us.  Every generation likely doubts this reality, but that is why every generation needs its prophet or mystic who can reach them and tell them that the Spirit of God is already present within and speaking from within.

Courageous Vulnerability

Thursday, December 4, 2025

I am a Christian because of women who said yes.   
—Rachel Held Evans, Wholehearted Faith  

Public theologian Rachel Held Evans (1981–2019) reflects on how Mary’s yes was pivotal to the Incarnation.    

I am more aware than ever of the startling and profound reality that I am a Christian not because of anything I’ve done but because a teenage girl living in occupied Palestine at one of the most dangerous moments in history said yes—yes to God, yes to a wholehearted call she could not possibly understand, yes to vulnerability in the face of societal judgment, yes to the considerable risk of pregnancy and childbirth… yes to a vision for herself and her little boy of a mission that would bring down rulers and lift up the humble, that would turn away the rich and fill the hungry with good things, that would scatter the proud and gather the lowly [see Luke 1:51–53], yes to a life that came with no guarantee of her safety or her son’s.  

By becoming human, God encourages us to honor the vulnerability of our own lives: 

It is nearly impossible to believe: God shrinking down to the size of a zygote, implanted in the soft lining of a woman’s womb…. God inching down the birth canal and entering this world covered in blood, perhaps into the steady, waiting arms of a midwife. God crying out in hunger. God reaching for his mother’s breasts. God totally relaxed, eyes closed, his chubby little arms raised over his head in a posture of complete trust. God resting in his mother’s lap…. 

I cannot entirely make sense of the storyline: God trusted God’s very self, totally and completely and in full bodily form, to the care of a woman. God needed women for survival. Before Jesus fed us with the bread and the wine, the body and the blood, Jesus himself needed to be fed, by a woman. He needed a woman to say: “This is my body, given for you.”…  

To understand Mary’s humanity and her central role in Jesus’s story is to remind ourselves of the true miracle of the Incarnation—and that is the core Christian conviction that God is with us, plain old ordinary us. God is with us in our fears and in our pain, in our morning sickness and in our ear infections, in our refugee crises and in our endurance of Empire, in smelly barns and unimpressive backwater towns, in the labor pains of a new mother and in the cries of a tiny infant. In all these things, God is with us—and God is for us. And through Mary’s example, God invites us to take the risk of love—even though it undoubtedly opens us up to the possibility of getting hurt, being scared, and feeling disappointed.   

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Emmanuel in the Ordinary: Our Yes to God’s Nearness

A Companion Devotional to “Mary and the Power of Yes”

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Reflection

If Mary’s yes opened the door to the Incarnation, our own small yeses keep that door from closing. The miracle of Emmanuel—God with us—didn’t end in Bethlehem. It continues in every moment we choose vulnerability over safety, presence over distance, trust over control.

Consider this: God chose not merely to visit humanity but to need us. Before Christ offered himself as bread and wine, he needed Mary’s milk. Before he could save the world, he required a woman’s courage to say yes to a call she couldn’t fully understand. This is the scandalous beauty of the Incarnation—God made himself dependent on human cooperation.

The God who meets us is not distant or abstract but draws intimately near, honoring us by seeking to understand our stories. Just as God asked Hagar “What’s your story?” in the desert, God comes to satisfy our deepest need, embracing us with a love that will never let go.

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God in the Unlikely Places

God reveals himself in unexpected locations—not just in sacred spaces but in wilderness places, in desperation and wandering. Mary encountered the angel in her ordinary bedroom. The shepherds received the announcement in their fields. God pitches his tent next to ours, moves into our neighborhood, enters our waiting rooms and traffic jams and dirty dishes.

Whether we face sin and failure, grief and despair, or simply seek meaning and purpose, God embraces us with forgiving, comforting, and encouraging love. No place is godforsaken when God chooses to show up there.

This Advent, ask yourself: Where do I least expect to find God? Your commute? Your difficult conversation? Your fear? Perhaps that’s exactly where Emmanuel waits.

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Our Turn to Say Yes

Mary’s yes wasn’t a single moment but a lifestyle—a continuing wholehearted consent to God’s will unfolding in unexpected ways. She said yes at the Annunciation. She said yes at the manger. She said yes at the cross, becoming mother to all of Jesus’s disciples.

Your yes matters too. Not because you can save everyone or change everything, but because God invites you into co-creation. You cannot say yes for all humanity as Mary did, but you can say yes in your small corner of the world. You can:

• Say yes to noticing the overlooked person
• Say yes to honest vulnerability in a relationship
• Say yes to the risky work of love
• Say yes to showing up even when it’s inconvenient
• Say yes to God’s call even when you can’t see the outcome

Each time we die to self and consent to the challenges of love, we rise to new life in the same surrender, completing our own baptismal journey.

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Prayer for Today

God of the ordinary and extraordinary,

Thank you for drawing near—for choosing not to stay distant but to dwell with us in our most vulnerable moments. Thank you that you trusted yourself completely to human care, that you needed us then and invite our participation still.

Give me Mary’s courage to say yes to your mysterious callings. Help me believe that my small yeses matter, that my willingness to risk love opens space for your kingdom to break through.

Teach me to find you in unexpected places—in my wilderness, in my waiting, in my weakness. Let me pitch my tent next to yours, knowing you have already moved into my neighborhood.

May I trust that vulnerability is not weakness but the posture of incarnation. May I remember that you, the Almighty, chose the low way—power in humility, strength perfected in weakness.

This Advent, make me attentive to where you show up and brave enough to say yes.

Amen.

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Questions for Reflection

1. Where in your life right now is God inviting you to say yes to something that feels risky or vulnerable?
2. What “unlikely places” in your daily routine might God be trying to meet you that you’ve been overlooking?
3. How does knowing that God chose to be vulnerable and dependent change the way you view your own weakness or need?
4. If Mary’s yes opened the door to salvation, what doors might your small yeses open for others?

Echoing Mary’s Yes

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Spiritual seeker and writer Katie Gordon reflects on the Magnificat, Mary’s prophetic song.  

In the Gospel of Luke, the Magnificat are the words that Mary sings when she is with her cousin Elizabeth, and they are celebrating the surprise of new life in their wombs. Apart from the expected course either of their lives would take, still they said “yes” to that movement of the Holy Spirit within each of them. 

This song that then flowed out of Mary’s faithful heart flipped the script of power in society. She, a lowly young girl, pregnant and unmarried, easily dismissed or decried by most of society, becomes the most blessed. Like the work of the Holy Spirit, her very being disrupted the status quo, and to this day, her words call us into the renewing spirit of mercy and justice…. 

Mary is telling us that when Christ comes into this world, when compassion becomes enfleshed, we gain a new paradigm. We are offered a new way of life, a new set of values to live by. And who brings this good news? It isn’t the kings or priests; it is two ordinary women, who through their encounter in friendship sing the vision into our tradition. These two pregnant women show us how to bring and embrace new life, and it is not revealed to us from a church or temple, but rather from the sanctuary of a home, in the intimacy of their relationship, and in their very bodies. 

Gordon visits a chapel located deep in the woods that features a statue of the pregnant Madonna accompanied by the words of the Magnificat:  

Here, outside of and far away from the seat of power in any traditional church, is where I find hope. In the voice of an outsider who gave birth to this radical vision of a changing and evolving world. In the counter-cultural, revolutionary message at the heart of the faith. In a song of praise that invites us to flip the paradigms of power, not just in church, but in society, too…. 

When we sing that the hungry will be fed, I think of all the mutual aid efforts, soup kitchens, and neighbors who feed one another, not out of obligation but out of love and care. 

When we sing that the humble will be upheld, I think of the dignity of immigrants and refugees, who amid the unjust and illegal deportations, are finding strength in their communities as people are protecting and fighting for one another day after day after day. 

And finally, when we sing of the promise made to our ancestors, to Sarah and to Abraham, I try to remember far enough back to feel the covenantal belonging, this lineage of love that stretches before I was here and far beyond my own time. I’m reminded of my small part in this larger and longer story, of saying “yes” like Mary whenever I can, to bringing new and renewing life into our world, here and now. 

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Sarah Young

Jesus Calling: December 3

Do not be surprised by the fiery attacks on your mind. When you struggle to find Me and to live in My Peace, don’t let discouragement set in. You are engaged in massive warfare, spiritually speaking. The evil one abhors your closeness to Me, and his demonic underlings are determined to destroy our intimacy. When you find yourself in the thick of battle, call upon My Name: “Jesus, help me!” At that instant, the battle becomes Mine; your role is simply to trust Me as I fight for you.
     My Name, properly used, has unlimited Power to bless and protect. At the end of time, every knee will bow (in heaven, on earth, and under the earth), when My Name is proclaimed. People who have used “Jesus” as a shoddy swear word will fall down in terror on that awesome day. But all those who have drawn near Me through trustingly uttering My Name will be filled with inexpressible and glorious Joy. This is your great hope, as you await My return.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

Ephesians 6:12 (NLT)
12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Additional insight regarding Ephesians 6:12: These who are not “flesh-and-blood enemies” are demons over whom the devil has control. They are not mere fantasies – they are very real. We face a powerful army whose goal is to defeat Christ’s church. When we believe in Christ, these beings become our enemies, and they try every device to turn us away from him and back to sin. Although we are assured of victory, we must engage in the struggle until Christ returns, because Satan is constantly battling against all who are on the Lord’s side. We need supernatural power to defeat Satan, and God has provided this by giving us his Holy Spirit within us and his armor surrounding us. If you feel discouraged, remember Jesus’ words to Peter: “Upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (Matthew 16:18).

1st Samuel 17:47 (NLT)
47 And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”

Philippians 2:9-10 (NLT)
9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
    and gave him the name above all other names,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

Additional insight regarding Philippians 2:9-11: At the Last Judgement, even those who are condemned will recognize Jesus’ authority and right to rule. People can choose now to commit their lives to Jesus as Lord or be forced to acknowledge him as Lord when he returns. Christ may return at any moment. Are you prepared to meet him?

1st Peter 1:8-9 (NLT)
8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

Additional insight regarding 1st Peter 1:8: Jesus had said to his disciple Thomas, who came to believe after touching the resurrected Christ: “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me” (John 20:29). Peter, having heard those words, repeats them here: “You love him even though you have never seen him.” That faith brings both salvation and the promise of a day when pain will end and perfect justice will begin. This is mentioned in 1st Peter 1:9: “The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.” Faith will be rewarded and evil will be punished. But what should we do until then? The Bible’s answer is simple but not easy: Because we know the future, we must faithfully serve God here and now. If today that means resolving a conflict, mending a hurt, working a dull job, confronting a belligerent child, rebuilding a marriage, or just waiting for guidance – do it all with the joy of God, who will return with his reward!

Responding to God’s Yes

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Richard Rohr envisions our yeses as a response to God’s first yes to us.

We have in Mary’s story what some call the second creation story in the Bible. It’s a creation seemingly “out of nothing.” Mary is the one quite willing to be “nothing.” God doesn’t need worthiness ahead of time; God creates worthiness by the choice itself. As I’ve often said, God doesn’t love us because we are good; we are good because God loves us. It seems God will not come into the world unreceived or uninvited. God does not come into the world unless we want God. God offers the Divine Presence, “the banquet,” but presence itself is a reciprocal concept. God is the eternal “I” waiting for those willing to be a “Thou.”

It’s no surprise that Mary became the icon of prayer for so many in Orthodox and Catholic Christianity, and in many religious orders, even though the Bible never once mentions her “praying.” The closest is that lovely line in Luke: “She treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19, 51). Why? Because every time we pray, it’s God in us telling us to pray. We wouldn’t even desire to pray except for God in us. It’s God in us that loves God, that desires God, that seeks God (see Romans 8:14–27). Every time we choose God on some level, God has in the previous nanosecond just chosen us, and we have somehow allowed ourselves to be chosen—and responded back (John 15:16). 194-195

We don’t know how to say yes by ourselves. We just “second the motion”! There is a part of us, the Holy Spirit within, that has always said yes to God. God first says “yes” inside of us, and we say, “Oh yeah,” thinking it comes from us. In other words, God rewards us for letting God reward us. That is worth noticing, maybe even for the rest of our lives.

Are we ever completely ready to echo God’s “yes”? Probably not, but I am convinced that the struggle is good and even necessary. Struggle carves out the space within us for deep desire. God both creates the desire and fulfills it. Our job is to be the desiring. For God to work in our lives, our fiat, like Mary’s “Let it be done unto me, according to your word” (Luke 1:38), is still essential.

We all find ourselves with this surprising ability to love God and to desire love from God, often for no reason in particular. That doesn’t happen every day, truly, but hopefully arises more often as we learn to trust and rest in life. Moments of unconditional love sort of slip out of us and no one is more surprised when they happen. But when they do, we always know we are living inside of a Larger Life than our own. We know, henceforth, that our life is not about us, but we are about God.

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Jesus Calling: December 2

I AM the Prince of Peace. As I said to My disciples, I say also to you: Peace be with you. Since I am your constant Companion. My Peace is steadfastly with you. When you keep your focus on Me, you experience both My Presence and My Peace. Worship Me as King of kings, Lord of lords, and Prince of Peace.
     You need My Peace each moment to accomplish My purposes in your life. Sometimes you are tempted to take shortcuts, in order to reach your goal as quickly as possible. But if the shortcut requires turning your back on My peaceful Presence, you must choose the longer route. Walk with Me along paths of Peace, enjoy the journey in My Presence.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

Isaiah 9:6 (NLT)
6 For a child is born to us,
    a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
    And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Additional insight regarding Isaiah 9:2-6: In a time of great darkness, God promised to send a light who would shine on everyone living in the shadow of death. He is both “Wonderful Counselor” and “Mighty God.” This message of hope was fulfilled in the birth of Christ and the establishment of his eternal kingdom. He came to deliver all people from their slavery to sin.

John 20:19-21 (NLT)
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

Psalm 25:4 (NLT)
4 Show me the right path, O Lord;
    point out the road for me to follow.

Expanding Beyond Ourselves

Monday, December 1, 2025

Author Stephanie Duncan Smith writes of Mary’s yes to God as a choice for expansion over contraction, mirroring God’s own yes in creation: 

Genesis tells the story of God’s radical choice for expansion over happiness, and the world is born. Advent echoes and reprises this divine choice, and the world is reborn. First, life from the womb of God, now, life from a woman who made a radical choice for expansion, not just over happiness, but over personal comfort, safety, and reputation. Expansion was the call, and against its many risks, the mother of God said yes—stretching her body as well as her imagination for just what kind of hope this might be, growing now within her.  

Had she said no, she would not have faced public scrutiny or physical endangerment as an unmarried pregnant woman in her day would have faced. She would have been spared the empire’s hunt for her blacklisted family, driving them to live the life of refugees on the run. And she would have never known the unthinkable loss of watching her firstborn take his last breath.  

Her path would have been so much safer, perhaps easier and even happier, if Mary had just not. And yet she chose the growing edge, where our truest self and life will always be found. And this choice made way for the life of the world. [1]  

Duncan Smith invites us to consider how we are being asked to expand our hearts in this season: 

There are many ways for a life to expand. Some will do so through this particular muscle of women, though pregnancy is far from the exclusive icon of expansion, neither is it the primary metaphor. The stretching of a belly is not sure equivalence to the stretching of the heart, and the heart that stretches may never manifest itself in the body….  

We stretch by reaching toward each other—by reaching out from the solo act into the plural “we,” the pronoun God loves most. Life is long, the feast is wide, and we are meant for keeping it together. Our hearts are a muscle made in the image of God, made for connection. And there are so many ways of being kindred.  

We enact our own advents every time we brave reaching beyond the borders of the self toward each other. Expansion is the anthem of anyone who is “brave enough to break your own heart.” [2] Every time we reach toward each other—considering the risk, compelled by love—we sing its anthem anew….[3]  

Advent is nothing if not the story of beginnings, revealing a God who dares to expand, who chooses enlargement over happiness, no matter the chaos. This season shows us the astonishing view of a God gone radial, one who will never stop reaching toward his beloved, no matter the risks. And so, in the true spirit of Advent, we find our courage to chance. [4]  

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Sarah Young Jesus Calling

Bask in the luxury of being fully understood and unconditionally loved. Dare to see yourself as I see you: radiant in My righteousness, cleansed by My blood. I view you as the one I created you to be, the one you will be in actuality when heaven becomes your home. It is My Life within you that is changing you from glory to glory. Rejoice in this mysterious miracle! Thank Me continually for the amazing gift of My Spirit within you.
     Try to depend on the help of the Spirit as you go through this day of life. Pause briefly from time to time so you can consult with this Holy One inside you. He will not force you to do His bidding, but He will guide you as you give Him space in your life. Walk along this wondrous way of collaboration with My Spirit.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 34:5 (NIV)
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
    their faces are never covered with shame.

2nd Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2nd Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)
18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Minding Positivity

Friday, November 28, 2025

Richard Rohr explores how our brains are wired to hold onto negativity, and how contemplative practice helps us choose positivity instead: 

Brain studies have shown that we may be hardwired to focus on problems at the expense of a positive vision. The human brain wraps around fear and problems like Velcro. We dwell on bad experiences long after the fact and spend vast amounts of energy anticipating what might go wrong in the future. Conversely, positivity and gratitude and simple happiness slide away like cheese on hot Teflon. Studies like the ones done by the neuropsychologist Rick Hanson show that we must consciously hold on to a positive thought or feeling for a minimum of fifteen seconds before it leaves any imprint in the neurons. The whole dynamic, in fact, is called the Velcro/Teflon model of the mind. [1] We are more attracted to the problem than to the solution, you might say. 

Please don’t simply take me at my word. Watch your own brain and emotions. You will quickly see there is a toxic attraction to the “negative,” whether it’s a situation at work, a bit of incriminating gossip you overheard, or a sad development in the life of a friend. True freedom from this tendency is exceedingly rare, since we are ruled by automatic responses most of the time. The only way, then, to increase authentic spirituality is to deliberately practice actually enjoying a positive response and a grateful heart. And the benefits are very real. By following through on conscious choices, we can rewire our responses toward love, trust, and patience. Neuroscience calls this neuroplasticity. This is how we increase our bandwidth of freedom, and it is surely the heartbeat of any authentic spirituality.  

Most of us know that we can’t afford to walk around fearing, hating, dismissing, and denying all possible threats and all otherness. But few of us were given practical teaching in how to avoid this. It’s interesting that Jesus emphasized the absolute centrality of inner motivation and intention more than outer behavior, spending almost half of the Sermon on the Mount on this subject (see Matthew 5:20–6:18). We must—yes, must—make a daily and even hourly choice to focus on the good, the true, and the beautiful. A wonderful description of this act of the will is found in Philippians 4:4–9, where Paul writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always” [italics added]. If you’re tempted to write this off as idyllic “positive thinking,” remember that Paul wrote this letter while literally in chains (1:12–13). How did he pull this off? You might call it “mind control.” Many of us just call it “contemplation.”  

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John Chaffee 5 On Friday

1.

“People forget facts, but they remember stories.”

– Joseph Campbell, American Mythologist

This may be why the scientific era is not that inspiring.  Sure, the impetus to explore and discover is, in its own way, inspiring, but there is something about narrative that is better at shaping and informing our moral compass than scientific facts.

If you have ever seen the movie Interstellar, you know it has impressive science displayed in a cinematic fashion.  However, the emotional tone of that movie and its emphasis on family, loneliness, grief, sacrifice, and hope are what drive the story and make the protagonist the “hero.”

2.

“The love of God is a reckless, raging fury.”

– Brennan Manning, Former Franciscan

This week, I began journaling through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.  During one of the journaling sessions, something triggered my memory of how Brennan Manning (inspired by GK Chesterton) would write and talk about the “furious love of God.”  In turn, Rich Mullins wrote a short song on the same topic.

In fact, here is the Rich Mullins song, in a YouTube format!

3.

“Holiness is goodness on fire.”

– Walter Rauschenbusch, Baptist Minister

I never heard of Walter Rauschenbusch before two weeks ago.  He was a Baptist minister in Rochester, NY, and his work helped to inform/inspire Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others.  He was pretty active in social activism, which was impressive at the end of the 19th century.

One of the impressive markers of Raushenbusch’s theology was his connection between the private sins we commit and the social or collective sins that are often overlooked.  For him, it is a betrayal of the ethics of Christianity and of Christ to preach about the personal virtues of individuals without calling the larger society to more and more virtues as well.

If you ask me, one of the marks of a prophet is not that they decry the individual sins of people, but can see through the rationalizations and defense mechanisms and name for the rest of us the social sins toward which we give a blind eye.

4.

“God expects more failure from us than we do.”

– Unknown

Dang.

Let’s all sit back and dwell on that, huh?

5.

“Truly, He taught us to love one another;
His law is love, and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
and in His name all oppression shall cease.“

– Verse 3 of O Holy Night

As I mentioned above, O Holy Night is one of my favorite hymns of all time.  One thing that impresses me is how it connects the Incarnation with the liberation of slaves.  I am sure many people know this third verse, but I also believe many perhaps sing it without realizing that, when this hymn was written, it was a protest song that included this verse.

Could you take a moment and reread the verse?

It was written in 1843.

The 13th Amendment, which ended slavery, was passed in Congress in 1865.

That means this hymn was sung for 22 years while slavery was still “legal” in America.

This is quite inspiring.  It also leads me to wonder what other social ills we are committing today that fly in the face of the Incarnation…

A Practice of Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 27, 2025

Thanksgiving Day (U.S.) 

Gratitude is strongest, clearest, most robust, and radical when things are really hard. 
—Diana Butler Bass, Grateful

During a time of crisis, historian and author Diana Butler Bass shares an experience of committing to a practice of gratitude:  

I did the only thing I could think of doing—simply saying “thanks” as I went through the day. I woke up with a brief prayer: “Thank you that I am alive.” I got coffee and breakfast: “Thank you for this food, this day.” I looked out the window: “Thank you for sunshine.” I went into my office: “Thank you for words, for work.”…  

Even when it comes to thankfulness, sometimes you have to take what you can get. I took nothing for granted…. Over the weeks, with my hapless prayers, I discovered something quite unexpected: gratitude, like interest, compounds. This simple form of giving thanks made me pay attention and start looking for particular reasons to be grateful. There would always be grounds for ingratitude. Always. Seeking out the small things for which I could give thanks, however, changed my field of spiritual and emotional vision. I learned not to focus on what was lacking….  

Gratitude is not a form of passive acceptance or complicity. Rather, it is the capacity to stare doubt, loss, chaos, and despair right in the eye and say, “I am still here.”  

Butler Bass describes how a practice of gratitude empowers and enlivens us: 

Gratitude is defiance of sorts, the defiance of kindness in the face of anger, of connection in the face of division, and of hope in the face of fear. Gratefulness does not acquiesce to evil—it resists evil … by tunneling under its foundations of anger, resentment, and greed. Thus, gratitude strengthens our character and moral resolve, giving each of us the possibility of living peaceably and justly. It untwists knotted hearts, waking us to a new sense of who we are as individuals and in community. Being thankful is the very essence of what it means to be alive, and to know that life abundantly.  

Gratitude is not a psychological or political panacea, like a secular prosperity gospel, one that denies pain or overlooks injustice, because being grateful does not “fix” anything. Pain, suffering, and injustice—these things are all real. They do not go away. Gratitude, however, invalidates the false narrative that these things are the sum total of human existence, that despair is the last word. Gratitude gives us a new story. It opens our eyes to see that every life is, in unique and dignified ways, graced: the lives of the poor, the castoffs, the sick, the jailed, the exiles, the abused, the forgotten as well as those in more comfortable physical circumstances. Your life. My life. We all share in the ultimate gift—life itself. Together. Right now….  

Gratitude calls us to sit together, to imagine the world as a table of hospitality. To feed one another. To feast, to dance in the streets. To know and celebrate abundance. 

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Diana Butler Bass……

Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV).

Friend to Friend

Thanksgiving is here and so I’ve been thinking about gratitude a lot lately. What is it? When should we show it? What does God say about it?

Paul wrote the Thessalonians, “Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Most read that verse and think it rather nice. So we slap a sloppy coat of thanksgiving on life and go about our day. In reality, most of us are thankful for very little.

Notice the Bible doesn’t command us to feel thankful in all circumstances. Instead it commands us to “give thanks in all circumstances.” When I begin to praise God in a difficult situation, even if I don’t feel like it, many times the scales fall from my eyes and I begin to see glimpses of His glory sprinkled on the black backdrop of the situation like diamonds on black velvet.

Sometimes I don’t see glory in tragedy, but I still can praise God because I know He is there.

Gratitude changes the lens through which we see the circumstances in our little slice of time. Thanksgiving changes our perspective despite broken dreams, broken relationships, tumultuous circumstances, and unfulfilled longings.

As you praise God for who He is and thank Him for what He’s done, your perspective of Him grows larger and your problems grow smaller. As a result, you will experience a deeper sense of intimacy with God as the emotional gap between what you know to be true and how you feel at the moment closes.

Theologian Christine D. Pohl describes how gratitude impacts our relationships with others: 

When our lives are shaped by gratitude, we’re more likely to notice the goodness and beauty in everyday things. We are content; we feel blessed and are eager to confer blessing. We are able to delight in the very existence of another human being. In a grateful community, individuals and their contributions are acknowledged and honored, and there is regular testimony to God’s faithfulness, through which the community experiences the joys of its members. Expressions of gratitude help make the community alive to the Word, the Spirit, and God’s work.   

Such a community is “a beautiful land” whose culture is grace and whose inhabitants see life as a gift. In this land, we often find abundant forgiveness and frequent celebrations. While we might assume that individuals and communities grow toward holiness and goodness primarily through the hard work of discipline, correction, and challenge, we tend to underestimate the importance of grace. The emphasis on loving God and loving neighbor … is most fruitful as it is rooted in a deep understanding of God’s prior love for us.   

Pohl shares how a small Christian inter-racial community in Mississippi was able to find grace and gratitude for one another in the midst of conflict:  

During a time of crisis in their community, a friend from the outside explained to them, “The way you grow into God’s love isn’t by making demands of each other…. You do it by giving each other grace.” Grace expressed as love “when it didn’t seem fair, or reasonable,” and “when others were being complete jerks.”   

Their wise advisor continued,   

The truth is, we can’t stand the idea of not fixing each other. But insofar as we can fix people at all, we can do it only by forgiving them, and giving them grace, and leaving them to our loving Father. Grace assumes sin. When we ask you to accept each other, we aren’t asking you to ignore hurts between you. People of grace speak the truth. But in an atmosphere of grace, truth seems less offensive and more important…. 

[A church leader] describes the community’s delight when it was introduced to the recipe for a “new culture of grace.” The ingredients for life in community were surprisingly simple: “It is enough to get the love of God into your bones and to live as if you are forgiven. It is enough to care for each other, to forgive each other, and to wash the dishes.”  

When we more fully understand the grace we’ve received, we are able to turn outward in gratitude and generosity. Gratitude becomes “our home in the presence of God,” or, in Henri Nouwen’s words, an “intimate participation in the Divine Life itself” that “reaches out far beyond our own self to God, to all of creation, to the people who gave us life, love, and care.”

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NOV 26, 2025 Seeing Beyond “Me and God”

Can I have a relationship with God without going to church? Church leaders want people to believe that church participation is essential and that committing to a local congregation is part of one’s Christian duty. On the other hand, the American church—perhaps more than any other—has emphasized having a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” The notion that it’s just “me and God” fits our romantic notions of rugged individualism. Our culture champions the independent spirit of the explorer, the cowboy, the pioneer, and the entrepreneur. So, it makes sense that in the religious realm, American culture would also emphasize the individual’s connection to God. Some biblical characters appear to fit this pattern of “me and God.” Think of Moses facing down the power of Egypt, or David defying the might of Goliath and the Philistine army. Daniel stands his ground repeatedly while exiled in Babylon, and eventually gets thrown to the lions as a result. Each of these stories fits our cultural narrative of a heroic individual whose faith compels him to defy both the odds and popular opinion. But a closer inspection of Scripture may reveal the “me and God” framework is one we’ve imposed on the text rather than one we’ve learned from the text.A closer look at Daniel’s faith, for example, reveals an important challenge to our assumptions about having a “personal relationship” with God. Daniel is a very unusual character in the Bible. He is one of the very few heroes with a blemish-free record. Nearly every Old Testament figure (Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, etc.) failed in a significant way or sinned dramatically against God. But not Daniel. I’m not saying Daniel never sinned, only that it’s never recorded in Scripture. He seems to epitomize the rugged, righteous, individual faith our culture esteems. That’s why his prayer, recorded in Daniel 9, is so remarkable. Notice the pronouns he uses: “O Lord, the great and awesome God…wehave sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled…wehave not listened…to us belongs open shame…because we have sinned against you….”.Daniel’s prayer is accurate—God’s people were guilty of sin, but there is no evidence that Daniel himself ever participated in their wickedness. So, why does he include himself in their guilt? It’s because Daniel recognized a facet of relating to God that we often overlook. While we have a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” we also have a collective relationship with him. It’s not just “me and God,” it’s also “us and God.” Belonging to Christ also means belonging to his people. Sharing in his glory also means sharing in their guilt. Calling God our Father also means calling those within the church our sisters and brothers. The testimony of the Bible is clear that Jesus is not merely reconciling separate individuals but a people to God. DAILY SCRIPTURE DANIEL 9:4-8 1 CORINTHIANS 12:14-16 WEEKLY PRAYER. From William Laud (1573 – 1645) Most gracious Father, we most humbly beseech you for your holy church. Fill it with all truth; in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where anything is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen and confirm it; where it is in need, furnish it; where it is divided and torn apart, make up its breaches, O holy One of Israel. Amen.

In All Circumstances

Brian McLaren highlights how gratefulness is a recurring theme in the Gospels: 

Jesus makes it clear that a life lived to fulfill God’s dream for creation will involve suffering. But even here, Jesus implies that there is reason for gratitude. You see it in the Beatitudes, Jesus’s eightfold way of happiness (Matthew 5:3–12). There is a blessing in poverty, he says; to the degree you miss out on the never-enough system, you partake of God’s dream. There is a blessing in the pain of loss, because in your grief you experience God’s comfort. There is blessing in being unsatisfied about the injustice in our world, he says; as God’s justice comes more and more, you will feel more and more fulfilled…. 

With these counterintuitive sayings and others like them, Jesus enrolls us in advanced classes in the school of gratitude. He shows us the disadvantages of advantages, and the advantages of disadvantages. He will make this paradox most dramatic through his own death; his suffering and crucifixion will eventually bring hope and freedom to all humanity, hope and freedom that could come no other way. Here is the deepest lesson of gratitude, then. We are to be grateful not just in the good times, but also in the bad times; to be grateful not just in plenty, but also in need; to maintain thankfulness not just in laughter, but also through tears and sorrow. One of Jesus’s followers says that we should even rejoice in trials, because through trials come patience, character, wisdom (James 1:2–3). And another says, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have” (Philippians 4:11), so he can instruct, “Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). 

The words “in all circumstances” shouldn’t be confused with “for all circumstances,” of course. But neither should they be thinned to mean “in easy circumstances.” Even in pain, we can find a place of gratitude, a place where alongside the agony of loss we still count and appreciate what remains…. 

You may lose a loved one, or facet after facet of your physical health, but you can still be grateful for what you have left. And what if you lose more, and more, and more, if bad goes to worse? Perhaps at some point, all of us are reduced to despair, but my hunch is—and I hope I never need to prove this in my own life, but I may, any of us may—having lost everything, one may still be able to hold on to one’s attitude, one’s practiced habit of gratitude, of turning to God in Job-like agony and saying, “For this breath, thanks. For this tear, thanks. For this memory of something I used to enjoy  but have now lost, thanks. For this ability not simply to rage over what has been taken, but to celebrate what was once given, thanks.” 

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Unity vs. Uniformity. Skye Jethani

Where God’s Spirit is present, you will find a community that transcends differences. People will be bound to each other in a way that makes no earthly sense. The ordinary bonds of unity, like culture, politics, class, or ethnicity, will be insufficient to explain what connects the people of Christ. In his church, enemies will be friends, divisions will be mended, hatreds will be healed, and offenses will be overcome. Where God’s Spirit is not present, however, a “Christian” community will accept a counterfeit kind of connection; a perception of unity that comes by forcibly eliminating all differences. What human efforts produce is mere uniformity where external behaviors, appearances, and preferences do not deviate. In such communities, everyone thinks the same, speaks the same, prefers the same music, and pursues the same goals. In other words, human power alone can produce a community that would probably exist even without the supernatural presence of God’s Spirit, and it may even be an effective organization—but it would not be a church. As A.W. Tozer said, “One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.”A few years ago, I was passing through Frankfurt Airport in Germany. In the middle of the terminals were large glass boxes, about eight feet square, with a door. Above each box was a sign that said, “CAMEL.” They were smoking chambers sponsored by Camel cigarettes. Smokers were crammed inside like animals in a zoo exhibit, while other travelers stopped, pointed, and even took pictures of the strange humans on display in the smoke-filled habitats.A church built on human uniformity rather than the Spirit’s unity is like those smoking chambers. At first glance, these churches appear to be a tight community of people all committed to the same activity. Look more closely, however, and churches without the Spirit’s power are just a group of strangers who gather occasionally in a box, blow smoke at each other, and appear very odd to those on the outside.When the Spirit builds a church, on the other hand, it is possible to experience far more than just uniformity. The Spirit fosters a unity that rests far deeper than conformity to social, cultural, and behavioral preferences. It’s a oneness rooted in communion with Jesus himself. Again, A.W. Tozer captures the truth well:“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.” DAILY SCRIPTURE EPHESIANS 4:1-6 JOHN 17:20-23 WEEKLY PRAYER From William Laud (1573 – 1645) Most gracious Father, we most humbly beseech you for your holy church. Fill it with all truth; in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where anything is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen and confirm it; where it is in need, furnish it; where it is divided and torn apart, make up its breaches, O holy One of Israel. Amen.