My Commonplace Book

May God bless you with discomfort
at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships
so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people
so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears
to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and [...]

Throughout history, an authentic faith has been marked by a compassionate response toward those the world tends to forget.–Gary Thomas

Lynne Hybels spoke yesterday about engagement in the biggest issues of the world. She made the following points, which apply to giving leadership to all kinds of cultural change.
We must:
1. Be willing to start small. Just start somewhere, somehow. But be sure and start.
Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.
Boldness has [...]

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. — Martin Luther King, Jr
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I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. — Mother Teresa

The night before Martin Luther King Jr was murdered, he told the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10 to a group of people gathered in Memphis to take on the continued fight for civil rights. When he finished, he told them he knew why those first two people, good holy people [...]

During his presidency, Abraham Lincoln often visited the Union and Confederate wounded who filled the Civil War hospitals near the White House. Father Abraham, as he became know to Union troops, would stroll through the amputee wards and visit with the most severely wounded. (In contrast, Jefferson Davis rarely visited hospitals in Richmond–too [...]