Some things to smile on, some things to think on

 

"I took this photo at Longwood Gardens during the big tulip bloom. I loved watching the woman in front of me with her daughter and felt moved to quickly snap a photo. What I didn’t realize until I pulled the image off my camera was that coming toward us was a daughter pushing her mother in a wheelchair. It was like these two end points on a continuum were heading toward each other, ready to cross in the middle. We are loved when we are carried, and loved when we are the carriers."
Credit: Emilie Kleiner/Daily Dose of Kindness

"Stand firm against the forces of fear..."

"Stand firm against the forces of fear. Don’t give in to them for what they offer has no more substance than the shadows from which they are made. Fear seeks to lure you from the solid ground of wisdom and tempts you to get lost in the empty spaces of the human heart. Empty of love. Empty of hope. Stand firm so the bond between us may remain strong, a wall of light against the darkness. Let the calm resolve of our prayers work the mystery of transformation: a balanced center where fear like waves breaks against the rocks and disappears like spray into the brightening air."
---The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, Native American/Indigenous Ministries of the Episcopal Church

 

The (Not So) Great Replacement

 

Why I am, or try to be, a Universalist...

 Why I am, or try to be, a Universalist:

It does not seem logical or scriptural that God demands fear instead of love and that fear creates love or leads to love. A loving God would not condemn anyone to an eternal hell be or expect obedience and love as a means of escaping hell. If hell is distance from God and some form of punishment, we experience that here---but we can also experience something of heaven. Is hell as strong or as enduring as God? No, it can't be---and so it cannot be eternal and in an eternal conflict with God. Which is stronger, love or fear?  Love is, and so God has the victory. There can be no tied contest between God and hell or love and fear. We pray that the Holy Spirit is "everywhere present and fills all things," meaning that the Holy Spirit would be present even in an eternal hell if it existed. God's love will not abandon us even in hell. When Christ cried on the cross “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” was He not speaking for all people for all time, and would God not hear His prayer?

Between now and the time of our passing our job is to love and serve others, being as human as we can be within God's abiding image, and let God be God and leave divine judgement to God.  

"I know a great many people are feeling anxious these days..."

"I know a great many people are feeling anxious these days. A sense of dread that is hard to describe has descended over them. The hours of the day weigh heavy upon them. They feel we are losing a way of life and are not sure how to regain it. I am not afraid to name this fear for it is against fear that I come bearing the common sense hope of my faith. We are not going to lose anything that we are not willing to give up. We stand to proclaim the strength of justice. We are united and we are committed. Fear is a shadow. The cause of the Spirit is the morning sun."---The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston--Native American/Indigenous Ministries of the Episcopal Church

Do not be afraid...

 

On Fear, Faith, Love, & Hope...

 

God's Love...