If

"If you can tell me why some should not be loved, you can in the same breath tell me why you cannot be a Christian." -Brian Zahnd

My religion

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.
Abraham Lincoln

By their fruits?

"The one and only test of a valid religious idea, doctrinal statement, spiritual experience, or devotional practice was that it must lead directly to practical compassion. If your understanding of the divine made you kinder, more empathetic, and impelled you to express this sympathy in concrete acts of loving-kindness, this was good theology. But if your notion of God made you unkind, belligerent, cruel, or self-righteous, or if it led you to kill in God's name, it was bad theology."

Karen Armstrong, from "The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness"

For some reason---

"For some reason,the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. 'Blessed are the merciful' in a courtroom? 'Blessed are the peacemakers' in the Pentagon? Give me a break!" - Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

Realization

"What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner." --Colette

Toughen our children?

It's not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It's our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless. -L. R. Knost

Love

You need Power, only when you want to do something harmful. Otherwise love is enough to get everything done. -Charlie Chaplin

Power

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
― Leo Buscaglia

The Lap of God

She was shelling peas,
apron-covered knees
spread wide to catch
each pea/each pod

I, shaky, needy
wandered near

Her ancient swollen hands
pushed back the hair
that hid my face

She set down the pan
and, patting her knee,
said:

oh, child,
come on up here
and let me have a look at you.

Her voice was safe and so was I
sitting in the lap of God.

-Martha Popson

Church's Future

"Our faithfulness will depend on our willingness to go where there is brokenness, loneliness, and human need. If the church has a future it is a future with the poor in whatever form." - Henri J.M. Nouwen

Riches

“The bread that you store up belongs to the hungry; the coat that lies in your chest belongs to the naked; the gold that you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor.” - St. Basil

Lamott

As Anne Lamott so brilliantly said, "You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."

work

“I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion…and where it isn’t, that’s where my work lies.” - Ram Dass (via awelltraveledwoman)

Our Children

It is not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It is our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.  -L. R. Knost

Gandhi

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty the ocean does not become dirty. -Gandhi

Frankl

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
― Viktor Frankl

Our goal

“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ....get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Begin each day with a grateful Heart.
~ Abraham Joshua Heschel