Simplistic

What if?

Making Minds

Width of Life

Inspired

All We Need to Know

"The only thing that Jesus ever wrote was written in dust so that it would blow away... because Jesus IS what God has to say." - Brian Zahnd

And This is How We Should Do It!!

In this African tribe, when someone does something harmful, they take the person to the center of the village where the whole tribe comes and surrounds them. 

For two days, they will say to the man all the good things that he has done.

The tribe believes that each human being comes into the world as a good. Each one of us only desiring safety, love, peace and happiness.

But sometimes, in the pursuit of these things, people make mistakes.

The community sees those mistakes as a cry for help.

They unite then to lift him, to reconnect him with his true nature, to remind him who he really is, until he fully remembers the truth of which he had been temporarily disconnected: "I am good."

Shikoba Nabajyotisaikia!

NABAJYOTISAIKIA, is a compliment used in South Africa and means: "I respect you, I cherish you. You matter to me." In response, people say SHIKOBA, which is: "So, I exist for you."

Choice

Beyond God's Grace?

People that condemn certain people to be beyond God's redemptive power and grace... must have no understanding of God's redemptive power and grace. - Eugene Cho

Justice

It is a shame and a sign of ill spiritual health when a society reduces the word justice into a simple synonym for punishment. - Brad Jersak

Who Are We?

"It can be argued that rapists deserve to be raped, that mutilators deserve to be mutilated. Most societies, however, refrain from responding in this way because the punishment is not only degrading to those on whom it is imposed, but it is also degrading to the society that engages in the same behavior as the criminals." 

Truth

Wholeness

 People experience salvation when they follow the Way, teachings, and example of Jesus - even if they've never heard of Jesus. If people are forgiving others, extending radical hospitality, loving unconditionally, offering mercy, and pursuing reconciliation and restorative justice, they *are* following Jesus' way and experience salvation/wholeness. - Roger Wolsey

Worthy?

Joy is Chosen

Joy is what makes life worth living, but for many joy seems hard to find. They complain that their lives are sorrowful and depressing. What then brings the joy we so much desire? Are some people just lucky, while others have run out of luck? Strange as it may sound, we can choose joy. Two people can be part of the same event, but one may choose to live it quite differently than the other. One may choose to trust that what happened, painful as it may be, holds a promise. The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it.

What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice.

- Henri Nouwen

And I no longer saw people as sinners in need of fixing, but rather reflections of God shining back at me. What can I learn from them? That homeless man is Jesus; how can I show him compassion? That single mother with four young children waiting for the bus—that’s Jesus; what can I do to honor the reflection of Jesus I see in her. The elderly woman walking with a walker in the store and slowing down the line at the check-out… that’s Jesus too. What does she need?--unknown

Grief

"Grief is that uneasy perch where the heart is forced to rest with no escape, no bridge, no door. Just one way through--time. Rooted in pain but winged on hope. There is a rising." Rev. Liz Walker