JUST BE THERE!! We must think of every human being as 'the walking wounded', but we are not to think of how we must fix them . Our fixing is already underway when we greet a stranger, or show up in a hospital room. But we leave the fixing to God. It is enough to stand there in love. We do not have to do much more than that. God surrounds us with His Presence. God is healing us every moment. And that is where we must be. Present! With people! We greet them. We touch them. We

"Listening is easy. I want to know what to say." Those are the words of a frustrated student exasperated with such a big emphasis on listening in care ministry. Listening is not easy. Can you remember the last time someone really listened to you? It's a deep and memorable experience. It doesn't happen often. Most of us are so conscious of ourselves — our ideas, our answers, our experiences — that instead of listening, we are getting read to tell about them as quickly as we c

God isn't 'practical' about our world, skimping on things that don't pay. He's got mountains and deserts that seem to be a poor idea when he could have made the whole earth flat and fertile like Iowa . He's put sparrows and peacocks into the picture when he might have limited fowl to some plump fryer chickens. They're very practical! However, God knows what we really need. He gives us beauty because 'man' does not live by bread alone. Our deepest selves suffer and dry up some

I don't think that the word meekness is used much in our culture. In our daily conversations, we don't speak of meekness, nor of being meek. Yet, as we come across the word in scripture, I suspect we often have a mistaken concept of what a desirable trait it actually is. Meekness is not weakness. It is not to be identified with niceness, softness, or passiveness. It is not like being timid or shy. It is important that we in no way see meekness as something we can equate with