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Trying to be a better person by doing it all wrong!

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Jesus loves to tell stories like those of the publican and the Pharisee and the famous one about the prodigal son*, in which one character does his life totally right and is, in fact wrong; and the other who does it totally wrong ends up God's beloved! Now deal with that! Jesus also tells us that there are two groups who are very good at trying to deny or avoid this humiliating surprise: those who are very "rich" and those who are very "religious." We grow spiritually much more by doing it wrong than by doing it right. If there is such a thing as human perfection, it seems to emerge precisely from how we handle the imperfection that is everywhere, especially our own. What a clever place for God to hide holiness, so that only the humble and earnest will find it! A "perfect" person ends up being one who can consciously forgive and include imperfection rather than one who thinks he or she is totally above and beyond imperfection .... the demand for ...
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1st half of life prepares us for 2nd half

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The first-half-of-life task is no more than finding the starting gate. It is merely the warm-up act, not the full journey. It is the raft but not the shore....The further journey usually appears like a seductive invitation to go, perhaps because each of us has to go on this path freely, with all the messy and raw material of our own unique lives. As Desmond Tutu told me [Rohr] on a recent trip to Cape Town, "We are only light bulbs, Richard, and our job is just to remain screwed in!" We need to unlearn a lot, it seems, to get back to that foundational life which is "hidden in God" (Colossians 3:3). Yes, transformation is often more about unlearning than learning, which is why the religious traditions call it "conversion" or "repentance." "...the deepest meaning of "natural law" - We are here to give back fully and freely what was first given to us - but now writ personally - by us! It is probably the most courageous and f...
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