To forgive we begin by forgiving ourselves, allowing ourselves to be hurt. In Christ’s love we receive the hurt without needing to pass it on. This is the love that changes the world.
As followers of Jesus we’re students: continually learning and growing. What we’re learning is not information but a way of living, and the only way to learn it is in community. Christ’s living presence leads us, in our relationships.
Bearing the cross doesn’t mean being miserable; it means being willing to suffer for the sake of love and justice. Being born of love, it makes us joyful, not miserable, and it joins us with Jesus.
Like Jacob wrestling with the angel, we have to be brought to the limit of our powers to know and trust God’s. when we do, there is always deep blessing.
What does it mean that we are “children of God?” Maybe that we are born of God’s love, dependent on God, full of wonder. Maybe that we are just beginning, always growing. Maybe it means we are all siblings, and we belong to each other. I wonder…