"It’s not you who should solve my problems, God,

but I yours, God of the asylum-seekers.

It’s not you who should feed the hungry,

but I who should protect your children

from the terror of the banks and armies.

It’s not you who should make room for the refugees,

but I who should receive you,

hardly hidden God of the desolate.

You dreamed me, God,

Practicing walking upright

and learning to kneel down,

more beautiful that I am now,

happier than I dare to be,

freer than our country allows.

Don’t stop dreaming me, God.

I don’t want to stop remembering

that I am your tree,

planted by the streams

of living water."

--Dorothee Soelle

"The only thing people regret is that they didn’t live boldly enough, that they didn’t invest enough heart, didn’t love enough."  --Ted Hughes

God Needs Me as Much as I Need God

It might sound strange, but God wants to find me as much as, if not more than, I want to find God. Yes, God needs me as much as I need God. God is not the patriarch who stays home, doesn’t move, and expects his children to come to him, apologize for their aberrant behavior, beg for forgiveness, and promise to do better. To the contrary, he leaves the house, ignoring his dignity by running toward them, pays no heed to apologies and promises of change, and brings them to the table richly prepared for them.

I am beginning to now see how radically the character of my spiritual journey will change when I no longer think of God as hiding out and making it as difficult as possible for me to find him, but, instead, as the One who is looking for me while I am doing the hiding.

--Henri Nouwen

God is a Compassionate God

"The truly good news is that God is not a distant God, a God to be feared and avoided, a God of revenge, but a God who is moved by our pains and participates in the fullness of the human struggle. . . . God is a compassionate God. This means, first of all, that God is a God who has chosen to be God-with-us. . . . As soon as we call God “God-with-us,” we enter into a new relationship of intimacy with him. By calling God Emmanuel, we recognize God’s commitment to live in solidarity with us, to share our joys and pains, to defend and protect us, and to suffer all of life with us. The God-with-us is a close God, a God whom we call our refuge, our stronghold, our wisdom, and even, more intimately, our helper, our shepherd, our love. We will never really know God as a compassionate God if we do not understand with our heart and mind that “the Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14)."  --Henri Nouwen

“That's the thing with time, isn't it? It's not all the same. Some days - some years - some decades - are empty. There is nothing to them. It's just flat water. And then you come across a year, or even a day, or an afternoon. And it is everything. It is the whole thing.”  --Matt Haig, How to Stop Time

"Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence."  --Lin Yutang

"Openness may not completely disarm prejudice, but it’s a good place to start."  --Jason Collins