kindred spirit

Today, my friend, Megan, asked if I'd ever read The Sarcastic Lutheran. I said no, but sheerly based on that title I could not wait to check her out. I think I would love to be stuck in an elevator with Nadia. That's my litmus test for kindred spirits. In heaven, I hope we'll hang out.

Sometimes the Kingdom of Heaven happens between the Arby's and the Orange Julius like here in this video. -Nadia Bolz-Weber

hunger

yesterday i went to a coffee at my church for women interested in spiritual mentoring. the first hour was logistics, the second brief introductions. there were almost 40 of us. tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got here, what you are looking for. what i heard over and over was hunger - a longing to be listened to, loved, companioned, cared for, met. i am convinced that this is a universal impulse. tonight i met with a few women to match mentors and mentees up. it felt like we were putting the world back together.

What we hunger for perhaps more than anything else is to be known in our full humanness, and yet that is often just what we also fear more than anything else. It is important to tell at least from time to time the secret of who we truly and fully are . . . because otherwise we run the risk of losing track of who we truly and fully are and little by little come to accept instead the highly edited version which we put forth in hope that the world will find it more acceptable than the real thing. It is important to tell our secrets too because it makes it easier . . . for other people to tell us a secret or two of their own . . .

― Frederick Buechner, Telling Secrets

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you. There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.

― Frederick Buechner

The story of any one of us is in some measure the story of us all.

― Frederick Buechner

thank you, anne

“Are you born again?" he asked, as we taxied down the runway. He was rather prim and tense, maybe a little like David Eisenhower with a spastic colon. I did not know how to answer for a moment. "Yes," I said. "I am." My friends like to tell each other that I am not really a born-again Christian. They think of me more along the lines of that old Jonathan Miller routine, where he said, "I'm not really a Jew -- I'm Jew-ish." They think I am Christian-ish. But I'm not. I'm just a bad Christian. A bad born-again Christian. And certainly, like the apostle Peter, I am capable of denying it, of presenting myself as a sort of leftist liberation-theology enthusiast and maybe sort of a vaguely Jesusy bon vivant. But it's not true. And I believe that when you get on a plane, if you start lying you are totally doomed.

So I told the truth; that I am a believer, a convert. I'm probably about three months away from slapping an aluminum Jesus-fish on the back of my car, although I first want to see if the application or stickum in any way interferes with my lease agreement. And believe me, all this boggles even *my* mind. But it's true. I could go to a gathering of foot-wash Baptists and, except for my dreadlocks, fit right in. I would wash their feet; I would let them wash mine.”
― Anne Lamott

“I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.”
― Anne Lamott

“You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
― Anne Lamott

I've been sick for 34 days straight. This weekend I stayed in and read quotes by Anne Lamott, my favorite author. Thanks to her, I had a great friday night. If you are sick or bored or need to laugh, you can read all 281 quotes that I read here. Or buy one of her books. I like all of them.