- to be known for who I am
- to laugh without hesitancy and cry without shame
- to love without selfishness
- to embrace pleasure and suffering with equal courage
- to know someone very different than I am and not feel the need to compare or judge
- to be needed by someone and know I make a difference in their lives
- to be truthful and confident
- to be loved even when I am unlovely
- to give good gifts of lasting value
- to be with people and not afraid of rejection
- to be alone and not lonely
- to be special and know it
- to explore and be explored
- to be held close
The Hebrew word "YHWH" (read from right to left) This past Sunday I gave a talk on the Names of God, the beginning of a series on this topic. This first talk was to be a gentle introduction so I thought it wouldn't take too many hours of preparation. Well, I quickly discovered that the research is almost bottomless; every time I thought I had a somewhat definitive list of names, I found another source which added a few more or gave a different twist on some of the names I had already come across. After several hours I was getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data (and that was only looking at the Hebrew Bible). I wondered how I could present this to people in an orderly and accessible fashion and within a reasonable time frame. Not everyone is up for a 3-hour lecture crammed full of detail on a Sunday morning. So I took a break and spent a bit of time meditating on this problem and asking the Spirit for guidance. And then I thought that being overwhelmed by Go...
Comments