Tag Archives: abundance

GOP tax plan: test failed

Was just talking about the difference between the Roosevelts and people like William Randolph Hearst. The Roosevelts used their wealth to make the world a better place, as opposed to building a big mansion and filling it with European art.

Maybe this should be the test of tax reform as well…just a thought. From all I’ve seen, the Republican Tax Bill does just the opposite.

We really don’t need to”help” our already profitable corporations and the wealthiest of the wealthy in our country. This tax plan doesn’t move us forward as a nation. It rewards the rich and ignores those needing help the most.

The Republican tax plan doesn’t make our country great, and it has nothing to do with progress. It is simply another demonstration of those in power paying back their wealthy backers. It is shameful at best, and morally repugnant to the core.

living on the edge

I believe the entire universe was created for our joy. Yet, most of us live lives of fear and insecurity, preferring the cramped confines of our little boxes to the freedom of the unknown.

Life in all its fullness will never be found in a box.  Only when we have the courage and the audacity to escape the rigid prisons of our own design will we finally experience the glorious freedom for which we were created.

The path to true joy follows the edge. And that path can never be found while in the false comfort of a box, even one made of gold. Jump out of your boxes and into a creation waiting to grant you “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” You won’t regret it.

prayer for a time of hunger

Prayer for a Time of Hunger ~ from Bread for the World,
www.bread.org, 2009

God our sustainer, we ask you to pour your powerful Spirit into
all who are empty this day: Fill the hearts of persons who are
troubled. Fill the minds of men and women who are confused.
Fill the stomachs of your children who are hungry. Fill the souls
of people who are feeling lost. Fill the lives of all who need you,
but do not know you. May your Spirit fill us all to overflowing,
dear Lord, and may we be inspired to share our abundance with
others, so that there will be no more empty hearts and minds,
stomachs and souls. We pray all this in the name of Jesus
Christ, who fills lives with your endless grace. Amen.

 

 

a prayer for resurrection power

O God, this glorious Easter morning the resurrection promises us the inheritance of new life in Jesus Christ. May we live in resurrection power as your abiding grace moves us to ensure that the full abundance of your creation is used to conquer  hunger and poverty in our world as surely as you have conquered sin, death and the grave..  Amen

help us walk more lightly

Most gracious and loving Creator, how thankful we are this day for all your blessings. We confess that far too often we live in a way that doesn’t demonstrate our gratitude for your goodness and your mercy. We are not as good stewards of your perfectly created world as we would like to be. We are wasteful of the gifts you have given us and take the beauty that surrounds us for granted. Forgive us.

Help us to be better stewards of all you have entrusted into our care. Grant us the insight to understand how closely we are connected to each other and all living things, and then grant us the wisdom and the grace necessary to live accordingly. Help us to walk more lightly on the earth that sustains us, and help us to share the abundant resources to have given us with all those most in need. And in all our endeavors, both great and small, grant that all we do brings you both glory and praise. Amen

the agony of a single biscuit

If you have never been hungry, you cannot know the either/or agony created by a single biscuit — either your brother gets it or you do. And if you do eat it, you know in your bones that you have stolen the food straight from his mouth….This was the daily, debilitating side of poverty,…the perpetual scarcity that…makes the simplest act a moral dilemma. — Charles Johnson

In a world created perfectly there is an abundance of nutritious food, far more than needed to feed all. Our moral crisis (our spiritual crisis) is that we not only eat all we want and more, we allow the rest to rot rather than offer our brothers and sisters a single biscuit. And yet, we still have the arrogance to dare profess that we love God?