“Bless the world with your mind, heal the world with your heart, lift the world with your soul; elevate the world with your life.” Matshona Dhliwayo

Focus: “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”                                     – Isaiah 40:31

Focus: “There it is-Happiness.  Here it comes, closer and closer. I can hear its footsteps. And if we never see it or know it, well, that’s all right too.  Others will.”                                                  Anton Checkov 

Focus:  “What we could not fathom doing when we were young, we find great joy in when we are old. Like the seasons through which we move, life itself is a never-ending series of harvests, a different fruit for every time.”                                                           Sister Joan Chittister

Focus: But listen to me    For one moment quit being sad.
Hear blessings dropping their blossoms all around you.            Rumi

Focus:  I will bless the Lord at all times; God’s praise will always be in my mouth.                                                                   — Psalm 34:1

Focus:  ‘The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams’                                                     — Eleanor Roosevelt

Focus: It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad. It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of today. –Robert Hastings

The Community Gathers:  Experience God’s presence in the assembly. Please greet one another with joy and welcome new friends into our community of love.

“To know the Creator we need only to look at the things He created, ‘through the letters of scripture and the species of creation.”                                                                           John Philip Newell

The Community Gathers:  Experience God’s presence in the assembly. Please greet one another with joy and welcome new friends into our community of love.

Focus:  “We are one, after all, you and I; together we suffer, together exist, and forever will recreate each other.”

Focus: “The place of true healing is a fierce place. It’s a giant place. It’s a place of monstrous beauty and endless dark and glimmering light. And you have to work really, really, really hard to get there, but you can do it.” – Cheryl Strayed

Focus:; “At the end of our lives, love will be our judge.” Saint John of the Cross

Focus:  Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy…As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.                                      Isaiah 66

Focus:  “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ― Lao Tzu

The Community Gathers:  Experience God’s presence in the assembly. Please greet one another with joy and welcome new friends into our community of love.  

Focus:”Easter means hope prevails over despair. Jesus reigns as Lord of Lords and King of Kings…Easter says to us that despite everything to the contrary, his will for us will prevail, love will prevail over hate, justice over injustice and oppression, peace over exploitation and bitterness.”                                 Desmond Tutu                      

Welcome:  We stand at the precipice of Lent and Holy Week. This day moves from shouting and praising to a time of crying and lament.

Hope does not just spring from the fact that there is light at the end of life’s tunnels, but from the fact that we do not have to crawl through. Ant Clemons

Each week of this Lent Season, we are focusing on ways that we can practice a counter-cultural theology that emphasizes the beauty and grace of the reality of life-right-now rather than waiting with increasing judgment to reach some vision of a perfected existence.  Our ladder -climbing efforts sometimes end up taking us down a rung or two as things don’t turn out just right.  And so let us continue to nurture our souls and embrace our holy “good enough” lives.

As we continue our look at what it means to release oppressive expectations about perfection in our lives and in our faith, this week we turn to a harmful idea that the prescription for our fear of failure is to simply work harder. This Lent, we are taking some time to slow down, to tend our souls gently and lovingly, tilling the soil and fertilizer, and embracing our holy, “good enough,” lives.