I knew there was only one place to go. I sank down into the center of my soul, grew still, and listened to the Rabbi's heartbeat.

The noonday devil of the Christian life is the temptation to lose the inner self while preserving the shell of edifying behavior. Suddenly I discover that I am ministering to AIDS victims to enhance my resume. I find I renounced ice cream for Lent to lose five excess pounds... I have fallen victim to what T.S. Eliot calls the greatest sin: to do the right thing for the wrong reason.

God loves us as we are...not as we ought to be. because we are never going to be as we ought to be." --Brennan Manning

One of my realizations in such an earthy atmosphere was that many of the burning theological issues in the church were neither burning nor theological.

Faithfulness requires the courage to risk everything on Jesus, the willingness to keep growing, and the readiness to risk failure throughout our lives.

I asked for wonder, and He gave it to me.

The ancient spiritual tradition is that God gives himself fully to us in silence and solitude.