To allow myself to be loved by God in my deepest brokenness is to experience a love that defies human comprehension.

The older I get the less I see spirituality as an accomplishment. It seems to me to be mostly a matter of letting go and being willing to receive the special gifts God desires to give to us in His timing.

To be rooted in love is to look beyond surface appearances to see the inner beauty in others often disfigured by sin.

Christmas is the celebration of the keeping of a promise. A saving promise.

A hunger for beauty is at its heart a hunger for God.

Most incredible, however, are the times we know Christ is with us in the midst of our daily, routine lives. In the middle of cleaning the house or driving somewhere in the pick-up, He stops us. . . in our tracks and makes His presence known. Often it's in the middle of the most mundane task that He lets us know He is there with us. We realize, then, that there can be no "ordinary" moments for people who live their lives with Jesus.

One of the most important lessons the Lord has taught me is that you are not your gift. That is, you are not defined by what you do or create. Jesus is a wonderful example of this. He would not allow the crowd to define Him by His considerable gifts, even though they tried to do so. Jesus always points away from Himself and His gifts and thereby wins praise for the Father. We are not our gifts. We are called to give more. Like Jesus, we are called to give ourselves. That is the real purpose behind our gifts; they are vehicles for giving the self.