Revitalize Your Church

 "Half the harm that is done in the world,"  said poet,  T.S. Eliot , "is done  by people who want to feel important. They do not mean to harm. There  are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves."  I've discovered that most of the time, people mean well. Even when  they speak or behave in troubling ways that makes us wonder -- they  mean well.   It's best to give the benefit of the doubt whenever possible.  Yet, at the same time, it is also beneficial to examine our own motives, and try to understand more deeply how our behavior effects others.  Sometimes, winning the argument loses the fight. A marriage counselor once asked a distraught husband,  "Do you want to be happy, or do you want to be right?"  After a frustrating conversation one day, I thought, "What he said spoke so loud, I couldn't understand a word  he meant!"  Perhaps, the best path is mapped out by  St. Francis...

Cardinal John Henry Newman, who will be canonized on October 13, wrote the beautiful and haunting hymn, "Lead Kindly Light" when he was kept far from home due to an unexpected illness and transportation issues. It has been a source of comfort to many, including soldiers in the trenches of World War 1, Betsy Ten Boom (Corrie's sister) in the Nazi concentration camp. and a group of 26 frightened miners who were trapped underground in the 1909 Stanley Pit disaster, where 168 men and boys died in an explosion of poisonous gas. Perhaps it will be a comfort to you in whatever darkness you may be facing.: Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th'encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home, Lead Thou me on! Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene; one step enough for me. I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou Shouldst lead me on; I loved to choose and see my path; but now Lead Thou me on! I loved the garish day, and, spite of fe...