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Eternal One

I exercise my cheeky option to write a post only vaguely related to what I'm actually talking about! Yet as I sit here in between writing emails and applying for jobs, I am struck by the goodness of God, just in the very fact that I am alive. That zest for living that gets us out of bed each morning committed to "accomplishing something"--granted, with its own pitfalls and idolatries--is part of the handiwork of God. I am part of the handiwork of God, even if I commit myself to dissolute living. It is a scandal and a tragedy, but I am no less His handiwork.

For what it's worth, I felt God smiling at me. I daresay I don't like myself as much as he does. What else is new? I guess that's why I am telling you; maybe you forgot, in your own case. "I haven't done this, and I haven't done that, and I haven't beaten that vice, and I never feel satisfied." Will we ever, until we are in the Beloved?

I taught RCIA the other night,--over the phone, or something close--even though I'm not qualified to scratch off a lottery ticket right now. But I told them that I had a theme verse. Even though we are Catholic, it is OK to have a favorite verse of the Bible. "God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Jesus died for the broken. You may happen upon some misguided ear-ticklers, who tell you that it is perfectly acceptable and desirable to remain broken, and to celebrate your brokenness, or even to call it something else in celebration. We don't have to do that, or believe that. What we do have to forthrightly consider is that Jesus sees. Not who we would like to be, or who we think we are in the times of the pride of life, but who we are down deep, and in secret. And to think that he embraced that cross, on those terms, well, it moves the heart.

Now that's a better something to get you out of bed in the morning.

Dare to believe that you are beloved, that there is at least one someone who is happy that you exist, no matter what stupid things you have done.
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