Inspired by Scholastica

Anthony Ray Hinton I am reading a book entitled The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton, a man who spent 30 years on death row for a crime he did not commit. I can hardly imagine spending one day in prison, much less 30 years in solitary confinement. Hinton grew up poor and black in rural Alabama. When he was 29 years old, he was convicted of two murders as a result of prejudice, incompetence, and injustice in Alabama's prison system. Racial bias pervaded his trial from his arrest to the jury to the judge. What helped him survive was the love of his mother, the faithfulness of a friend, and a strong religious faith. What is most amazing about Hinton is his ability to forgive. Most people would have become hardened and angry about this travesty of justice. Yet this man was able to maintain his trust in God, his sense of humor, and his belief in the goodness of people. That kind of strength and courage is  remarkable after such an agonizing experience. After numerous appe...

The original psalms were written in Hebrew and sometimes the translations are not as accurate as they could be. In Psalm 23 we pray “goodness and mercy ‘follow’ us all the days of our lives.” But Chad Bird, an Old Testament scripture scholar, claims that the verb radaph in Hebrew is more accurately translated “chase after or pursue.” Thus, Bird says, “The goodness and mercy of God don’t follow us like a good little puppy dog. They gallop after us like a celestial stallion. They chase us down labyrinthine paths like the hound of heaven.” The image of God pursuing us “like a celestial stallion” is an intriguing one. It is not we who take the initiative, but rather God. We have all these thoughts about being unworthy or feeling that God will take away our freedom if we are caught. Yet all God wants is to shower us with His goodness and mercy.   “Who are we that you care for us?” the psalmist asks in another psalm. We just can’t believe that God is so enamored with ins...

When I was growing up, I got the message that I had to be perfect to be lovable. When I realized this was an unobtainable goal, I became discouraged and felt unlovable. As I matured, I learned to accept my imperfections better, but still struggled with feeling lovable. It took some counseling and several friendships to begin to see that people loved me in spite of my weaknesses and sometimes even because of them. They loved my hesitant speech, my extra poundage, my forgetfulness, my disorgani-zation, my tearfulness, my math deficiency. They told me just to be who I am, warts and all. I also began to understand that I was more attracted to people who were less than perfect. If they were too self-assured, too physically attractive, too intelligent, too superior, I could not relate to them very easily. If they had no flaws, they didn't seem real. Real people have wounds and scars and unique shapes. They have suffered and grown stronger through their pain. One of my friends h...

This Sunday is the feast of Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit decended upon the first apostles. The eleven were still locked in that upper room in fear for their lives. Then the Spirit appeared in tongues of fire and they began speaking in different languages. They were filled with boldness and were ready to preach the Gospel. We commemorate this feast each year and pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to enliven the Church, the People of God, with courage and fire to spread the Good News. We tend to think that the apostles were special because they had been chosen by Christ and knew him personally. Yet Peter denied knowing him, Judas betrayed him, and all the apostles except John fled when he was crucified. They were just as human and fearful as we are. A person with spirit is full of enthusiasm, energy, and joy, and that is what we want to be. The Spirit comes to "fire us up" so we can spread love and peace everywhere without counting the cost. It's what spu...