Hope is a choice.

Actually, I think hope is many things, among them, a choice. Stop. Breathe. Look around. Is this world full of evil? To be feared? Is it really you versus everyone else? Or is there Beauty (another name for God?) behind every corner? Are there a Thousand Points of Light, as George Bush the Greater showed us. Check out Marcus Taylor’s blog. Marcus is the web guru for Candler School of Theology and a fantastic photographer. He publishes a new photograph- like the yellow daisy above- every day or so. I think Marcus captures much of the Beauty in the small things. He certainly helps me to slow down, to pay attention, to be open to the Spirit who is present whether I am aware of Her or not. I especially love the ironic One Way sign!

Thanks, Marcus.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I am taking a class at Candler School of Theology this fall on the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. If you don't know, Bonhoeffer was a young German theologian who stood up to Hitler and the Protestant Reich Church that had capitulated to Nazi politics. He studied in the US in the early 30s, and yet chose to go back to Hitler's Germany in 1931, well aware of the danger of this move. He was executed in a concentration camp at the age of 39. And his life and message and call to strongly question any who would equate the Christian Gospel with any one political agenda have carried far beyond the audience he reached during his lifetime.