Devotions Archive
Archive:
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
2008
|
2009
|
2010
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
2014
|
2015
|
2016
|
2017
|
2018
|
2019
|
2020
|
2021
|
2022
|
2023
|
2024
|
2025
The fourth stepFriday, March 9, 2001
Matthew 5:43-48 One day he left home, and then later he returned, walking naked through the streets. His parents were mortified. "How could you embarrass us like this?" Francis was young, idealistic, determined. In 1968 I spent an August week in Chicago. I watched people get pushed through plate glass windows of the Conrad Hilton hotel, smelled tear gas, demonstrated against the war. A few days later at home in Lincoln, Illinois I wrote a long "letter," which the local newspaper published because I had been a beat writer for them the previous summer. In the letter I insisted that the American flag was better off burned. I was young, idealistic, determined. My parents got phone calls and dirty looks from their friends. I am still grateful that they supported me, but they were embarrassed. Generosity and grace don't spring from idealism and determination; instead, they are the marks of humility. Much later in his life Francis wrote,
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. |