Signposts on the Way to God

(Please purchase your own copy of Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith.)

How do we know about God’s love, God’s generosity, God’s kindness, God’s forgiveness? Through our parents, our friends, our teachers, our pastors, our spouses, our children—they all reveal God to us. But as we come to know them, we realize that each of them can reveal only a little bit of God. God’s love is greater than theirs; God’s goodness is greater than theirs; God’s beauty is greater than theirs.

At first we may be disappointed in these people. For a while we thought that they would be able to give us all the love, goodness, and beauty we needed. But gradually we discover that they were all signposts on the way to God.

The Mosaic That Shows Us the Face of God

(Please purchase your own copy of Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith.)

A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.

That is what our life in community is about. Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world. Nobody can say, “I make God visible.” But others who see us together can say, “They make God visible.” Community is where humility and glory touch.

Friends and Their Unique Gifts

(Please purchase your own copy of Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith.)

No two friends are the same. Each has his or her own gift for us. When we expect one friend to have all we need, we will always be hypercritical, never completely happy with what he or she does have.

One friend may offer us affection, another may stimulate our minds, another may strengthen our souls. The more able we are to receive the different gifts our friends have to give us, the more able we will be able to offer our own unique but limited gifts. Thus, friendship create a beautiful tapestry of love.

Friends and Their Limitations

(Please purchase your own copy of Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith.)

We need friends. Friends guide us, care for us, confront us in love, console us in times of pain. Although we speak of “making friends,” friends cannot be made. Friends are free gifts from God. But God gives us the friends we need when we need them if we fully trust in God’s love.

Friends cannot replace God. They have limitations and weaknesses like we have. Their love is never faultless, never complete. But in their limitations they can be signposts on our journey toward the unlimited and unconditionally love of God. Let’s enjoy the friends God has sent on our way.

Losing and Gaining Our Lives

(Please purchase your own copy of Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith.)

The great paradox of life is that those who lose their lives will gain them. This paradox becomes visible in very ordinary situations. If we cling to our friends, we may lose them, but if we are nonpossessive in our relationships, we will make many friends. If fame is what we seek and desire, it often vanishes as soon as we acquire it, but if we have no need to be known, we might be remembered long after our deaths. When we want to be in the center, we easily end up on the margins, but when we are free enough to be wherever we must be, we often find ourselves in the center.

Giving away our lives for others is the greatest of all human acts. This will gain us our lives.

Making Our Lives Available to Others

(Please purchase your own copy of Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith.)

One of the arguments we often use for not writing is this: “I have nothing original to say. Whatever I might say, someone else has already said it, and better than I will ever be able to.” This, however, is not a good argument for not writing. Each human being is unique and original, and nobody has lived what we have lived. Furthermore, what we have lived, we have lived not just for ourselves but for others as well. Writing can be a creative and invigorating way to make our lives available to ourselves and to others.

We have to trust that our stories deserve to be told. We may discover that the better we tell our stories the better we will want to live them.

Writing, Opening a Deep Well

(Please purchase your own copy of Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith.)

Writing is not just jotting down ideas. Often we say, “I don’t know what to write. I have no thoughts worth writing down.” But much good writing emerges from the process of writing itself. as we simply sit down in front of a sheet of paper and start to express in words what is on our minds or in our hearts, new ideas emerges, ideas that can surprise us and lead us to inner places we hardly knew were there.

One of the most satisfying aspects of writing is that it can open in us deep wells of hidden treasures that are beautiful for us as well as for others to see.