Soulshine

“From an early age, Juanita’s mother would express disappointment when Juanita did something her mother disapproved of. Juanita’s fear of this disapproval kept her from sharing parts of herself that would disappoint her mother. As a result, her mother never really knew her.” Phil Stutz & Barry Michels , The Tools What do you hide from others, the world and yourself? A great many of us learned the same childhood lesson that Juanita did. We learned that if we said certain things, or acted in certain ways, it made our parents uncomfortable. And so we learned to hide parts of our true selves. Picture a five year old boy who innocently and sincerely says to his mother “When I grow up I’m going to marry a boy.” A deafening silence fills the room. Then Mom laughs nervously and exclaims “Boys don’t marry boys! Where did you get an idea like that?” After another sharp pause, Mom continues in a stern voice as she wags her finger in her son’s face: “Boys only marry girls! Wh...

What is Easter without the Resurrection? What is breath without air? What is life without love? And what is love without forgiveness? One has no purpose without the other. Yet, we often fail at being resurrected spiritually because we fail to take breaths that are true, we fail to live on life’s oasis of love and we fail to love ourselves well enough to forgive and to accept forgiveness. This Lenten season I traveled around Arizona giving a series of talks I call “Have I Loved Well?” Loving well begins with loving one’s self well (unconditionally). And loving one’s self well leads to forgiving one’s self. Yet, almost everywhere I spoke, people told me of their inability to forgive themselves. It was obvious to me that the past still haunts many people because they don’t love themselves well enough to forgive themselves for the mistakes of their yesterdays. There’s no good reason for failing to forgive yourself. God has already forgiven you for the past. All you have to do to receiv...