The road goes ever on… but this blog won't

I've been blogging now for twenty years (today is the twentieth anniversary). Some years I've blogged more than others, but I've been pretty consistent. I've seen lots of blogs come—and go. Some just disappear without a trace—witness the dead links on some of my earlier posts.

Over the years, I've made a lot of friends through the blog, many of whom I've later met in person at a conference. I've probably made a few enemies as well, but that's ok. I've always tried to be honest and not put on a different face. When I review books—even ones I'm supposed to be selling—I try to show the good and bad points.

In short, I've tried to conduct this blog as I try to live my life: with integrity.

But, as they say, all good things come to an end. So, after twenty years, I've decided to call it a day. It's rather ironic, in a way. For a few years now, my stats have been abysmal, but in the last two months they've been more in line with the early days of blogging. Nevertheless, I'm no longer going to be posting here—outside of (maybe) a copyediting note here and there. Those are mostly for my own personal reference anyway.

So, after twenty years, I wish all my readers a future full of shalom, in its fullest meaning.
James

The social net and the gospel

I say we cannot preach it [the gospel] honestly, not because people might look at lack of community in our own lives and say, “You aren’t practicing what you are preaching,” but because, when we cannot offer community to people, we put them into a position where, by hearing the Gospel, they find themselves in an intolerable but hopeless situation. The Gospel challenges them to leave one life behind but does not offer a concrete road to a new life.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 300

<idle musing>
That's the final snippet from this book. I hope you enjoyed the book and were challenged by it. I know I was. Stay tuned (as they used to say) for what is next on this blog.
</idle musing>

Community!

What, singularly, are we missing today within Christianity that could make us credible to the world and to our own families? Community.… In the end people are as agnostic about faith, Christ and the church as they are about the experience of community. When there is a strong experience of community there is generally a strong faith.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 297

The real tragedy is…

Psychologist John Powell submits that there are only two potential tragedies in life, and dying young is not one of them.

These are the two potential tragedies: if we go through life and we do not love fully, and if we go through life and do not tell those we love that we love them.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 290

<idle musing>
Amen and amen! This truth should be emblazened on every parent's (especially) heart. Tell your kids you love them! And then live that love out. Tell your spouse you love them! And then live that love out.
</idle musing>

Real change needs to happen

The road to final victory on the issue of abortion is long, the task mammoth. Hearts need to change, relationships need to change, sexual patterns need to change, oppression needs to be recognized; and real villains and real victims must be more accurately named.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 266

When nobody shows up…

What kind of power may we seize upon to try to change this situation? Too many people, I am afraid, have placed their hopes in legal power, political power. The belief is that if we work hard enough we can get the laws changed, put abortionists on trial, close down abortion clinics…. And yet the only real solution is long-range. This battle, in the end, cannot be won legally and politically. Ultimately, more than laws, hearts need to be changed. Conversion is the only effective way of ultimately ending abortions. Abortion clinics will shut down when nobody shows up at their doors any more.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 264

"Normal" vs. the godly life

The human instinct is to define the normal by idiosyncratic preference and social consensus. We need to challenge this if religion is to have an agenda that includes celibacy, social justice or anything else which goes against what most people are in fact living.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 258

The demise of the common good

More important, though, the demise of hospitality has occurred because we have developed a sense of privacy and efficiency that militate against it.

Our culture is becoming ever more narcissistic and idiosyncratic, that is, more and more we have the attitude that things are our own. We speak of my space, my time, my family, my home, my community, my room, my stereo, my plans, my agenda, my friendships, my effectiveness, and even, in a way, of my church.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 235

Get up, dust yourself off!

As we get older the games, the bullying and the hurts become less physical, more psychological, more sophisticated. But one dynamic remains constant, most often we are not as hurt as we think. Invariably there is more self-pity than actual wound.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 214

True egalitarianism

What is the mind and heart of Christ? It is the acceptance of the fact that everyone is special and therefore all are equal. Nobody sits above the rest and nobody has a right to feel that he or she should sit above the rest. This is true for nations as well as for individuals.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 210

Mummify that beauty!

Like the ancient Egyptians, we attempt to mummify our youth and sexual attractiveness through contemporary forms of “embalming”: cosmetics, dyes, face lifts, pretense and lies about our age.

When we are fifty, sixty, seventy—or forty—and trying to be twenty, someone must challenge us: “Let go, for God’s sake! Be your age, it will be better then than it is now!”

Old age is hell for those who cling and want to be young at all costs. It can be peaceful and full of joys, if we are willing to receive its spirit.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 191

<idle musing>
As I near seventy, this is good advice. I've never been one to be overly concerned about physical appearance, but I confess that I have been a bit obsessed with staying in good physical condition. But, as I get older, my body doesn't recover as quickly as it used to. That's taken a bit of getting used to, but I'm learning to embrace it.

Those who know me, know that I've never been known for going slowly through life. But, I'm learning…
</idle musing>

No wall is strong enough!

By dying as he did, Christ shows that he loves us in such a way that he can descend into our private hells. His love is so empathetic and compassionate that it can penetrate all barriers that we construct out of hurt and fear and enter right into our despair and hopelessness.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 147

We need a theology that…

We need a theology that teaches us that God does not just give us one chance, but that every time we close a door he opens another one for us.

We need a theology that challenges us not to make mistakes, that takes sin seriously, but which tells us that when we sin, when we make mistakes, we are given the chance to take our place among the broken, among those whose lives are not perfect, the loved sinners, those for whom Christ came.

We need a theology which tells us that a second, third, fourth and fifth chance are just as valid as the first one.

We need a theology that tells us that mistakes are not forever, that they are not even for a lifetime, that time and grace wash clean, that nothing is irrevocable.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 145

But I've screwed it up too many times and too badly…

We have too much fear, in the end, of God. Ultimately we look at the scrambled egg, at our own mistakes and sins, and believe that the loss of a certain grace is irrevocable, that a mistake hangs us. Basically we do not believe that there is a second chance, let alone seventy-times-seven chances, that can be just as lifegiving as the first.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 144

Distraction is not a virtue!

Theologian Jan Walgrave commented that our present age constitutes a virtual conspiracy against the interior life. That is a gentle way of saying that, within our culture, distraction is normal, prayer and solitude are not. There is little that is contemplative within our culture and within our lives.

Why is this? We are not, by choice or ideology, a culture set against solitude, interiority and prayer. Nor are we, in my opinion, more malicious, pagan or afraid of interiority than past ages. Where we differ from the past is not so much in badness as in busyness, in hurriedness. We do not think contemplatively because we never quite get around to it.—Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten among the Lilies: Learning to Love beyond the Fears, 125