Do Something Today!

Please take the time to listen to this message and share it widely.
You CAN do something!

A Litany of Love

Enjoy the latest broadcast!

I will be taking a few weeks off from the radio ministry. Listen to the episodes you haven't heard yet, listen again to your favorites, and share widely!

Rev. Sam Wilde

Join me in giving your love a workout!

Here's the newest radio show: You Are Loved !

I hope it lifts you up.
Rev. Sam Wilde

What do you want?

Hoping for answered prayer but not getting it?
Maybe there's a strange gift waiting for you.
Here's the latest broadcast: You Are Loved. Hope it gives you some kind of present!

Rev. Sam Wilde

Peace, be still!

Evidence that I DO slow down every now and then!

I hope you enjoy today's You Are Loved show: S-l-o-w Down !

Be safe in the storm and know that you are loved.

Reverend Sam Wilde

What are you investing in?

The latest broadcast: The Love Economy.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/10/22/the-economy-of-love

Hope it helps you invest!

Rev. Sam Wilde

Buddha, Allah, Krishna, Isis, Christ

Here's the latest radio broadcast, A Personal Story.

What's part of your story of belief? What DO you believe?

Are you uncomfortable with the word "God?"

What about the word "Buddha?" Think about THAT!

Preach, lady!

Here's some good old fashioned preaching BUT with an up to date, liberating message: NO Condemnation.

Memories of a message of radical liberation. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivering "I Have a Dream" at the 1963
Washington D.C. Civil Rights March.
Photo in the Public Domain.

 

I don't preach quite like this great man, but I share some of his words from this speech in the broadcast.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/10/08/no-condemnation

Please let me know what you think!

Rev. Sam Wilde

Take Time for a Few Deep Breaths

Today's radio broadcast is a touch of yoga. Have fun!
You are loved!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/10/01/yoga-time

Rev. Sam Wilde

Got love?

If you aren't feeling the love today, listen in!
Enjoy this week's broadcast.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/09/24/but-i-dont-feel-loved-1

Rev. Sam Wilde

What's so spiritual about diapering?

I'll tell you!
Listen to this week's You Are Loved broadcast to find out:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/09/17/are-you-cleaning-the-house-or-praying

Blessings,
Rev. Sam Wilde

Yo, Mama!

For mothers and those with mothers...some words of spiritual encouragement this week on the radio broadcast. Listen here.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/09/10/the-greatest-teacher

Share it with a mother you love!

Rev. Sam Wilde

God's Lost and Found

I hope you find comfort and inspiration in this week's radio ministry broadcast: Lost and Found. And enjoy the beautiful Nantucket scenes!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/09/03/lost-and-found

Please let me know if the program speaks to you! Comment here or send an email. I would like to know what you want to hear more about on the broadcasts. I am also asking each listener to share their favorite episode with one beloved friend! If you feel good after hearing the Word of Love, share the love!

Rev. Sam Wilde

New Radio Broadcast on Monday

Look (and listen) for a new broadcast this Monday after a two week vacation!

blessings,
Rev. Sam Wilde

A Pick-Me-Up Just For (all of) You!

This is one of my favorite broadcasts so far! I hope you enjoy some of the ideas about spiritual success.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/08/13/working-with-failure

Big blessings,
Rev. Sam Wilde

Did anyone else have a hard week?

I hope you enjoy the latest radio show about LIKING YOURSELF!

And if you like it, please share it with a friend.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/08/06/what-do-you-believe

Reverend Sam Wilde

Religion in the garbage?

Hi friends!

I hope you enjoy the latest radio show, Getting Over Religion and Getting Along with God!

 http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/07/30/getting-over-religion-and-getting-along-with-god

Rev. Sam Wilde

Can you have God without religion?

Please listen in for the latest episode of You Are Loved!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/07/23/healing-from-religious-hurts-part-i

Please subscribe to this blog and you will receive these emails in your inbox each week, a nice reminder to enjoy the show at your leisure!

Rev. Sam Wilde

Listen...You're getting popular!

Please enjoy today's broadcast.
 http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/07/18/you-are-getting-popular

Once you are on the homepage for the radio show, you can choose to "follow" the show, which means you'll get an email reminder before the show airs. This is a good idea if you'd like to listen live.

Or, you can subscribe to this blog through the link to the right. Every time there is a new post with a link to the radio show, it will turn up in your email inbox.

Let me know what you think!

Rev. Sam Wilde

You Are Loved's First Broadcast!

Please listen and enjoy the first radio broadcast!

Here it is!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde/2012/07/09/is-love-boring

With many blessings,
Rev. Sam Wilde

Changes!

I am so excited to write about some changes to this blog.

I have explored so many different forms of ministry over the years hoping to leap out and land in just the right place. I have long wanted to have a "radio" ministry and thanks to the wonders of the internet, now I can!

The weekly blog posts will now be replaced by a weekly radio show entitled You Are Loved.

The show will air Mondays at 2 p.m. (with certain exceptions) and you can listen live at:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sam-wilde

Or you can go directly to blogtalkradio.com and search for Sam Wilde.

You can also listen ANY TIME to the episode, so if you miss it live, you can click on the link that will be posted on this website and listen to the program at your convenience.

I truly hope with all my heart that this new forum will allow me to share whatever good I have and whatever of God I know with those who need to hear it!

You may also notice other changes on this blog. Please read the new pages that you can click to from the tabs at the top of the page. You can now think of this as my ministry's home on the web.

Big blessings to all and I hope to talk to some of you LIVE on Monday, 2 p.m. for YOU ARE LOVED!

Quiet

I put on headphones so that I could listen to a radio program on the computer without waking up my children. It took some time for the program to load, and during that time, the headphones muted the sounds around me--the birds outside, the refrigerator running, the cars occasinally passing by.

What a peaceful pause! I felt as though I'd dived into a more interior place. It felt, in fact, like a retreat.

What mini-retreats can you take today? What little puddles of quiet can you find in the busyness of your life?

Quiet is so like a blanket, sometimes, that covers us and comforts us. "Be still and know that I AM."

What do you find when you put the noise of your life on mute? Pause and take three breaths and see.

Rev. Sam Wilde

Believing Without Seeing

The other day I had a strange sensation in my chest (probably heart burn) that carried on so long I began to worry. I assumed it was nothing, but had a hard time convincing myself since I hadn't had the feeling before. I asked myself: what would you say to one of your children if they complained of this pain? I knew immediately, of course, since I often deal with little ouchies from all of my children. I would say: Everything is fine. You will be okay.

Then this bible verse came to mind from Mark 10:15 (and whether you read the bible or not or even like it or not, you may well know this scripture). Mark remembers Jesus saying "Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."

I thought on those two sentences, the one from the bible and the one I would tell my children. What does it mean to receive something as a little child? When my children are hurt and I tell them, "everything will be okay," they do something amazing. They believe me. They believe me before the cut heals or the bruise vanishes--even before the pain goes away. Sometimes, they must believe me about hurts they have never experienced before (like when our son badly damaged the skin of his face while sledding or when my daughter fell off her bicycle for the first time).

As a matter of fact, children must constantly believe adults' words without proof or evidence. If we tell them some food is "good for you," if we say, "Santa is coming," if we assure them someone who has gone away will be back.

The basic ability to believe without seeing is, in fact, faith. And the awesome lesson we can learn from children is that believing without seeing is not a fool's game, but a wise action.

Imagine a parent telling you, "everything will be okay." Imagine that this parent is the best version of a mother and a father, divine, all-loving and all knowing. If we have the heart of a child, we trust these words, without seeing the evidence--yet--and we strengthen our faith-muscle. When we do this, we are in the kingdom of God.

So, naturally, as I thought on these ideas, the pain in my chest subsided. Better still, I felt loved. What other ways do children lead us into that place of Agape (divine love)?

Rev. Sam Wilde

THIS is the Day

Two weeks back I went to visit a friend on the Smith College campus later on a Saturday night and came across the scene of a bicycle accident at the bottom of Northampton's busy main street. As I was stopped at a red light, I took in the sight; it was upsetting. I thought about the bicyclist and prayed for the next two days when I found out that he was a teenager from my town. I continued to think of him and pray for him. Today I read in the paper that he died.

The loss of a young life is always something we call tragic and this particular accident makes me think of a dearly beloved young woman, a yoga student of mine, who was killed many years ago by an armored truck while bicycling near Smith College.

These events grieve me, and I can taste only the smallest amount of sorrow the families must feel. What is left for us to do? Can we only pray and send good wishes?

No, there is more we can do, much more.

A couple of years ago I was asked to officiate at the memorial service of an infant who passed on at three days old. I spent some time talking with the little girl's mother. She felt a sense of urgency about the teaching power of her daughter. To the question, "what can I do? What can we do?" she had this to say: "I want those who have babies and children to hold them closer, love them more because of my daughter's passing, savor their days together in gratitude."

My New Haven yoga teacher used to often regal her classes with woefully upsetting true stories like the ones I have just shared with you. I can still remember a few of her gruesome tales. But she was  not a newspaper reporting the facts. She always brought home the redemptive message: be grateful that you are alive!

More than that, I want to say today to all of you, and to myself, THIS is the day! This is the day to let go of the past, to forgive yourself, to forgive someone else, to love truly, to step out in faith and away from the distractions that do not serve you into the life you have been called to live (even little ones like the pressure to have a clean house or keep up with Joneses or excel at work you do not have the call to perform). This is an urgent message, because life is powerful and it is yours right now.

The wonderful poet Mary Oliver is often quoted for her line: "what will you do with your one wild and precious life?" Of course I love her work and this line, but I am thinking today of this question: "who will you be in your life?" So many of us are absolutely overwhelmed with the quantity of DO-ING in our lives and I do not want to ask you (or myself!) to do another thing. In fact, it may be time to stop doing a few things that are not part of your calling. It is so cliche to simply say if this were the last day of your life, what would you do? But the "tragedies" around us are not merely grief-stricken moments, particularly when they do not belong to us, when we are, as I was the other night, a silent witness. We can seize the sympathy and sorrow and do as my friend who lost her baby so earnestly and poignantly wanted--love more deeply, live more truly, rise up in gratitude, let go of what doesn't serve us, and move quickly and faithfully into the life in which are being-ness is a gift to others and ourselves.

THIS is the day! Maybe start small. Let go of one unnecessary task that does not serve you. Forgive one person. Live alive and honor those who have gone on before us with your vitality and passion.

Rev. Sam Wilde

Meet in Your Hearts

On a recent dive trip to the Carribean, I learned the importance of going with the flow, focusing on the heart, and opening to perspectives differing from my own as an important part of the spiritual path. Spiritual Path meaning a path toward deepening in love, peace, and compassion.
During this extremely polarized period in American politics between
Conservative and liberal thinkers, we can find ourselves experiencing
Strong antagonism toward human beings believing in views opposing
Our personal beliefs and sentiments.

On my trip, I was assigned to room with a woman scientist who did not believe in global warming, who blamed every challenge the USA faces on liberals, who believes that the New York Times is devoid of credibility, and who was comfortable with the way banks and cooperations manage their power. She is conservative in her perspective. She belongs to the religious right. I do not share her views.

She triggered strong reactivity inside of my body. I saw that I was emotionally attached to my "open" perspective. I noticed that to live in love and to create a harmonious relationship that we needed to meet in our hearts and not in our heads. My yoga teacher, Swami Satchidananda used to say that people will find it easier to meet in their hearts. Minds tend to focus on differences.
Acknowledging that ultimately we are ONE in spirit, I tried to breathe, to stay open and to listen to my roommate.

Trying not to shut down and tune her out, became my daily practice for the week we were together. Seeking to be present to my roommate instead of invalidating her, I chose to appreciate her good sense of humor, her generosity and her considerate actions. We lived in peace. We enjoyed our time together. Agreeing to disagree and setting boundaries when I felt that I needed personal space, we had a supportive and loving relationship sharing a room together.

Our world is suffering tremendously from the inability to rise beyond polarities. When spirit comes into form there are automatically two Entities. On the simplest level,there is form and no form.
As form divides there are two and then form grows into the infinite. Spiritual vision honors the forms while maintaining the awareness of the one spirit dwelling in all form, in all that exists.

Rev. Supriya Swerdlick

You Are Loved

This Sunday I will be preaching at the church my family and I attend. I have done this a few times and feel honored to have the opportunity to speak to a large group about the things of my heart and my heart's walk with God. I have entitled my talk, "You are Loved."

A few weeks ago, I attended a service at a different church where the minister mentioned that all minister really only have one, or maybe two, messages, which they give over and over in different ways. This resonated with me, and I immediately asked myself: what is your message?

The message I feel most strongly has been given to me by Spirit is just this: you are loved. It is the message I have learned and re-learned, received and been challenged, by my entire life. It is also the message I feel most profoundly in contact with as a teacher. I have so many minor and occasional major travails in my own life, trials I pass through without as much grace as I wish, and daily struggles that I do not handle with the ministerial perfect love and calm I dream I might continuously possess! But when I go inside and really look at myself, I find one area in which God has truly trained and taught me, where I have slowly year by year gained insight and ability, and that is this: you are loved.

Several months ago, I went through an experience I had never encountered before, and came up against some actions by others that some people would label "evil." Certainly they were intended for harm and a great deal of anger, misunderstanding and resentment came my way, striking close to my heart. I processed these events on many levels, constantly seeking a higher way of viewing the situation (and constantly finding lower ways too!), and got through it all right. However, many weeks later, I still felt a residual sense of being somehow deserving of the hatred and unkindness that I was shown.

One night, just as I was going to bed, I had the realization that I was struggling, as I have in the past, with a sense of being unloved. The people who showered me with anger really didn't love me, and it threw me back, just the littlest bit, into a place of doubt and lingering unworthiness. As though God were speaking directly to me, I got this message: "You need to have a deeper experience of God's love for you, not an intellectual understanding, but a felt event."

I keep meditating on this idea. It is possible, particularly for people like me who do a great deal of reading and teaching, to get concepts mentally, to be able to speak them and read them. To know them through and through, in the world's great scriptures and in the best popular motivational speakers. But all of us must continually seek out, invite, and respond to the lived reality of mental knowledge. Love, after all, is not simply a nice thought, and the truth that each of us is a precious, perfect, whole, and complete child of God is not only a healing idea, but an experience that can bring us to a greater sense of knowing our value and belovedness.

When we know that, we are with God.

I will be sharing more of these thoughts and stories on Sunday. Leave a comment if you would like information about the service!

Rev. Sam Wilde

An Easter Argument

While my husband and I drove to church for the Easter morning service, we had an enlightening argument. He wasn't particularly looking forward to the morning's festivities and explained to me how much he doesn't like Easter. I, on the other hand, had already been to an earlier service and couldn't wait for the next one.

"Easter is the most difficult Christian holiday," he told me. "The story is completely unbelievable and yet you're asked to accept it--required to accept it. And when have you ever seen a person rise from the dead?"

"Easter is the most accessible, most translatable, most encompassing of the Christian holidays," I told him. "It is the best, truest, most liberating story of all."

So we were at an impasse, not that I didn't see his point. The simple and literal Easter story, that Jesus, a man who lived 2012 years ago, was killed and three days later came back to life, does require a rather magnificent leap of faith. (Although many have been willing to make it.) But what is the heart of the message? What is the meaning behind a death and a resurrection?

To show that ultimately life triumphs over death, love over hate/fear, and goodness over evil. Nothing, no thing, no person, no power, no group of people, no event, no torture, no trials, no cruelty, can ever be the victor against Divinity, God's presence with us, Emmanuel.

This is the essence to me of the story. We also see it played out in the great resurrection of the season, in Spring's profusion and vigor. Of course this is no accident as Easter was originally a pagan holiday. But the fundamental belief at the core of Easter is one at the core of every great religious tradition and this is it: there is only one power, all present, all knowing, all powerful, that is Love or God or Good.

Most people, including those in spiritual and religious traditions, have a hard time with this concept. They believe in evil, in the devil, in overwhelming bad, or they may doubt that good and love are equal to the negative forces in the world. They point out countless examples to prove this point, from the Holocaust to hurricanes to the nightly news. And I don't mean to say that these things aren't facts. I mean to say that they aren't true powers.

Before you write me off as crazy, let me explain. Can you remember the last time you felt angry? Felt hatred? Sadness? Fear? Did those feelings arise from feelings of power? When you felt them, did you feel powerful? After you felt them, did you feel powerful?

I can see this in my children, in my friends, and, of course, in my self.  I have never heard a person say, "I hate that woman so much. Hating her feels awesome. I'm filled with strength and power when I hate her. " We dip into the negative emotions because we feel afraid, vulnerable, or profoundly powerless. Is a child who goes into a school and shoots his friend actually powerful? Or is he an example of the most broken, empty, powerless person of all?

For me, the radical, joyous, life transforming message of Easter resides in the fundamental truth that there is ONE power and that power is all good. Did Jesus die and rise again? We can't know for certain. But whether he did or did not, the end result has been the same, hasn't it? Because of the countless people throughout history who have believed an unbelievable thing, this crazy story has been kept alive, and for whatever ill it has brought, it has also brought good. We have to separate the power of the message, a redemptive missive of Love, from the structure of religion, the culture of our own religious pasts, the wounds of religion in our life--how it has hurt us, let us down, left us unfulfilled, and so on--and choose to believe in ideas that will increase the presence, reality and potency of good in our own lives and in the life of the world. Isn't that what we want when we bemoan the existence of evil? Put your eyes on the Sun, even on a cloudy day, and remember where true strength resides. It is not a matter of one great power, and one lesser power. There is one power and then there is the absence of power.

This is the understanding that filled me with joy that morning, and every morning, though the day be gray. We all of us have to rely, at least sometimes, on truths we cannot immediately see, especially when our faith is the very thing that brings us joy and gives us hope. How do we know it is real? Because once we believe in it, we have it! And it is real within us and therefore our very real contribution to the world.

Rev. Sam Wilde

Food for the journey

I wanted to share a few of the places I go to online for spiritual sustenance. When you have time, you might enjoy exploring some of these.

Byron Katie--a woman who teaches a useful, practical, non-religious method of getting to "truth," there are some great demonstrations in video form on the website.

Bishop Shelby Spong--retired Episcopal Priest who is a leader in re-inventing a Christianity that is liberal, alive and meaningful.

Christian Science Lectures--and the Daily Lifts--set aside your assumptions about Christian Science and enjoy some of these lectures. For whatever its faults, Christian Science is one of the few places you will find Agape or Love as the absolute substance, message, core, and doctrine taught.

Unity--a wonderful continuation of work begun more than a hundred years ago, progressive Christianity that serves people of all faiths.

Joyce Meyer--if you can bear her awful politics and get past some of the language, she is an incredible preacher with a gift for practical teaching that people even outside of mainstream Christianity find inspirational.

Charter for Compassion--the work of Karen Armstrong, when you visit the website read the actual Charter. It is a moving, impressive, truly interfaith document.

I'd love to be led to teachers and sites that support your spiritual walk--so send a comment if you have ideas!

blessings and love,
Rev. Sam Wilde

Make Sense?

Driving the other day, I passed a car with this bumper sticker: Make love, not sense.

Of course, I instantly loved it, though I have no idea what it was meant to mean, it spoke to me. In fact, it set me off on an interesting meditation about love and sense.

I think most every great religion and spiritual tradition, with the possible exception of Buddhism, makes love without making much sense. My husband and I have been discussing how interesting it is to have a Mormon running for the US presidency, when the story and the scripture of the Church of Latter Day Saints is really a quite unbelievable sort. Many of us think the the whole Christian story is a bit senseless, far out, and slightly irrational.

I can certainly remember sitting in church as a girl and looking at some of my mother's close friends who sang in the choir. These were professional, composed, established, intelligent, educated, and achieving women. I used to wonder: they don't really believe Jesus was born of a Virgin, do they?

Most religions tell some tall tales. There's the wonderful story in the Torah about the three men who are thrown into a fiery furnace, and not one is harmed in anyway. And let's not forget Jonah in the belly of the wall, or the parting of the red seas.

Do these make sense?

Not at all. Do they make love?

 Spiritual belief, or faith as some call it, does require a child's willing, creative, imaginative mind. When we believe in what we cannot see--that God is good when our life is hard, that healing is possible when someone appears ill, that the world is filled with Divinity when all we hear on the radio is war, hate, and death--we delve into the heart of the mystery, into the gift of this koan (if it can be called that): make love, not sense.

However, I do think, with study and time, meditation and prayer, conversation and reflection, the laws of God's world and ways of working show a more profound and transformative sense--and then we begin to look at the world that does not operate out of love, and think: how senseless!

Sometimes, we must be willing to lay aside our thinking head and use our thinking heart, open the eyes and ears of our heart where the indwelling divine resides and see the world a little bit more like Spirit sees it. Will we always make sense by the standards of the world? Probably not--but then is that what we want? To fit in with a culture that adores speed, gets rich on violence, and diminishes love to a Hallmark card on Valentine's day?

I don't. Which is why I laughed to myself with delight when I saw that message. What a good reminder! Let's all go make love and not worry so much about the sense!

Rev. Sam Wilde

Patient Practice

When my daughter was a toddler, she had a favorite hat. She couldn't put the hat on herself, so she would walk around the house practicing. Over and over she'd take the hat and attempt to press it onto her head. It took far more coordination that she had at first--to open the hat and place it on widely and pull it down. However, given her extreme determination and constant practice, she soon became proficient at the task.
This sort of persistent and patient perseverance children display regularly, learning to walk or talk or use a fork or spoon. One might even say they do this practice graciously, given the dozens and hundreds of times they may make attempts and fail.

Meanwhile...in our adult world things are different! I often see an adult attempt something new once. If she fails, she may not give up, but she generally makes a conclusion about her abilities based on this failure. This comes up often in yoga when a new student attempts a pose, or when any student attempts a new pose. Most adults will not completely give up a practice, however, they will think, or sometimes say, "I'm not good at that. I can't do that. This isn't for me."

Every skill requires practice. Even a skill in which we have a natural ability. I have never found yoga particularly "hard." In fact, it came rather naturally for me. Yet it also demanded a regular, persistent practice, especially in certain postures where I was more limited.

Spiritual practice is no different. Prayer, healing, positive thought, intercession, transformation--all require practice, repetitive, sometimes full of failure, practice. Wherever we want to grow spiritually, we can. But we must cheerfully and determinedly, take the task like that hat my little daughter held and keep at it, with no sense of personal insecurity or imperfection. We don't want to take our spiritual imperfections personally; if we take them to heart, we risk giving up, or drawing a false conclusion about ourselves.

Each one of us is God's beloved child. Each one of us contains all Good and only Good, the capacity to do remarkable and unimaginable Good. Each one of us has a divine gift, that through practice and time, becomes a powerful, unique Light in the world. In the middle of the mess of daily and domestic life, in the midst of the thunderous negativity of media, news and events globally, we lose sight of the glory within us, that does not belong to us, yet is ours.

I think of my little one who never asked, "Mama, what's wrong with me? Will I ever be able to put on my hat? Why is this taking so long? Maybe I'm not meant to wear a hat...maybe I'm not as good as people who wear hats."

It may take a long time (and it may not). Keep patiently practicing your spiritual gifts, keep seeing yourself as the best version, hold in your mind a picture of your Highest self. Remember whose child you are, a child of the Divine Mother Father, and reflect on the fact that the apple cannot fall far from the tree!

Rev. Sam Wilde

The Struggle

Many years ago I attended a Unitarian church where the minister always signed her letters to the congregation, "Yours in the struggle." I was thinking of this phrase the other day in the midst of a very difficult situation. We encounter many struggles in our lives, small and large, daily and ones that continue through our life-cycle. This particular struggle for my family was quite big.

I began to think about how we, any of us, make it through genuinely hard times. I also began to think about that line, "yours in the struggle." I started to ask, "who is ours in the struggle?" And, "who is with us in the struggle?"

I began to imagine God, or the Divine, speaking that line: "I am yours in the struggle." There is a sense  of belonging and connection and absolute loyalty. It may be true that when we really undergo hardship we feel alone or disconnected from the Good, but it is not a truth. Suffering can lead us to feel abondoned by the Source of Peace, but nothing is closer to us in a crises than God. Many people have found this to be so; in fact, many people do not come to a spiritual understanding of life until they undergo a hardship.

It makes me think of two of my most favorite lines in the bible: "All thing work together for good for those who love God" (Romans 8:28), and from the very end of Genesis: "You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good" (Gen. 50:20).

You can probably think of times in your life or in the life of someone you know, when the worst happened and out of that came unexpected or unimagined good. All things can work together for the good--even struggles. All things do work together for the good. Keep your eyes on the good. Even, in a struggle, give thanks in anticipation of the good that will come.

It is almost impossible to be in a real crises and see through it to the good that may be, and yet if we can hold--cling!--to that real possibility, we can ride through the struggle with the sense that we are "Yours," that we are God's, that we are beloved children who are presently being cared for. It is a feat of imagination and sometimes fortitude to believe that out of what seems bad or evil, awful or wicked, a good thing can emerge, but we all have the gifts to do this. And the very first good thing that comes is a compassion. We become the peope who hear another person's suffering and are there for them in the struggle. Our hearts open.

In certain ways, it is as simple as "there is a light at the end of the tunnel." Except it is more more powerful and present. The light is ours now, and believing and trusting that helps us to see the Good that always exists, unfailing, all-present, more powerful than any struggle--the only power.

I wish you strength for the practice of such daring believing! And I am yours in the struggle.

Rev. Sam Wilde