Posts Tagged: "Generosity"

our true height in love

Advent Day 16: Our True Height In Love

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

*photo above: kids at last night’s Toy Give at NWLife – over 400 children received Christmas gifts

Father Greg Boyle tells the story of a homie named Fili and a volunteer at Homeboy Industries named Ms. June…

One of our tutors at Homeboy, Ms. June, is managing a roomful of students, whom she is teaching to fill out forms. She is a tiny Japanese American woman, a retired teacher who volunteers once a week helping homies on their literacy skills.

One of the many homies she’s working with is named Fili.

When the form asks for his height, he doesn’t know how to answer; confined to a wheelchair by gun violence, he is about three feet sitting upright. Ms. June asks him to… Read More

the other side post

Lent Day 15… I Never Thought I’d Be On The Other Side

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

One of the things we’ve been doing each day with the L.A. Dream Center is what they call “Food Truck Ministry.” You might be thinking of food trucks – like those delicious distributors of various types of food in busy downtown street corners during lunch time… but this is a little different.

The food is fresh produce, rice, beans, bottled juice, and maybe even a snack item or two. We load the food into the trucks, then head out to a poor district in town to distribute the food.

People depend on this food. Most of the folks who come and stand in line to receive the food are moms and grandmothers. They are the ones doing whatever they can to put food on the table, good food in the bellies of their children.

The other day we were in South Central L.A. distributing food. I was standing next to Roberta – one of the members of our team – when she leaned over and whispered to me… Read More

take the risk post

And He Says, “Take The Risk”

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Whoever we may be, living authentically in God’s image is a risk, because it is a rejection of the self-serving drives that enthrall us and keep us afraid to put our integrity on the line and release our compassion.

The choice is whether on this day to be full of ourselves or have fullness of life. We lean towards self-fullness when we ask, “What’s in it for me?”

The lowly paths are truly the most ambitious because they ask us to make the toughest choices. They require us to make sacrifices for good and not gain. They call forth from us the courage to let go of the lesser ambitions of self-advancement for the greater ambitions of God’s kingdom of grace, generosity, and compassion. They invite us to become big enough to become small, whatever our place in the social strata.

There we will find the treasure, the meaning of our humanity, the real fullness of life. Enduring significance is not found in our achievements; it is found in the countless and small ways we value and touch people

Enduring significance is not found in our achievements; it is… Read More