God

The Radical Freedom of Being Chosen

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Called and Sent

We live in a world obsessed with worthiness. From the resumes we build to the curated versions of our lives we post online, we are constantly trying to prove that we belong, that we matter, and that we’ve earned our spot at the table.

But what if the most important invitation you will ever receive has absolutely nothing to do with your qualifications?

In a recent daily meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation, Father Richard Rohr unpacks a beautiful, challenging truth from the Apostle Paul’s writings in Romans: God’s chosenness is definitive, irrevocable, and entirely unearned.

The Trap of the “Tit-for-Tat” Mind

Most of us carry a transactional mindset into our spiritual lives. We think, If I pray enough, behave well enough, or believe correctly enough, then God will choose me.

Father Richard beautifully dismantles this:

“God’s choice has to do with God alone, not with us being worthy or ready. No one is ever ready! In fact, the readiness comes from experiencing and surrendering to the chosenness.”

The biblical narrative is packed with proof of this. God consistently bypasses the powerful, the put-together, and the self-righteous. Instead, God chooses the weak, the broken, and the deeply flawed. Why? Because it keeps us humble. It reminds us that when we love others well, it isn’t our own finite strength doing the heavy lifting—it’s God working through us as raw instruments.

From “Elitism” to Overflowing Mercy

When religion stops at the first stage, it becomes dangerous. It’s easy to fall into the trap of elitism—believing we are the chosen ones, we have it right, and everyone else is out. Father Richard warns that without a real, transforming love relationship with God, religion becomes a petty sideshow for exclusivity.

True chosenness doesn’t make you feel superior; it makes you feel deeply, wonderfully small in the wake of an overwhelming ocean of mercy.

We are chosen for one primary reason: to know what it feels like to be God’s beloved.

Once you let yourself be gazed upon by God with total, unconditional acceptance, something shifts. You realize you can never love God back perfectly, and that beautiful gap keeps you hungry, longing, and humble.

The Ultimate Destination: Everyone

The most radical part of the divine mystery is where it’s all heading. While the biblical story begins with the chosenness of a few, it always moves toward an egalitarian reality: everyone is chosen.

You cannot give away what you haven’t received. The only people who can authentically communicate the boundless, inclusive abundance of God to a fractured world are those who have first let themselves experience that abundance within their own hearts.

Reflection Questions for the Week:

  • Where are you still trying to “earn” God’s love or validation?
  • How can you shift from a transactional “tit-for-tat” faith to a faith of pure surrender this week?
  • Who in your life needs to be reminded that they, too, are beautifully held and chosen by God?

What are your thoughts on this meditation? Let’s discuss in the comments below!

Finding Love in the Fray: Redefining a “Text of Terror” on Father’s Day

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We’ve all experienced moments where a specific piece of text, a song, or a memory triggers a wave of discomfort. For many churchgoers, Matthew 10:24-39—the lectionary reading that unexpectedly lands on Father’s Day—is exactly that. On the surface, it paints a jarring picture of a Jesus who brings a sword to divide families.

In her latest Sunday Musings, Diana Butler Bass wrestles honestly with this difficult passage, sharing how she moved past her own spiritual triggers to find an unexpected message of profound hope.

Key Takeaways from the Article:

  • The Weight of Bad Theology: Bass recalls hearing this passage at age 15 in a fundamentalist church, where it was preached as a threat that “unbelieving” parents would go to hell. This colonized her spiritual imagination with fear for decades, illustrating how toxic interpretations can become deeply embedded spiritual earworms.
  • The Reality of Modern Division: The passage hits incredibly close to home today. Bass connects the scriptural text of familial separation to modern realities: a 2024 study showing 26% of American adults are estranged from parents, the rise of controlling religious movements, and her own painful 9-year estrangement from her brother due to political divisions.
  • “Reading for Surprise”: To break through her resistance to the text, Bass utilizes a hermeneutic practice she taught her church history students: approaching the text simply asking, “What most surprises me here?”
  • A Shift from Threat to Promise: By looking past the institutional clutter, she noticed a repeating refrain she had previously missed: “So have no fear… Do not fear… So do not be afraid.” Rather than a threat of condemnation, the text acts as a condolence. It acknowledges that while living out truth and compassion will inevitably cause friction with a broken world, we are deeply cherished and held by God’s love through the upheaval.
  • Love as the Only Way Through: In a world where religious abuse, family estrangement, and political polarization seem to be worsening, Bass concludes that Jesus wasn’t approving of division, but describing human reality. Ultimately, the call is to lean into a self-giving love that is stronger than our deepest divides.

“Life may be frightening — and the work of compassion hard — but know that God cherishes you in the midst of the upheaval. You. Are. Beloved.”

Read the full SubStack article at: https://open.substack.com/pub/dianabutlerbass/p/sunday-musings-7a4?r=45tsh&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

#Faith #Spirituality #DianaButlerBass #BiblicalInterpretation #Deconstruction #Healing #FamilyDivision #SundayMusings #GospelOfMatthew

Practicing Gratitude: A Path to Rewiring Our Minds

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In the November 28, 2025, edition of Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations, the spiritual practice of gratitude is highlighted through the lens of psychological and spiritual growth. The meditation — titled “Minding Positivity” — makes a startling claim: our brains may be wired to cling to negativity. Like Velcro, we instinctively hold on to problems, fears, and regrets, while letting positive experiences slip away like cheese on hot Teflon. 

This tendency — to dwell on what’s wrong rather than celebrate what’s good — can shape how we view ourselves, our lives, and the world. But Rohr draws on neuroscience (notably the work of Rick Hanson) to show that the brain is malleable: by consciously choosing to hold onto positives for at least fifteen seconds, we can recondition our minds. 

In other words: gratitude isn’t optional. It’s a spiritual discipline. By repeatedly turning toward love, trust, patience, and goodness — even in small moments — we gradually build “neuroplasticity”: an increased bandwidth for freedom, openness, and compassion. Rohr frames this rewiring as the very heart of authentic spirituality. 

Why This Matters More Than Ever

  • We live in a negativity-saturated world. Between media cycles, social pressure, and personal anxieties, it’s easy to let negativity dominate our inner narrative. This meditation cuts directly across that tendency.
  • Spirituality isn’t just about morality — it’s about psychology. By linking contemplative practices to brain science, the text bridges faith and neuroscience. Gratitude becomes a practical, embodied discipline.
  • Small shifts can lead to profound transformation. You don’t need great insight or dramatic experiences — just small, regular conscious choices to linger in gratitude. Over time, that can change how you see yourself, others, and your place in the world.

Key Takeaways and Invitation

  • Start simple: notice one small good thing today and hold on to it, mentally or in a journal, for at least 15 seconds.
  • When negativity or fear arises, gently reorient to something authentic, lovely, or kind — even if it feels small or insignificant.
  • See gratitude not as a passing “positive vibe,” but as a spiritual and neurological discipline: a way to expand your capacity for love, acceptance, and presence.
  • Recognize that this kind of transformation — from fear to trust, from reactivity to stillness — is not optional or secondary. It’s essential.

Source: Minding Positivity – Richard Rohr – https://email.cac.org/t/d-e-gjulhtt-tlkrhtkhkt-e/

We are on a Journey

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Where are we going? After a very short visit to earth the time comes for each of us to pass from this world to the next. We have been sent into the world as God’s beloved children, and in our passages and our losses we learn to love each other as spouse, parent, brother, or sister. We support one another through the passages of life, and together we grow in love.

Finally, we ourselves are called to exodus, and we leave the world for full communion with God. It is possible for us, like Jesus, to send our spirit of love to our friends when we leave them. Our spirit, the love we leave behind, is deeply in God’s Spirit. It is our greatest gift to those we love.

We, like Jesus, are on a journey, living to make our lives abundantly fruitful through our leaving. When we leave, we will say the words that Jesus said: “It is good for you that I leave, because unless I pass away, I cannot send you my spirit to help you and inspire you.”

Kindness at Gate A-4 – by Naomi Shihab Nye

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Arab-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye recalls a transformative, unexpected occasion of generous acceptance:

Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal … I heard an announcement: “If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.”

Well—one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. “Help,” said the flight service person. “Talk to her.… We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.”

I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke to her haltingly. “Shu-dow-a, Shu-bid-uck Habibti? Stani Schway, Min fadlick, Shu-bit-se-wee?” The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly used, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been canceled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment.… I said, “No, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just later, who is picking you up? Let’s call him.”

We called her son and I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother … and would ride next to her.… She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought … why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her? This all took up about two hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life, patting my knee, answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—out of her bag—and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.

And then the airline broke out free beverages … and two little girls from our flight ran around serving us all apple juice and they were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands—had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, this is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate—once the crying of confusion stopped—seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too. This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.

Naomi Shihab Nye, “Gate A-4,” in Honeybee: Poems & Short Prose (New York: Greenwillow Books, 2008), 162–164. 

Shared via https://cac.org/daily-meditations/ – Center for Action and Contemplation

Agape by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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MLK Choose Love

 

“The Greek language comes out with another word for love. It is the word agape. … agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love; it’s what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but because God loves them. You look at every man, and you love him because you know God loves him.” ―Martin Luther King Jr.