lead with kindness

I keep trying to set down my impulses to co-opt God’s voice into my power plays. I would much prefer to lead with kindness. (I mean "lead" in the sense of putting that foot forward...) Through kindness, we help humanize one another. When we leverage behavior, affection, support, and so on… out of one another with tools like triangling, we have to ignore or deny human dignity. That’s not good.

present

"...hope frees us from the need to predict the future and allows us to live in the present..."

Henri Nouwen

Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday. Every year on this day I think of how amazing it is that Jesus was willing to receive the praises of people he knew didn’t get it. They were excited about an illusion: specifically, that Jesus was going to hit the scene like a holy tornado and kick Rome’s ass. When that illusion evaporated they sold out their new Messiah in a heartbeat.

Neither their illusion nor their disillusionment was a surprise to Jesus. But he inhabited the hosannas nonetheless. This is a big relief to me because my praises are shabby and misdirected too. I bring all sorts of illusions and disillusionments into worship, and Jesus just draws a bigger circle around it. He says, “We can work with that.”