Lent 4 | 2025
Invitation to Wonder: Look for the Helpers
From now on, we regard no one from a human point of view…If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation…2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (read more Lenten Scripture)
In his scientific study on the emotion of awe, researcher Dr. Dacher Keltner asked his subject one question. “What is an experience of awe that you have had, when you encountered a vast mystery that transcends your understanding of the world?”
Keltner expected his subjects to find awe most often through encounters with nature or through religious practice.
But in fact, he discovered that the number one, most common experience of awe comes through witnessing other people’s courage, kindness, strength, or overcoming – what Keltner calls moral beauty. We feel wonder when we witness goodness in others: goodness of intention, bravery, selfless aid of others or even the courage to endure suffering.
Mr. Rogers once said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian minister and he viewed the world through the lens of faith. He might describe the helpers through the words of the prophet Isaiah, who exclaims,“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (52:7)
If you want to nurture awe, get out there and look for the helpers in your own sphere. They may be people you know well. They may be strangers on the street or in a coffee shop. They may be people who save lives, find cures, feed the hungry, collect trash, build houses, pick up the slack at work,run races for charity, who make the coffee in the church kitchen on Sundays. The helpers are everywhere.
Look for the people who believe and “call on the name of the Lord” in ways that extend beyond their personal, spiritual inner lives, who undertake morally beautiful actions on behalf of others, especially those in need.
People of Moral beauty are, I think, less plagued by perfectionism – the compulsion to get it all perfectly right and in control.In them we more often see a spirit of freedom, selflessness, risk and joy as they embody God’s hope in the world,walking alongside their neighbors and demonstrating God’s grace, solidarity, and love in their being and doing.
Let’s pay attention. Let’s look for the helpers – and experience the awe that just may liberate us to be helpers, too.
Take 4 minutes to ponder the question:
Where have you encountered helpers?
See if you can think of 7 specific examples, from heroic to humble.
Click here to hear an interview with Dacher Keltner on the science of awe.
From Thai Food to Perkins | Megnot Abebe ‘25
Have you ever considered why you do things a certain way, like eating a particular cuisine?
Growing up in Ethiopia, I wasn’t exposed to Thai until I came to college and experienced Silk Thai. But I am now very fond of Thai cuisine. The options available to me in Ethiopia, paired with the consumption patterns of my family, defined my eating palette. This social phenomenon applies not only to cuisine preference but to more significant matters like core values and life trajectories.
We are all embedded within a sociopolitical context that shapes our values and cultures. In the current book we are reading with Perkins Fellows, At Home in Exile, Jeung writes about how we can’t escape the logic of capitalism in which we are embedded (87). He refers to our desire for upward mobility for us and our children. This is paired with the fact that, as humans, we are likely to imitate what we see. Indeed, social reference theory explains how humans shape their actions and behaviors in reference to the persons and models we engage with. We shop at the same places our parents do and adopt a lot of our life values through instances of socialization like school, family, and community organizations we are part of. And maybe if more people around me liked or ate Thai food in Ethiopia, I would have tried it sooner.
So, what does it look like for each of us to go on a journey of cultural exploration to understand what cultures have shaped and can shape our understanding of the kingdom of God and how to pursue it with our neighbors?
In the book, the author offers a model of community development through the traditions of the Hakka people—one of the grateful guests and can be translated to “the guest families” (56). Jeung explains that the Chinese Hakka people were “modest, unassuming” but also “despised”. Undeterred by how Hakka people have been known, Jeung affirms Ralph Ellison's statement that you can “create yourself” by choosing the values of the ancestors to hold by reclaiming their history and, therefore, Jeung reclaims “his identity as Chinese Hakka”. This is impactful because he invites us to reimagine our identities by choosing models that defy a capitalist system that exploits others and subvert it by approaching it with Christlike meekness and humility. Through the story of the Hakka people, Jeung uses a hermeneutic understanding of guests and community development based on his cultural background. In addition, this story teaches us more about his familial history and his struggle with identity.
The model of meekness that has led my vocational journey and exploration of community development after Jesus is Saint Nicholas of 4th century Myra (present-day Turkey). He is one of the most beloved saints in the Orthodox Church. After his death, it was found that he often made secret donations, earning him the title: of “protector and helper of those in need.” So even in a society that pushes us to seek personal fulfillment and material wealth, we can have models for our faith that are different from only what we know and see, like Saint Nicholas. We can, through that, choose to join a “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12).
This inspiration of knowing how we can better serve communities around us is what led me to consider being a Perkins Fellow. I wanted to better understand community development through a faith lens and then see it applied while being part of an organization that does that in Charlottesville. Being a Perkins Fellow also meant that I got the honor to continue the legacy of Dr John and Vera Mae Perkins legacy—one that emphasizes the importance of reconciliation, relocation, and redistribution in our faith journey and justice with our communities.
After reading this, I hope you would take a second to reflect on which or whose model you want to follow as you guide your life, as well as read more about the life of Dr. John and Vera Mae Perkins to be inspired by a life of justice, mercy, and love. As we learn the stories of Kingdom builders that have come before us, we can be challenged to imagine a new model for community, one cuisine at a time.
Lent 3 | 2025
Invitation to Wonder: Listen to Live
“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live…” Isaiah 55:2-3
“The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back…in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day.”
When C.S. Lewis wrote these words in 1952, he had no idea what the iphone would bring: jolts of alarms, emails, notifications, alerts, texts, calls. Still, he was prescient in saying, “the real problem of the Christian life comes…the very moment you wake up each morning.”
The attention economy pushes urgency, fear, and dopamine-driven engagement to keep us checking our phones, scrolling through social media, and consuming news.
The more time we spend on screens first thing in the morning, the more likely we are to continue engaging with digital distractions throughout the day.
Did you know that sleep restores our brains by flushing out toxins that build up during waking hours? Our brains are quite literally at their “cleanest and clearest” upon waking.
There’s a real cost to just giving away our precious attention the first thing in the morning - when we are primed for vitality. Yet we throw it all away so carelessly.
Today’s Lenten scripture challenges the choices I make, the habits that leave me thirsty for something better – and calls me to return to a God who prepares a wonderful physical and spiritual feast each day.
To those of us thirsty, out in the wilderness, here is an invitation to turn away from what does not satisfy and to seek God’s mercy and abundant life.
“Listen, so that you may live.” What is this listening that leads to life?
Let’s talk morning routines.
Online high-performance morning routines are inspired by influencers, elite athletes, CEOs: 2 hour regimens that kick off before dawn, primed by 6:30am to dominate the day.
What about a morning routine that is gentler and kinder? A routine that holds off hungry distractions and orients your heart toward God, a routine inspired by ancient Christians - one that skips the ice cold shower? Try this:
#1. Listen to Live: Protect the Silence
“Seek the Lord…call him while he is near.” Isaiah 55:6
“Silence yourself to hear God speaking within you.” St. Augustine
“Silence is not a void to be filled. It is a place where we listen for the whispers of God.” Macrina Wiederkehr
#2. Listen to Live: Savor God’s Word
“Eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” Isaiah 55:2
“When we read, God speaks to us.” Jerome
“The Word of Scripture should never stop sounding in your ears and working in you all day long, just like the words of someone you love… Do not ask, ‘How shall I pass this on?’ but ‘What does it say to me?’ Then ponder this word long in your heart until it has gone right into you and taken possession of you.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart. Listen with your heart, for the heart is where God speaks." Augustine
#3 Listen to Live: Pray with Attention
“Incline your ear, and come to God” Isaiah 55:3
“Listen with the ear of your heart.” St. Benedict
"Many voices ask for our attention... But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, 'You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you.' That's the voice we need most of all to hear."
"You have to listen to the one who calls you beloved. That has to be affirmed over and over again. That is prayer—listening to the voice of the one who calls you 'the beloved. It is being alone with the One who says, 'You are my Beloved, I want to be with you. Don’t go running around, don’t start to prove to everybody that you’re beloved. You are already beloved.'" Henri J.M. Nouwen
#4: Listen to Live: Step into the Day
Through a simple morning practice, however brief, we resist competing distractions and prioritize deep, sacred attention.
C.S. Lewis assures us that when we make it our “first job of the morning” to shove back the clamor of hopes, wishes, distractions and demands, and listen instead to that other Voice, taking that other point of view, then we allow that other larger, stronger, quieter life to come flowing in.
Today, let us step out of the wind, as Lewis says, and return to all that awaits: the richness of God’s mercy and beauty of our lives.
Lent 2 | 2025
Invitation to Wonder: Look Toward Heaven
“The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward….’ He brought Abram outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And Abram believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:5
A recent study found that people who attend to the wonder of the night sky enjoy improved mental health and happiness and experience the stress reducing benefits of the calming nocturnal environment. The Bible, too, urges us to gaze upward. Just as God promises Abram a future as abundant as the stars above, the Apostle Paul reminds us that “our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20)
None of this would surprise Vincent Van Gogh, who wrote, “When I have a terrible need of—shall I say the word—religion. Then I go out at night and paint the stars.”
Tonight let’s get outside and try stargazing! The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands. (Psalm 19:1) Are you ready?
Find Your Spot
Choose a quiet place where you can be comfortable and still (your backyard, a park, a rooftop, or even by a window).
Read: “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” (Isaiah 40:26)
Skim through this guide so you will be able to set it aside and savor the darkness.
Set a Spiritual Intention
Slow down with the Psalmist, “O tarry and await the Lord's pleasure; be strong, and he shall comfort your heart; wait patiently for the Lord.” (Ps. 27:18)
As you begin, say a short prayer to invite God into this moment.
“Lord, as I look at Your creation, help me see Your glory.”
“Father, just as the stars are countless, so is Your love.”
“Jesus, You are the light of the world; may I reflect Your light.”
Adjust to the Darkness
Close your eyes for a moment and take slow, deep breaths. As your eyes adjust to the night, recall the biblical story as God placed the stars in the sky as signs and seasons.
Gaze and Observe
Now look up and take in the sky, allowing your gaze to range freely. Imagine Abram hearing God’s promise: descendants as numerous as the stars. Absorb the awe of God’s promise to you: a citizenship in heaven and a Savior, Jesus Christ.
Pray with One Star
Find one bright star and focus upon it.
Breathe in slowly, saying silently or aloud: 'God, You are my light.'
Breathe out, saying: 'I trust in You.' (or create your own breath prayer)
Repeat until you feel that your time is complete. Stretch, move, return.
Connect and Reflect
Where did your mind go as you observed the sky?
What emotions came up for you?
Why do you think Van Gogh said, “When I have a terrible need of—shall I say the word—religion. Then I go out at night and paint the stars”?
How might stargazing enrich your Lenten season?
Go in Peace
'Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.”(Philippians 2:15)
Reflections on Place | Ellie Joye ‘25
People often say there’s a difference between a house and a home. I think the same idea applies to the difference between space and place. A space is just a physical location – somewhere people interact. But a place is something more. It isn’t just physical or visible; it can feel vividly real. The places we inhabit shape who we are as we move through life – people live, grow, and find meaning in places.
Place is the white, stony cliffs of Ireland, steeped in history. It’s the coffee shop you return to again and again. But it’s also something you find in people as much as in structures. Place is the look of a loved one as they pull you into a familiar embrace. At its core, place is both the foundation and the product of shared human experience.
I often struggle to find my own “place”—some sense of consistency in what feels like an unsettled world. I love to travel, always moving from one place to another, and each destination leaves its mark on me. And yet, no matter where I go, I don’t always feel the deep, resounding sense of home. I know I’m not alone in this – many people drift from place to place without ever finding one to truly call their own. That feeling often leaves me restless, always searching for the next place that might finally feel right.
Wendell Berry challenges this kind of restlessness. He encourages us to step away from the world’s constant motion and instead find stillness in nature, where everything works as it should. He captures this idea in his poem The Peace of Wild Things:
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Berry reminds us to seek peace in the rhythms of nature rather than in constant movement that often feels like chaos. I think about this often. I worry about graduation, about starting a career, about stock market crashes, about the world my future children will live in – about all the tragedies, both fresh and still to come. But Berry calls us to something different: to the grace and stillness that I so often trade for a busier schedule.
But can words like stillness, silence, and peace really describe modern life? Am I willing to let go of the constant search for my place in the world?
Maybe I’ll wrestle with that question for the rest of my life. But lately, I’ve started to realize that maybe there isn’t just one perfect place for me. Maybe my place is the yellow house in Charlottesville. Maybe it’s in the familiar smiles of my hometown friends. Maybe it’s in the airplane that whisks me away to my next destination. Or maybe, just maybe, place is wherever I find the most peace.
Lent 1 | 2025
Ask Probing Questions
After his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and afterward Jesus was starving… Luke 4:1-2a
Lent is here - and in no time our complacency is undone. But as Flannery O’Connor reminds us, “What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.”
On this first Sunday, I turn to a passage by American pastor Frederick Buechner, who urges us to wake up to the wondrous practice of asking tough questions.
In many cultures there is an ancient custom of giving a tenth of each year’s income to some holy use. For Christians, to observe the forty days of Lent is to do the same thing with roughly a tenth of each year’s days.
After being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went off alone into the wilderness where he spent forty days asking himself the question of what it meant to be Jesus. During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask one way or another what it means to be themselves.
If you had to bet everything you have on whether there is a God or whether there isn’t, which side would get your money and why?
When you look at your face in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you see in it that you most deplore?
If you had only one message to leave to a handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in 25 words or less?
Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo? Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?
Is there any person in the world that, if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for?
If this were the last day of your life. What would you do with it?
To hear yourself try to answer questions like these is to begin to hear something not only of who you are but of both what you are becoming and what you are failing to become. It can be a pretty depressing business all in all, but if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end. – Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking
Ash Wednesday 2025
God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!” Genesis 2:7
Scientists tell us that 97% of our bodies - primarily oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus - are the very same elements that compose, well, dirt.
This fact should not shock, for each Ash Wednesday we are called to remember the words of the Bible: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return." This verse is no mere poetry. Our physical beings are, quite literally, that of humus (Latin for “soil”). How humbling.
True humility brings a kind of relief to those of us who labor to be more, do more, prove more. But humility is no weakness. Out of the 16th century, Teresa of Avila reassures us that “humility is the truth. To be humble is to walk in truth, to recognize what we are in the sight of God, and to know that our worth depends on God’s mercy.”
Mother Teresa puts it plainly. “If you are humble, nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.” Dust.
As we step into Lent may we wake up to the wonder of this truth: we are made from the earth. And we are, in God's hands, created to bear abundant fruit.
Invitation to Wonder: Dig in the Dirt
"The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector." Wendell Berry (b. 1934, American writer and farmer)
Take 8 minutes to go outside. Leave behind your phone but take along a spade, a shovel or even a spoon. Bring a magnifying glass if you have one.
Find a patch of soil and dig up a healthy clump. Now settle in and look very closely at the dirt, as if seeing dirt for the very first time. Touch it. Smell it. Examine the soil for the presence of minerals, organic matter, water, even living organisms.
As you hold the dirt in your hands, taking abundant time, prayerfully meditate upon the words of St. Augustine (354–430 AD)
“You are dust, and to dust you shall return. Be humble, for you are made of earth. Be noble, for you are made for God.”
This Lenten devotional is inspired by Wake Up To Wonder: 22 Invitations to Amazement in the Everyday by Karen Wright Marsh (Brazos: 2022). Available wherever books are sold.
As Lent Begins
Three days from now, Ash Wednesday will bring in Lent: the Christian church’s season of forty lengthening days (“lencten” from Old English) that lead up to our celebration of Christ’s resurrection. Traditionally, Lent is a time to take stock, turn to God in repentance, and cry out for God’s mercy.
Lent aptly recalls the Latin word "lente" – "slowly." Indeed, the lingering grind of winter can feel lengthy indeed.
But know this: day upon day, we gain two additional minutes of sunlight. By the time Easter arrives on April 20, we will have gained two hours of daylight. In the meantime, will we take notice of this incremental brightening?
Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann writes of Lent as a time of "a bright sadness: the sadness of my exile, of the waste I have made of my life; the brightness of God’s presence and forgiveness, the joy of the recovered desire for God."
Throughout this year’s Lenten season, I invite you to seek out the brightness. To wake up to wonder with me. In each weekly Theological Horizons post, we will look out for the tiny quotidian signs of divine grace hidden in plain sight; we will practice a spirit of attention; we will experience, yes, the joy of a recovered desire for God.
When Easter morning dawns bright and radiant, our sadness will give way to the fullness of God’s brightness. Together we will shout, “Hallelujah!”
Formation into Christlikeness: Reflections from Data and Dialogue
admiring the fall view of campus and the city atop UChicago’s landmark Rockefeller Chapel.
As this year’s Leadership Associate, I enjoyed representing Theological Horizons at a recent conference on character, moral, and virtue formation amongst college students. This conference presented the findings from a study that surveyed students from Theological Horizons, other Christian Study Centers, Institutes for Catholic Thought, and Christian colleges/universities on their religious beliefs and practices alongside their development and display of virtues. I participated in the study at Wheaton College, my alma mater, and treasured the opportunity to discover what its robust data yielded about how these institutions form students in their faith, thought, and life.
The presenters skillfully balanced theoretical foundations with practical applications. On the theoretical side, they opened my eyes and mind to the rich world of virtue ethics. Overall, this term refers to the concept that ethics-how we rightly act-flow from the formation of virtues-positive traits that guide our spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and physical lives. On the practical side, this conference centered around how to practice and promote virtue formation for students. The presenters emphasized the critical influence of habits in our formation, which illuminated how these high-level intellectual ideas often distill down into simple, everyday realities. This realization energizes me in relation to the accessibility of intellectual concepts like virtue ethics for people of all backgrounds and experiences.
As the data attested to the value of simple practices in forming profound virtues, I immediately thought of its relevance for Theological Horizons. At Vintage Lunch and with our Fellows, we promote rigorous intellectual discussion while inviting students into simple practices that provide a break from the intellectual rigor of UVA student life. Similarly, for our broader community in various life stages and roles, some of which rigorously challenge them intellectually and others that consist of more mundane, earthy tasks like caregiving, seemingly simple practices like silent prayer or taking a walk carry the potential to build a vibrant life of virtue.
Beyond the general patterns of formation, the presenters celebrated that none of the virtues decreased and a number significantly increased over the study’s 2 years. Students displayed growth in patience, courage, expressed teachability, and intellectual humility. On the other hand, analysis of students’ religious practices revealed a more complex picture. While students’ practices of individual devotion decreased, their practices of communal devotion increased. More granular analysis bore out the vital role of community in developing virtue, as students involved in spiritually formative spaces with others, such as Fellows programs, demonstrated higher virtue development than those involved primarily in individual activities.
As I consider how this data on the essential role of community possibly informs Theological Horizons, it affirms the significance of inviting students at Vintage Lunch to share in spiritual practices and spurs me to gratitude for the gift of returning week after week to embrace these longstanding disciplines with them. As I heard statistics highlighting how experiences like learning theological frameworks for applying faith in all of life and participating in Fellows programs positively shape students, I grew in appreciation for Theological Horizons as a ministry that offers these exact kind of experiences, with Christy’s excellent leadership of Horizons and Perkins Fellows top of mind. As someone in this space only for a year, serving students who spend at most 4 years embedded in our regular rhythms, it encourages me deeply to discover concrete evidence that formative spaces like this community guide people even after they leave.
Amidst many prominent stories of devastating moral failure in religious institutions, this study’s findings and my vibrant conversations at the conference with others serving students and communities across the country instills hope for a more faithful future witness in our world. For example, Dr. Jonathan Brant shared about how he started a virtues-based leadership development program, inspired by the Christian tradition but not explicitly faith-based, at Oxford University. He reported overwhelming interest in the program and explained that meaningful conversations about his faith often ensued because of the program’s hospitable approach. By offering some of the rich resources of our tradition without pressuring people to convert, many people actually ended up seeking to delve deeper into the Christian faith. This testimony profoundly resonates with me, as it brings to mind Theological Horizons’ motto “All are welcome. Always.” People desire to learn more about Christ when we who know Him model the character to which He calls us, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Whether students, parents, professionals, and/or friends in any vocation, let us join together in the ordinary, everyday habits that form us into people who reflect and embody the way of Christ in word and deed!
Joy at the Kindness Cafe | Kaya Lynch ‘25
Going into this year of being a Perkins Fellow, I was unsure about what that would look like for me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to attend CCDA in person, and there was a time conflict with my volunteering for Abundant Life. During Perkins Plunge, I met Katie Kishore, and learned about Kindness Cafe. Her story and vision for a place of employment for adults with disabilities struck a chord within me, and that has been where I have chosen to volunteer.
Over the summer, I was able to work with kids with disabilities, but I had never truly interacted with adults who had disabilities before. Frankly, I was a little nervous. What if I wasn’t able to understand them? How much of a role was I to take on in this space? After volunteering there for a couple of weeks, I realized that the main problem with the questions I was asking was that they were focused on myself, and my own capabilities. Yet, the people I worked with were perfectly capable of simple and complex tasks, and found a joy in it that the Bible demands. Suddenly, I was confronted with my own ego and my own unwilling attitude towards work. In Genesis, the Lord rests and finds satisfaction in the work He has done, and gifts Adam and Eve with the blessing of stewarding the garden of Eden for themselves.
Ecclesiastes 2:24 says that “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.” Kindness has reminded me that we are called to work, and to find joy in our work. The employees at Kindness are so willing and joyful to show up to work each day, and every order is a chance to do their best. I have been convicted of my own failure to view work as the blessing that it is, and how I can honor God in the minute tasks of work.
Throughout my time volunteering at Kindness, I have learned to work alongside, not over, the employees. I have learned when to step in, and when to step back. In the midst of this, we have had some wonderful conversations! The beauty of God’s kingdom is that we all work together, teach each other, and share in the ups and downs of life together. Before Kindness, I had not had friendships with adults with disabilities. Now, I can safely say that the richness and fullness of relationship with these brothers and sisters in Christ has transformed my view of the Kingdom, and my own career path. I would encourage everyone to take a step back and walk alongside people who you are not used to. It is only then that I believe that we will understand what it means to love as Jesus did.
February Prayers | The Gift of Questions
“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
-Matthew 7:7-8 NLT
Dear Friends,
Uncertainty lies underneath so much of our lives, whether it’s environmental or political unknowns, personal health, relationship or vocational questions, or simply the great existential ones: What is my purpose? Are you even real, God? At our first gathering of the semester, we offered time for students to explore the uncertainty in their own spirits and to anonymously write down the big burning question that uncertainty surfaced.
This month, take some time to acknowledge the uncertainty in your own life, and the questions that sear in your soul. Then, and maybe even more importantly, ask for someone close to you to do the same, hear their questions and let them find space in you. Finally, bring all of these questions to the Father.
Gift
Just when you seem to yourself
nothing but a flimsy web
of questions, you are given
the questions of others to hold
in the emptiness of your hands,
songbird eggs that can still hatch
if you keep them warm,
butterflies opening and closing themselves
in your cupped palms, trusting you not to injure
their scintillant fur, their dust.
You are given the questions of others
as if they were answers
to all you ask. Yes, perhaps
this gift is your answer.
By Denise Levertov
Faith & Work Lunch with Betty Li Simpson ‘15 and Megnot Abebe ‘25
In November, we welcomed TH alumna and current board member Betty Li Simpson ‘15 to share about her vocational journey at our second Faith & Work Lunch of the year. As 4th year Perkins Fellow Megnot Abebe guided the conversation, Betty described her vocational discernment as significantly shaped by God speaking through experiences and others. Throughout the blog, click on the links to hear some highlights from this rich discussion.
Betty began by reflecting on her understanding of the term “vocation.” She discussed how her background growing up in a Chinese immigrant community and church instilled a particular view of professional success as consisting primarily of stable professions like law and medicine. At UVA, she developed a broader concept of vocation through the input of faithful people, such as her Horizons Fellows mentor Helen Jamison (who attended the lunch!). Beyond merely work for pay, she grew to view vocation as the myriad of ways that individuals contribute to their communities. Recently, she spoke of how becoming a mother enriched and expanded her vocation.
While she currently works as a researcher at an educational nonprofit, her path to this position included some unexpected turns, throughout all of which she attested to the Lord’s faithful leading. As an undergraduate, Betty majored in biology and planned to pursue a career in medicine. When she encountered some unexpected obstacles, she identified and explored her developing interest in education. Classes in the education school revealed a fit for her strengths and values in this field, which led her to pursue her Master’s in education. Betty’s story of God’s steady hand in her non-linear vocational path offered an assuring example for students anxious about the pressures of finding the “perfect” job immediately. As she job searched after her Master’s, she described the uncertainty about her career direction as someone in the education field who knew that her strengths and circumstances aligned with a position outside classroom teaching. Through applying widely, she found a position in educational research and discovered that she loved it. She still works and thrives there today! When the Lord led her to educational research, she discovered a field that she never even knew existed. As she recounted this pivotal moment, she emphasized that God speaks through circumstances and encouraged people to consider what experiences in their lives potentially point to a vocational calling.
In a culture that often elevates the monumental over the mundane, such as the emphasis in many Christian circles on stories of God’s calling to overseas missions and/or public ministry, Betty challenged the group to also open their hearts and minds to God’s leading in the less newsworthy moments. Referencing Brother Lawrence, a figure she learned about at Vintage, she described ordinary moments in which she sensed God’s presence and worked with purpose in order to encourage people to not discount any task or situation as an opportunity to glorify God.
In the Q & A session, she thoughtfully offered advice to the students and community members in attendance. Reflecting on her current role, she expressed gratitude for the opportunity to engage in work that directly serves others and aligns with her values. In response to a student’s question about a sense of tension between anticipated work in the for-profit sector and her service-oriented values, Betty encouraged students to tune into their values as a framework for considering a job, company, or organization. However, she also affirmed the importance of even work that sometimes seems less directly connected to those values. In such roles, she encouraged people to seek the opportunities to love others in the workplace and to generously steward and invest their earnings in their communities. We cherished the honor of hearing Betty’s story and continue to ponder the insights she offered.
Remembering Bob Marsh
A longtime champion of Theological Horizons, Rev. Dr. C. Robert Marsh believed passionately in the ministry’s “unique contribution to the moral and intellectual debates of our time.”
We celebrate his life and legacy with much gratitude.
The Rev. Dr. Charles Robert Marsh, a Southern Baptist minister who served as senior pastor at Atlanta’s Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church from 1978 to 1993, died on December 23 while in hospice care at Lenbrook in Atlanta, Georgia. Marsh, a passionate teacher of the Bible, and a local religious leader in the desegregation of public schools in the South, was 92-years old.
Marsh began his pastoral career with a chronic stutter and fear of public speaking, but through fierce self-discipline became an eloquent and beloved preacher in an older, gentler evangelical culture. That self-discipline included long jogs through the streets of the southern towns he served with the typed manuscript of the sermon in his hand. Mile after mile, in his mismatched jersey and sweatpants, he read the text aloud until he had memorized each line and was ready to take the pulpit on Sunday mornings, where he would deliver the forty-five-minute message by heart with only his red leather King James Bible in hand.
“You and I are able to gather here in this beautiful sanctuary today only because the early church reckoned with the revolutionary ramifications of God’s amazing grace and tore down the barriers of prejudice,” Marsh said in one influential sermon on the theological necessity of ending an Alabama church’s whites-only, closed-door policy.
That sermon was the culmination of a month-long study series on the Bible and racial reconciliation, focusing on Paul’s theme of Christ the reconciler, that Marsh had convened after some white congregants objected when a Black family asked to join the 3,500-member First Baptist Church of Dothan, Alabama. The weekly studies, attended regularly by 150-200 church members, concluded with the sermon, “Amazing Grace for Every Race,” and, in turn, with the congregation’s acceptance of a Black family from Queens, New York, and a standing ovation.
“As Gentiles,” Marsh told the congregation, “You and I would never have become a member of the New Testament church, unless God, through the Holy Spirit, sent Philip to a Black man, sent Ananias to a Middle Eastern man, sent Peter to the man from Western Europe; and sent amazing grace to every race.”
The sermon marks one of many small acts of individual conscience that brought southern segregation in its extralegal forms to an end.
Charles Robert Marsh was born on July 17, 1932, in New Orleans, Louisiana, the first child of Howard and Elisabeth Marsh. When his father completed his optometry apprenticeship in the Crescent City, the family moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where Howard established a successful practice with locations downtown on Capitol Street and another on North State Street. His mother was a high-spirited woman who loved bridge and crime novels and held various positions in the Optimist Club of Jackson.
Marsh was raised in a nominally religious family that occasionally attended the Capital Street Methodist Church, but that preferred to spend Sundays fishing at the reservoir.
As a senior at Central High School, Marsh made a public profession of his faith in Jesus Christ in one of Billy Graham’s services in his 1952 crusade at the Jackson Fairgrounds. Following his born-again experience, Marsh became active in Youth for Christ ministries. On the encouragement of the group leader, matriculated as a freshman at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, the flagship school of southern fundamentalism, where it was joked, “a girl could be expelled for streaking with a hole in the knee of her bathing suit.” After receiving enough demerits to be permanently “campused” for a month – mostly for missing curfew or flunking room inspection – Marsh transferred to Baylor University where he double-majored in Bible and history.
In 1954, Marsh met the love of his life, Myra Brooks Toler, a native Jacksonian and former Miss Central High School. Bob and Myra were married in June 1955 at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, by which time Bob had been ordained as a Souther Baptist minister.
His first pastorate was at the First Baptist Church of Florence, Mississippi, just south of Jackson, which enabled Myra to continue her studies in theology and English literature at Belhaven College. On the Sunday after their honeymoon to Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the newly minted Reverend Marsh baptized his newlywed in full immersion, according to the requirements of Baptist polity.
While serving full-time as the pastor of the Spring Hill Avenue Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama, 1958 -1963, and the First Baptist Church of Andalusia, Alabama, 1963-1967, Marsh continued his graduate studies in practical theology and completed his doctoral dissertation at New Orleans Baptist Seminary on “Paul’s Concept of the Person and Its Implications for Christian Education” – traveling by train on the old L&N every Tuesday from Evergreen to New Orleans and back again to Alabama late Thursday night. He graduated with a Doctorate in Education in the spring 1967.
The same year, Marsh returned to Mississippi, accepting the call of pastor of the First Baptist Church of Laurel, which occupied a multi-acre lot between a vibrant downtown and a neighborhood of stately homes. Home to the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi, Laurel was also a town caught in the whirlwind of the civil rights movement.
With support of several white parishioners, including Charles Pickering, who would later be named by President George H. W. Bush as a federal judge to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Marsh supported the integration of public schools, refusing to join a small group of white families that formed a private “Christian” academy. Marsh’s views on Christian responsibility in society were inspired by numerous experiences: observing one of his seminary professors in New Orleans in a segregated streetcar condemn the absurdity of the whole ordeal; and visiting L’Abri, Edith and Francis Schaeffer’s Christian commune in Huemoz, Switzerland. Marsh would say that his greatest inspiration was the example of Billy Graham, who, during his 1952 Jackson Crusade, had removed the red segregation rope that separated black and white worshippers and said: “It touches my heart when I see whites stand shoulder to shoulder with blacks at the foot of the cross.”
These years and experiences would form the narrative arc of his pastoral vision: to show how the power of the Gospel should burn through the barriers of nationality, region, and race, and how people become “ambassadors of reconciliation.”
On July 23, 1978, the search committee of Atlanta’s Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church, chaired by Lee Burge, then the CEO of Equifax, presented their recommendation to the congregation to call Robert Marsh as the fourth pastor of the esteemed congregation on Peachtree Road. A week later, the committee introduced their new minister as Dr. C. Robert Marsh, a name he had never before used, though church members from earlier days continued to call him “Brother Bob.”
Marsh’s tenure in the influential pulpit assured him of keynote addresses at denominational events and membership on high-level boards and denominational agencies, as well as an honorary doctorate from Mercer University. In May 1980, he and author Madeleine L’Engle shared the stage at commencement ceremonies at Gordon College, in Wenham, Massachusetts. But nothing fulfilled Marsh more deeply than preaching and teaching to his congregation and going about the ordinary tasks of parish life.
Marsh’s fifteen years at “Second Ponce” were marked by success and growth amid the challenges of pastoring a prosperous southern church in a developing global city. Under Marsh’s leadership, “Second Ponce” become the denomination’s most reliable supporter of missionary activity at home and abroad, consistently leading the Georgia Baptist Convention in gifts to the Cooperative Program. “Missions was Marsh’s ‘first love,’ and an increased emphasis on missions was a natural extension of the historic focus of the identity of the church,” the historian Douglas Weaver wrote in his congregational history of the Atlanta church. Such largesse was possible because the church, during the Marsh years, reached historic levels of general budget giving – hitting the two-million-dollar mark in 1982 and three million in 1987, with an additional two million dollars raised for the proposed six and a half million-dollar Family Life Center, which was completed in 1990.
Marsh maintained a low political profile during the cataclysmic years of the Southern Baptist culture wars.
He sought to illumine a third way beyond doctrinaire fundamentalism and “moderate” denominational alternatives. The third way was not always clearly delineated, and some of his non-fundamentalist colleagues wished that he would use his influence to defend the moderate camp. At the same time, he rejected the rigid doctrine of biblical inerrancy and affirmed instead the more generous doctrine of Biblical infallibility. He supported Second Ponce’s successful move to ordain women deacons, with nine women elected in 1992. He poured resources into the church’s languishing “inner city” ministries and helped reboot the church’s Vietnamese Ministry, hiring a full time pastor for the Vietnamese-speaking congregation, sponsoring ESL and job-coaching programs, and creating networks of hospitality and support for the influx of refugees arriving in Atlanta through the U.S. Political Prisoners Relocation Program. He provided office space in Second Ponce’s educational wing for Baptist scholars who had been pushed out of their teaching posts by the new fundamentalist leaders. He remained loyal to the historic Baptist separation between church and state; he did not speak publicly on abortion, school prayer, or sexual orientation. His criticisms of the U. S. preemptive invasion of Iraq were based not on liberal political views but on his sense of loyalty to the missionaries and Christian communities in the Middle East. Indeed, in Marsh’s view, loyalty to the global Body of Christ remained the only antidote against Christian nationalism.
Four decades of ministry in a changing South took their toll. “Pastoral burn-out,” sheer exhaustion, and its attendant emotional upheavals led Marsh to resign from SPDL, to the surprise of many, in March 1993. Without the consolations of the pulpit, Marsh struggled to imagine a future beyond Second Ponce.
Eventually, Marsh’s resignation would lead to the most fulfilling chapter in his seven-decade ministry.
Beginning in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1994, Bob and Myra became true co-pastors, bringing their distinctive gifts of empathy and encouragement to Christian congregations in Copenhagen, Rome, Berlin, and Stavanger, Norway, where they served in different capacities as interim ministers. They spoke at the annual European Baptist convention in Interlaken, Switzerland, in dozens of smaller gatherings in western and eastern Europe – including Macedonia and Ukraine – and visited with believers beyond Europe in Dubai, India, Liberia, South Africa, Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, and Argentina. They developed friendships with Wycliffe Translators, Pioneer Missions, World Vision, and the European Baptist Convention. In the final ten years of his overseas ministry, Marsh entered into a generative partnership with Barnabas International that enabled financial support and oversight and opened new doors of Christian fellowship.
Letters and emails to friends and supporters back in the States conveyed the joys and discoveries of international Christian fellowship:
“Yesterday, I spent the entire afternoon at the Vienna Christian Center, speaking to a large group of women from across the city, mostly African immigrants. There was much praise, music, joy, and laughter (3 hours to be exact), as I taught from Psalm 73. Everyday has been filled with building bridges of friendship, being with people, and striving to share the love of Christ with precious people in this strategic city,” wrote Marsh sometime in the mid-90’s.
Marsh’s final chapter in ministry returned him to his first love of teaching the Bible in a local church in the South. Until shortly after his 90th birthday, he served as one of four teachers in an adult Sunday School Class of 100 – 150 members and wrote short theological essays in his “Bob’s Blog” for the Anchor website: https://anchorss.org/bobs-blog/.
Marsh is survived by his wife of 69 years, Myra Brooks, née Toler; brother Richard Scott Marsh of Florence, Mississippi; son Charles Robert Marsh, Jr., and daughter-in-law Karen Wright Marsh of Charlottesville, Virginia; and three grandchildren, Henry Brooks Marsh of Brooklyn, New York; William Toler Marsh of New Orleans, Louisiana; and Nan Elisabeth Marsh of Richmond, Virginia.
His son Charles, who holds the Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, wrote in a 1999 memoir about his father as a Baptist preacher at the dawn of a new South:
“My father’s way was never to break the bonds of friendship. He remained loyal to his church, to those he was called to serve, whether he liked the person or not. He built trust with people over meat-and-twos, football games, ice cream socials, and youth camps – in the ordinariness of the New Humanity.”
A celebration of Marsh’s life will be held at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday, January 13, at 2:00. In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that gifts be made to the C. Robert Marsh Pavilion Fund of Theological Horizons, at http://www.theologicalhorizons.org/giving. Donations may also be given through the University of Virginia, designated to Theological Horizons and made in Dr. Marsh’s memory using this same link.
Charles Marsh
January 6, 2025
Feast of the Epiphany
Before the Rush resources
Sorority rush begins at UVA--a process that sparks many urgent questions: Who are my friends? Where do I find my identity? Am I beautiful? How do I deal with stress and disappointment? with judgement? Where is God in all of this? These are questions that we all ask throughout our lives!
As students return to the university, we want share two precious resources: short audio talks that are just one click away. Listen to these talks from our past "Beat The Rush" events.
These talks for ALL women students--whether you are rushing a sorority, in a sorority already, not in a sorority! Like me, you are seeking love, acceptance, friendship...and struggling with insecurity, fear and doubts. It is so important to be reminded of how very beautiful and loved you are. So do yourself a favor and listen up...
The first talk is by Susan Cunningham on "Finding Your True Identity". Susan was named Best Psychologist in Charlottesville, and her words are so wise and so kind...Don't miss the truth about who YOU really are. Click HERE to listen to Susan's talk.
The second talk is by Miska Collier on "Knowing the Light and Love of God". Miska is a spiritual counselor--30 seconds into her talk you'll be hooked. Click HERE to listen to Miska's talk.
Karen Wright Marsh, Executive Director
Fall 2024 Highlight Reel!
Please enjoy this video celebrating a semester savoring the presence of God, seeking wisdom from the communion of saints, and sharing fellowship in our vibrant community. Hear students’ stories about TH’s enriching role in their lives, peek into the Bonhoeffer House during our beloved Vintage Lunches, and glimpse the fellowship at events with our board and broader community.
As we reflect on the semester, we thank God for His sustaining grace, steady guidance, and abundant blessings this fall at our gatherings in Charlottesville, across the country at Saints of the City and speaking engagements, and through cherished digital connections with friends around the world.
Filled with gratitude, we wish our whole TH family a truly joyous new year relishing the thrill of hope that Jesus infuses into the world year-round through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in the life of His people. We eagerly await His continued guidance, provision, and inspiration in our life together in 2025, as we celebrate 25 years at the University of Virginia and look to the future with gladness.
On Peacemaking | Grace Jackson ‘25
Last semester the Perkins Fellows read a book together called Dear White Peacemakers by Osheta Moore. One of the best parts of being a Perkins Fellow at UVA for multiple years is getting to read and reread some really wonderful books. In my second time reading Osheta’s book, her posture towards her white counterparts in justice work really stood out to me. My good friend and fellow Perkins Fellow, Megnot Abebe, challenged me to write my own letter to White Peacemakers. This was not a challenge I wanted to receive, but writing it was important work for my soul. As a White person myself, I often struggle to see myself as a Peacemaker or Beloved. Osheta encourages me (and hopefully you too!) to see the belovedness in every individual: my friends, my family, myself, and strangers alike. My words in this letter are honest and raw. I hope I can encourage you to be honest as well. More importantly, I hope to affirm your Belovedness.
Dear White Peacemaker,
I’m sorry for all the ways I judge you and look down on you. For assuming the worst in you. I’m sorry.
To the White lady in the kufiya screaming at the police, blocks away from where Prime Minister Netanyahu was speaking to congress: I’m sorry I turned to my liberal White friend beside me, raising my eyebrows and smirking. You scare me a little because I see myself in you. In 40 years I could be the White liberal spewing words just as hateful as what I am protesting against. I don’t want to be so tone deaf.
To my White friends who refer to any kind of service as “giving back”: I’m sorry I cringe when you say things like this. It’s just that we’re not “giving back” like this is some kind of transaction. And if it were, our ancestors have spent centuries stealing land and brutalizing bodies, minds, and souls, so we’d have to get a lot more serious if we wanted to start “giving back” what we have taken (which I am all for, but that’s a conversation for another time). I don’t want to be scared about how each of my words could be twisted, trying to be politically correct like you. I’m sorry I’m twisting your words right now and not listening to the compassion that you are trying to express.
To my White friends who study cultures, languages, races, and traditions from which you do not come, but spend every waking moment with your White friends, White families, White coworkers, and White boyfriends: I don’t understand. I don’t understand how you say you care about the same things I do, but commit to such a homogenous community. I am sorry for judging you based on who you spend time with; I should not judge a person’s commitment to justice (At all! Full stop.) … by the perceived Whiteness and richness of their circles.
To my White friends who don’t engage at all: I won’t lie, I understand you the least. But I know your apathy doesn’t come from a lack of goodness, mercy, love, and justice. Even if that last word scares you, I know it’s because you’re scared to say the wrong thing or cause more division. I’m sorry that I am angry and impatient with you.
White Peacemaker, I lay before you my honest confessions because, honestly, I have been you and I am still you. I have fit into each of these above categories before, and I’m sure I will continue to land in each one as I stumble along this path we call life. I easily become the raging White liberal, but I am also inclined to letting apathy or fear immobilize me. In each of us, there are strengths to celebrate and weaknesses we can hold each other accountable for.
In my journey to resist White supremacy culture, be in relationship with people across all lines of difference, and reject a lifestyle of homogeneity and complacency, I can so easily reject you, White Peacemaker. And, in a way, reject myself too. I’m sorry. And I want to grow beyond this false binary I put myself in.
White Peacemaker, it is hard for me to write this letter because I see myself in each of you. I see each of my own flaws magnified, so I lash out with sharp words against you and me both. I don’t want to end here, in frustration, as I too often do. In the spirit of Osheta Moore, I want to end by affirming your (our) Belovedness, and thanking you for being you.
To the furious friends: I see you. I’m sorry you are filled with such rage. Thank you for taking your anger to the streets.
To the “giving back” friends: I see you. I’m sorry nobody has taught you that your pursuit of justice is not about what you can accomplish but that our flourishing is collective and deeply intertwined with all of humanity, rooted in our universal Belovedness as children of God. Thank you for your hard work.
To the studious friends: I see you. I’m sorry for judging you. Thank you for allowing your mind and degree and career to be shaped by what is true and right and just.
To the quiet friends: I am trying to see you. I’m sorry for giving up trying to talk to you about the deeper things of life. Thank you for your sensitive heart.
White Peacemaker, I believe there is more in you. I say this because time and time again, Peacemakers of all races have seen my brokenness, affirmed my Belovedness, and have called me to higher. In my own expressions of rage, ignorance, fear, and apathy, I have been seen, fully. I have been forgiven, somehow. I have been thanked for the good despite it all. And I have been invited into this kingdom work. White Peacemaker, will you join me in building? There is room for the loud dismantlers, careful carpenters, and timid painters alike. And I’ll tell you a secret: you don’t have to be perfect to pick up a hammer.
With love,
Grace Jackson
A fellow White Peacemaker
Fionette King ‘26 | Reflections on Hope
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Romans 15:13
The Bible reminds us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. In this world that we face, through pain and struggle, the most important thing for us to remember is the hope we have in Jesus for a brighter tomorrow. As life throws challenges at us that test our faith and resilience, let us rest in the knowledge that we are more thanconquerors, and that Jesus is our living hope.
Prior to becoming a Perkins Fellow, I did not yet grasp how deeply I would come to care about fostering change and building healthier, more just communities. Over time, my journey has opened my eyes to the incredible work being done, both on grand scales and in small, often unseen ways. Every day, I am struck by the resilience and creativity of people working tirelessly to plant seeds of transformation. Yet, as I reflect on this, I am convinced that such efforts are rooted in something far greater: the hope that God places within us, coupled with our willingness to act on that hope. Without this divine gift, our capacity to envision and work toward a better future would falter.
It is easy to become discouraged when we see all of the pain and strife that takes place around the world. The weight of injustice can lead us to despair, threatening to extinguish our drive to pursue a more compassionate society. In all this, scripture always reassures us. Isaiah 40:31 states, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” As fallen humans, hope is not something we can retain in our own power. Naturally, we are prone to discouragement and our hope burns out quickly. It is only in God’s power that we remain able to work towards healthier communities in bold faith and divine courage.
Hope is a muscle that we train through fervent prayer and resilient action. It is a contagious spirit that flows from us as we continue to work and learn together. Let us be encouraged by the work being done, but never grow complacent. God has emboldened us to be changemakers and shine His light by loving on the communities around us.
New Years Day | A Blessing
Greetings and gratitude on this New Year’s Day!
As we enter into this new year, we do so with gratitude for so many provisions. But, we also come with uncertainty and losses carried with us. May this Scripture and Blessing offer you strength and courage as you begin again.
“He will keep your feet on solid ground and guide you to the end of the trail so that you will have a good reputation when the day comes for our Honored Chief Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One to be revealed”
A Blessing for a New Year
On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.
And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets in to you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green,
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.
-John O’Donohue
With thankful hearts,
From all of us at Theological Horizons
The Benefits of Generosity
As we enter into a season of giving, we at TH loved learning about the benefits of our impulse to be generous.
After decades of research that assumed human nature to be intrinsically selfish and aggressive, recent years have seen the emergence of a more complex and nuanced understanding of the science of generosity. While studies suggest that humans have a propensity for self-interest, research has also revealed that currents of generosity run deep within us.
Learn about some of the important results that researchers have learned about the benefits of generosity in this infographic.*
Christmas Eve | Advent with Bonhoeffer
“...In Jesus you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy…” (1 Peter 1:8)
Christmas Joy
Joy to the world!
For the sake of humankind, Jesus Christ became a human being in a stable in Bethlehem:
Rejoice, O Christendom!...
For all of us, Jesus Christ was resurrected to life:
Rejoice, O Christendom!...
All over the world today people are asking:
Where is the path to joy?
The church of Christ answers loudly:
Jesus is our joy!
Joy to the world!
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer
May you and yours be filled with the inexpressible and glorious joy of Jesus Christ this Christmas!