We can say to those who have assumed the responsibility of attacking us, what Joseph said to his brothers when they came to him after they had seen the mistakes which they had made: “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”
Gen 50:20
“Love takes everything that comes without giving up. Love believes all things. Love hopes for all things. Love keeps on in all things. Love never comes to an end.”
(I Corinthians 13: 7-8, New Life Version)
Danielle Steel
10-11-21
Excerpt from Busy Bumpy and Beautiful
Just read back through your comments and messages on my recent blogs, you touch my heart—the regulars, the recurring names, some new ones. You warm my heart. You can’t imagine how much I appreciate your comments and messages. You always touch me, you give me back tenfold whatever I am able to give to you in my books and the blog. Thank you with all my heart for your responses, they truly mean the world to me, they feed my soul, as you say I feed yours—it is a fair and good exchange that I am so grateful for!!!
Your messages are often very profound, I love the beautiful quote from Corinthians to the effect that “Love faces whatever comes along and doesn’t give up.” Wow, that’s a good one and a tall order. I believe it, and sometimes it is so hard not to give up, to keep on going through every storm. But every time I do that, the rewards are enormous. But it certainly isn’t easy sometimes. And it certainly is good advice.
I faced a challenging situation this week. I always tell my children, and have always told them, “Stand up for what you believe in, even if you stand alone.” Great motherly advice!! So noble, so strong, so honorable—-easy to say and sometimes so incredibly hard to do. I found myself alone in an unpopular position this week. And standing up for what you believe in can cost you: a job, a friend, someone you love. It’s all very nice if everyone agrees with you, but when you take a hard position, based on principle, or your profound beliefs, or you know what’s right, there can be stiff consequences, and wisdom may dictate not to stick your neck out and rock the boat. If you do it at work, you can lose, and we all have responsibilities. It’s easy to take tough, unpopular positions if you have nothing at risk. In any case, I found myself unexpectedly in an unpopular position this week, with a stand I knew I had to take. I truly felt I had no choice. I anticipated heavy criticism, and got some, and the potential for a major storm was great. I wound up alone on the firing line, stuck to my guns as politely as possible, and in the end I had one ally at my side to support me (but an ally who didn’t agree with me). I took my position firmly…..and much to my amazement, the roof didn’t fall in, no major explosion happened, the ‘other side’ had thought it over and agreed with me, and everything fell into place quietly without a battle. Wow!! But I had the guts to take a stand on what I believed to be principle, and I’m so glad I did. Even if you appear to lose from doing that, it’s the right thing to do in the end. It was a good reminder that what I’d always said to my kids was right….but it was scary as hell for a while!!! Doing and saying the right thing is always the right thing, even if it’s hard. I stuck to what I believed in. At every age we are faced with the same questions, the same battles, the same challenges, to test us, and make us stronger. But it’s definitely not fun when it’s happening. It’s a good feeling though, standing for what you believe in.
10/11/21, “Busy Bumpy and Beautiful”
“I’ve always said everyone needs heroes and everyone deserves to see themselves in their heroes and I’m very grateful DC and Warner Bros. share this idea,” writer Tom Taylor said, according to the release. “Superman’s symbol has always stood for hope, for truth and for justice. Today, that symbol represents something more. Today, more people can see themselves in the most powerful superhero in comics.”
Writer – Tom Taylor
Oct. 11, 2021, 12:54 PM MDT
By Jo Yurcaba
NBC News
Happy Coming Out Day to the latest Man of Steel.
DC Comics announced Monday, on National Coming Out Day, that the new Superman is bisexual and will start a relationship with a man in the forthcoming issue of “Superman: Son of Kal-El,” as first reported by IGN.
Jon Kent — the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, who inherited his father’s powers — will fall for reporter Jay Nakamua, whom he met while trying and failing to attend high school using a secret identity, according to The New York Times. After Jon Kent burns out from “trying to save everyone that he can,” Jay is there to care for him, according to a news release from DC Comics.
The two kiss in the fifth issue, which will hit stands Nov. 9.
“I’ve always said everyone needs heroes and everyone deserves to see themselves in their heroes and I’m very grateful DC and Warner Bros. share this idea,” writer Tom Taylor said, according to the release. “Superman’s symbol has always stood for hope, for truth and for justice. Today, that symbol represents something more. Today, more people can see themselves in the most powerful superhero in comics.”
Christian Science Sentinel
EDITORIAL – SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 ISSUE
Tony Lobl
At a meeting hosting an international panel of guests, an audience member was very sure of the superiority of one side of a polarized global debate. She explained how the issue was playing out locally, and presumed the panel would endorse her view of what was right.
The avenues for succumbing to the temptation to feel a moral superiority and circulate such views are greatly enlarged in this digital era. But doing so is nothing new. In the public square of his day, Christ Jesus roundly rebuked religious leaders for criticizing the trespasses of others while ignoring their own moral failings. He called them “blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24).
Clearly, any moral superiority we entertain is alien to this higher identity. Self-righteousness—like the debilitating sins of anger, dishonesty, selfishness, resentment, and egotism—does not express what we truly are. All these stem from being mistakenly persuaded that there’s more than one Mind and that we can have a separate mind that sees both good and evil as real. This is the flawed conclusion of the limited and distorted physical senses, which convey the false claim of our separation from God’s infinite goodness.
Every gain in moral clarity is a step away from the self-righteous indignation that would limit our lives and self-center our love. It’s a step toward fully embracing the unlimited love native to us as God’s children, in which we reflect divine Love’s all-inclusive care. Far from weakening our influence on issues of concern, this shift spiritualizes and broadens it, and supports the emergence of divinely wise and innovative solutions.
Perhaps the sweet words of the speaker at that conference were correct. We are all right! Not in the human opinions we entertain, but in the Christliness that is our true nature. Lifting our perspective to this true view, we begin to see that we are God’s loved offspring. And whichever “they” we might be tempted to stand in judgment of, so are they!
Tony Lobl, Associate Editor
“Tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.”
Luke 7: 22 KJV
Several articles and editorials have been written explaining why homosexuals cannot be admitted to membership. One of these I wrote myself, the title: “Homosexuality Can Be Healed.” All I can say in defense of myself for writing it is that it was based on information I thought was authentic, but which later was disproved. If I were to write another article on the subject now, I would probably entitle it, “We’re ALL God’s Children.”
by Carl J. Welz, C.S.B.
Houston, TX – October 11, 1986
FILE – In this May 12, 2021 file photo, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington.(AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File)By Associated Press
Published: Sep. 26, 2021 at 7:31 PM MDT|Updated: 11 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney tells CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that she was wrong to have opposed gay marriage. In the interview aired Sunday night, Cheney also says that her 2022 reelection campaign is the country’s most important House race because the issue is support for the Constitution or for former President Donald Trump.
Forces aligned with Trump are trying to unseat Cheney.
The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney was a rising Republican leader before the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. She voted to impeach Trump and now serves as vice chair of a committee investigating the assault.
H.B
G. Manning
Mary has just witnessed the resurrected Christ and comes to tell the disciples in the scene below:
PETER: You were with him?
MARY: To the end.
Peter, as the sun rose,
I saw him.
He was there, and he was…
All his pain was gone from him.
PETER: A dream.
MARY: It wasn’t a dream.
He was there.
Mary, he is gone from us.
He is dead.
MARY: He’s not gone.
Even death cannot hold him.
This whole time, we’ve been looking
for a change in the world,
but it’s not what we thought.
The kingdom is here, now.
JAMES: Mary.
You saw him? Truly?
But then, the kingdom,
how can that be right?
MARY: Because it’s not something
we can see with our eyes.
It’s here within us.
All we have to do is let go of
our anguish and our resentment,
and we become like children,
just as he said.
PETER: What do you mean?
MARY: The kingdom, it can’t be
built through conflict.
Not by opposition,
not by destruction.
It grows with us, with every
act of love and care,
with our forgiveness.
We have the power
to lift the people,
just as he did, and then we
will be free, just as he is.
PETER: Mary.
Why would he come to you alone?
MARY: Why does that matter?
PETER: Because you say the
kingdom is here. Now.
And just outside that door,
there is no new world.
No end of oppression.
No justice for the poor,
for the suffering.
MARY: How does it feel to carry that
anger around in your heart?
Does it lessen
as the days go by?
We have the power
to relieve their suffering.
It is up to us.
PETER: I believe you, Mary.
I believe that you saw him,
that he came to you,
and it was a sign
that he will return,
and he will bring the kingdom,
the true kingdom.
The new world.
MARY: The world will only change
as we change.
PETER: It’s not right that you come here now
to tell us he has chosen you before us,
that he has brought you
some special message.
MARY: He gathered us
for what was inside.
We were all precious to him.
We were all his apostles.
PETER: (SIGHS) You have weakened us, Mary.
You weakened him.
MARY: All I can do is hope that
you’ve heard what I have said.
Pray that you see me as I am.
I value each one of you
as he did.
You are all my brothers,
and I thank you.
But I will not stay
and be silent.
JESUS: You do not lose heart.
Even now.
Didn’t you ask,
“What will it be like?”
“The kingdom?”
MARY:
It is like a seed.
A single grain of mustard seed,
which a woman took
and sowed in her garden.
And it grew,
and it grew.
And the birds of the air
made nests in its branches.
J. P. FILBERT, C. S. D.
From the December 1891 issue of The Christian Science Journal
What think you, were you to call a Christian Scientist to the bedside of the heavenly homesick and suffering patient, and he should repeat Homer or Shakspeare to the patient for relief? What comfort could the creature obtain from such a course? Yet, for me to call upon a suffering patient, and repeat the letter only, minus the spiritual rays of Love, would be a parallel procedure. The mortal that is heavy laden by the hand of the lord god of this world, is in a parched condition; and one drop of the waters of sympathy and kindness, and a crumb of the bread of tenderness from a fellow-mortal, will do a hundred times more for such a mortal than all the combined utterances of lore or logic, committed to memory and repeated orally or silently.
Jesus wept at Lazarus’ grave, because of the sisters’ blindness to spiritual Truth. But his deep, tender compassion for their need brought forth his (at that time) highest demonstration of Love. This brought out the true sense of the words,—”See how he loved him.” Such sympathy as this is a heavenly shower and solvent that first cools mortal mind and then dissolves it, and so cleanses the foul atmosphere of error, delivering the patient from his enemy and destroyer, the carnal mind.
Such is the surgery of Christian Science, all by the selfsame Spirit, Love reflected, or God made manifest in the flesh. The anti-Christian, serpentine logic that has crept into beliefs of so-called Christian Scientists and has given vent to such utterances, in substance, as, “you must be stoical and bereft of all human sympathy towards your own family and in the sick room,” is one of those detestable things that so-called Christian Scientists have defiled themselves with. Such a mode as this is eating and drinking damnation, not reflecting the Christ-image, which alone can heal and save.
| e-inspire, September 16th, 2021 by Laura Moliter |
“Love takes everything that comes without giving up. Love believes all things. Love hopes for all things. Love keeps on in all things. Love never comes to an end.”
(I Corinthians 13: 7-8, New Life Version)
Love is truly defined by its endurance, its infinite and abiding nature. This love is the expression of God’s own Love. Human affection only goes so far, for it can’t help but be bound up in ego and limitation.
But as we yield to divine Love, which is with us and in us, there is a boundless supply of love to give, and it has a strength that does not fail or diminish. We can lean into and utilize this divine Love, which supplies us with the capacity and the stamina to continue to believe no matter what. Let’s accept nothing less than the Love that doesn’t give up when things get hard or when fear wants to set in.
This pure Love doesn’t leave us in the lurch. It is constantly reminding us that we are not alone and that we always have more love to feel as well as to offer. When we stop qualifying love by persons and behaviors, we feel more free to be generous with our own love. We become more forgiving, hopeful, expectant, as well as genuinely grateful.
Laura Moliter, Divine Purpose Coach and Spiritual Activist
(38) For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
[39] Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom.8 Verses 38 to 39
Video:
I’ve read many of the comments below, and no one made the observation — not mine but one I heard on another video analyzing the end of the moive — that there are three PAVED roads leading form the intersection, and one DIRT road, and that road takes you to Bettina’s farm. This is a visual representaton of final stansa of Robert Frost’s poem:, “The Road Not Taken” (Frost took the road, the last stansa reading:), I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I– I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
From the Comment Section
e-inspire,
August 31st, 2021
by Laura Moliter
Laura Moliter, Divine Purpose Coach and Spiritual Activist
(38) For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
[39] Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom.8 Verses 38 to 39
.
Thirteen American troops were among the nearly 200 people killed in an attack at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan on Thursday.
A detonation set off by an ISIS-K suicide bomber near the airport’s Abbey Gate amid evacuation efforts killed at least 170 Afghans, including several children, as well as two Brits and a child of a British citizen, according to Afghan and British officials.
President Joe Biden called the U.S. service members killed in the attack “heroes who have been engaged in a dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others.
Those killed included 11 Marines, as well as an Army soldier and a Navy medic, U.S. officials said.
“Those warriors who died gave their lives to save thousands of men, women and children, Americans and Afghans alike,” Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations, said in a statement. “Their courage and selflessness represent the highest ideals of America. We pay solemn tribute to their sacrifice.”
https://abcnews.go.com/US/us-service-members-killed-kabul-airport-attack/story?id=79685589
“There was no question that life was complicated. But in the complications were both the questions and the answers, the hidden solutions and unexpected blessings. All one needed was the courage to pursue them. In the end, the complications they had run into had served them well. And whatever the answers and the solutions, and no matter how hard the road, every day was a gift.
“Complications,” page 243
by Danielle Steel
There are two themes that ring out clearly from the hundreds — actually thousands — of stories I have read this month: first, that we all deeply desire to be known and loved by our Creator God, and second, that we all desperately need to know that the people we are closest to, our families and friends, love us just because we breathe. Pretty simple, right?
This is not just our story; I have heard from hundreds of men and women whose experiences of rejection and alienation from family members have sparked downward spirals of depression, addiction and despair.
We tell our story to anyone who will listen for one reason only: We are trying, in our own small way, to do something right. By exposing our own grave errors, we pray that others will learn from us and treat their own children differently. We pray that it won’t take them six long years and losing their child to drugs and the streets in order to wake them up to the truth that every parent must love their children without any condition.
And the winner is…YOU! (summer rerun)
Originally Posted on February 28, 2016
by Thomas Mitchinson, Christian Science Committee on Publication for Illinois
From the Golden Globes to the Grammys and Oscars, this is the season when Hollywood’s elite are dressing up, walking down the red carpet, and making acceptance speeches. Nominees know a win can enhance their career, and bring them much happiness.
But most of us don’t win awards. Is there a way we can find lasting happiness and self-worth?
I am reminded of a story related in the first book of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. It told about a teacher in New York who decided to give each of her students a blue ribbon printed with the words, “Who I Am Makes a Difference.” And she told each student something good about them.
She also gave each of her students two blue ribbons to give away – one to someone they admired, and the other for the admired person to pass along to someone else. One man received a blue ribbon from one of the class members, and then gave the second one to his teenaged son. He told the boy, “My days are pretty hectic, and when I come home I don’t pay a lot of attention to you.
Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me. Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life. You are a great kid and I love you!”
The son was so touched he began to cry. He finally uttered, “I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn’t think you loved me. Now I don’t need to.”
The comforting, healing words of that dad seem to echo these words of Jeremiah from the Bible, “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying, ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.’” (Jer. 31: 3). This could mean that God’s love draws out what is good and valuable in us, more and more.
Everyone is loved and needed by God. No one is excluded. If you feel excluded, it may be helpful to know that your life has its source in divine Love, and that you are not alone.
Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy placed great emphasis on God’s love for His creation. She realized the connection between divine Love and an individual’s self-worth and well-being. She wrote in her landmark book on spirituality, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation.” As one understands himself to be God’s child, the object of His unconditional, unending love, one feels deeply valued. This gives a peace of mind like nothing else.
So here is your honor: You are important, you make a difference. You have a life connected to God, and are precious to Him. You are uniquely loved. You are a winner!
©2016 Christian Science Committee on Publication for Illinois
View the post at http://www.csillinois.com/2016/02/28/and-the-winner-is-you-2/
e-inspire, July 23rd, 2021
Quinn: “Have you ever seen the green flash when the sun goes down? It happens for an instant and you have to looking for it at the right time. It is the most perfect moment in any sunset, and if you blink you miss it … that’s all I want now that perfect instant, the green flash when the sun goes down and the night comes … I have to follow that where ever it leads me …”
Maggie: “Maybe the flash you’re looking for is within you. Maybe you don’t need to run as far as you think.”
She knew he was running from, as much as he was running to, but only he could discover that, as she knew.”
“Miracle” by Danielle Steel
Photo – Santa Fe, NM Art Gallery (Summer 2021)
July 2, 2021
As many countries open travel and business once again, some people are feeling liberated, while others are reluctant to emerge too quickly. But all of us can look beyond what is restricted or allowed and seek something more than just returning to bustling cafés and gridlocked traffic. True freedom is much greater.
The discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, goes to the heart of true freedom when she says, “God’s being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 481). God, Spirit, is the real source and essence of freedom – fearless and limitless Life. You and I are inseparable from God, and are inherently free because God, as Life, is so.
Christ Jesus, the greatest example of someone living a life of true freedom, unfettered by the confines of matter, promised those who followed his teachings, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32, New King James Version). More than a freedom from something, Jesus taught the freedom to do or be something by accepting our real nature as a child of God, inseparable from God. Freedom is living and acting from the basis of our innate, spiritual identity, which is God-given and can never be taken from us.
Even when someone didn’t appear to be free, Jesus showed them that freedom was their divine right. One such man, who had been ill for 38 years and felt helpless, sat by the side of a special pool said to bring healing to the first one who touched it after an angel was believed to stir the water (see John 5:2-9). He was waiting for someone to bring him his freedom by putting him into the water. He believed health and liberty were possible but rare, and dependent on unique circumstances, whereas Jesus showed him that freedom was right at hand, universally available.
The more we understand and seek God, the more Truth dawns in consciousness and shows limitations to be false. The more we observe and pay attention to the thoughts that are guiding our actions, the more we can change them. The spiritual truth of what we are supersedes beliefs about what we are not. We are not our beliefs about ourselves – we are the clear-thinking, peaceful, compassionate, innovative, pure expressions of God, and include freedom and boundless bliss.
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/A-Christian-Science-Perspective/2021/0702/Finding-true-freedom
By Lona Ingwerson
Excerpt from the September 2019 issue of The Christian Science Journal
is to see that you’ve never been in them.
“Ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free?” *
Wasn’t the truth we were to know
the truth that we were free already—
that we had never lost our true identity
as God’s own image and likeness—
that we didn’t need to now climb out
of somewhere we’d never been?
—Lona Ingwerson
Mandela stood on the front steps of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, just across from the Monitor’s headquarters, and spoke of the “warmth and love” he had received in Boston. He then surprised those gathered with these words:‘The signs are there.’ Is US democracy on a dangerous trajectory?
“The Christian Science Monitor was well known to me during my 27 years in prison. It continues to give me hope and confidence for the world’s future.”
“We need a world without distinction among peoples,” Mandela said. “We are all children of God.”
ESCAPE FROM PRETORIA – Official Trailer
Escape From Pretoria is the true story of Tim Jenkin (Daniel Radcliffe) and Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber), young, white South Africans branded “terrorists”, and imprisoned in 1978 for working covert operations for Nelson Mandela’s banned ANC. Incarcerated in Pretoria Maximum Security Prison, they decide to send the apartheid regime a clear message and escape! With breath-taking ingenuity, meticulous surveillance, and wooden keys crafted for 10 steel doors, they make a bid for freedom…Beyond a thrilling will-they-won’t-they-escape, this is the story of an oppressed majority’s struggle, and two ordinary men who stood-up to be counted in the pursuit of equality for all.
.
By Rosalie E. Dunbar
From the October 2003 issue of The Christian Science Journal
Back in the 1970s I sat in a church pew listening to an Anglican priest tell about being arrested for his resistance to apartheid in South Africa and his conviction that people’s prayers had led to his release. The power of prayer to uphold and defend human rights—it’s a message that still rings true and works wonders, as the writers in this month’s Frontlines make clear.
They have seen prayer at work in a variety of circumstances and settings from Afghanistan and parts of Africa to Indonesia and the Philippines. And the rest of the issue speaks of other rights: the right to be free of disease, of anger, of fear—all of which can be imprisoning in their own way.
Probably none of these reports would surprise Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of this magazine. From her New England home, Mrs. Eddy scanned the world near and far. She saw that people had a human right to health—that being imprisoned in a sick body was not unlike being trapped in a sick country. With a lifetime of proofs behind her, she could write in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “The power of God brings deliverance to the captive. No power can withstand divine Love.”1
Wherever in the world you are, no matter what you face, let the book that explains Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, become your key to freedom. Put it into the “lock” of whatever is limiting you or frightening you. Turn the key. And when—not if—the door opens, go through. To freedom.
Rosalie E. Dunbar, Managing Editor
NFL Player Carl Nassib Comes Out & Gives $100,000 for LGBT Suicide Prevention
PREVENTION: Starts In Families: LGBTQ youth whose families are more supportive have significantly lower rates of depression, substance abuse and suicidal ideation and attempts. It is important for federal, state, local, community and faith-based programs to support families of LBGTQ youth, such as through parenting skills-building, case management services, professional best practices in the justice and healthcare systems, and promotion of positive role models.
If we do a better job of providing a supportive and respectful environment early in life, we could help reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS and assure a higher quality of life for the next generation of LGBTQ Americans.
Jeff Levi – Former deputy director of the White House Office of National AIDS policy under President Clinton and executive director of the Trust for America’s Health.
Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib came out as gay on Monday, becoming the first active player in the National Football League to do so. “Just want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” Nassib said in an Instagram video. Read more here: https://cbsn.ws/2Sgtb78
Updated June 21, 2021 10:06 PM ET
Vanessa-Romo
Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib came out in a personal Instagram post on Monday, saying he has “agonized over this moment for the last 15 years.”
“I just want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” Nassib said in an Instagram video he posted on his verified Instagram account. “I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now, but I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest.”
The 28-year-old added: “I really have the best life. I’ve got the best family, friends and job a guy could ask for. I’m a pretty private person, so I hope you guys know that I’m really not doing this for attention. I just think that representation and visibility are so important.”
Nassib is by no means the first gay football player in the NFL, but he is the first openly gay active player in the league to play in the regular season. Michael Sam came out as gay following his successful college career and before the 2014 NFL draft, making him the first publicly gay player to be drafted in the NFL. However, Sam played only during the preseason. A handful of other players have come out after their professional careers had ended.
The Raiders and the NFL posted congratulations.
“I stand on the shoulders of giants, incredible people who paved the way for me to have this opportunity,” Nassib wrote in his post.
He also announced that he is donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that focuses on suicide prevention programs for LGBTQ youth.
“For someone like me, who’s been so lucky and cherished every day, it brings me incredible sadness to think that our LGBTQ youth are at such an elevated risk for suicide,” Nassib wrote.
He signed off, calling himself “a lanky walk-on who’s living his dream,” wishing everyone a happy Pride month.
REV. JAMES J. ROME
Excerpt below from the August 1911 issue of The Christian Science Journal
WHAT combination of words has been repeated so often as the introductory phrase of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father which art in heaven,” and yet how many of the millions who have repeated it have had any deep appreciation of the wealth of meaning therein contained? Coming as it did from the lips of one whose spiritual exaltation fitted him to speak with authority to the raging storm or the sealed tomb, we cannot attach to it too much importance or regard it with too much reverence, especially when we consider the circumstances under which it was first uttered.
… With the idea of the fatherhood of God there has been associated somewhat of the sense of austerity which was to some extent lacking in the concept of tenderness and gentleness included in the thought of motherhood. When we open Science and Health, however, we read in the spiritual interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father-Mother God”(p. 16). This recognition of femininity in the nature of God is met with surprise, and to some it seems almost startling, yet in Genesis we read, “In the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Certainly if God’s image is recognized by Him as male and female, these qualities must be included in the divine selfhood. Furthermore, in the plurality of the name Elohim for God do we not find authority for the inclusion of the masculine and feminine qualities of Mind? But perhaps the better reason for this recognition of the mother element in Deity is that already intimated, viz., that the term Father-Mother expresses the fuller concept of parenthood, suggesting not only the abiding and inflexible insistence of divine law, but also the tenderness and compassion of divine Love. How significant is the close relationship here indicated, the closest indeed of all human ties. On the one hand we have the Father’s care, counsel, and guidance, combined on the other hand with a sense of motherly solicitude, tenderness, and affection, which begets honor, obedience, trust, confidence, reliance, and assurance.
On Page 18 of “Miscellaneous Writings” we find this thought expressed by Mrs. Eddy in the words, “Thou shalt recognize thyself as God’s spiritual child only;” and also by Jesus, when he said, “Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.” In the realization of this heavenly kinship we rise into higher spiritual altitudes, where the mists and discords of materiality fade away and we bask in the fuller effulgence of Love’s eternal sunshine, and where in holy confidence we repeat again: “Our Father which art in heaven.”
e-inspire, June 9th, 2021
Man who is loved very much, do not be afraid. May peace be with you. Be strong and have strength of heart.
Daniel 10:19, New Life Version
Matthew McConaughey
“Greenlights”
Excerpt below from “Greenlights,” pg 156, by Matthew McConaughey
“It was the twelfth night of my twenty-two day adventure and I was settling into camp. I’d already hiked over eighty miles to this point and tomorrow I’d finally be in the waters of my wet dream, the Amazon river. Up to this point in the trip I’d had a hard time being present, so excited in anticipation of what the Amazon would mean to me, I had missed most of the beauties getting there. Still wrestling with my identity, I was guilt-ridden over sins of my past, lonely, and disgusted with the company I was keeping, my own.
“In my tent, grappling with my demons, I couldn’t sleep, so I quit trying to. Instead, I stripped off my clothes, along with every badge, banner, expectation, and affiliation I had on me. I discarded my American baseball cap that was my totem to patriotism, the Celtic knot pendant that symbolized my Irish heritage, the Lone Star Flag amulet that stood for my Texas pride, and every other mascot of inspiration from adventures past. I even discarded the gold ring my father had given me that was made from a meltdown of his and my mom’s class rings and gold from one of her teeth. I removed every idol that ever gave me comfort and security, pride, or confidence. All the window dressings and representations, the packaging around my product, was gone. I even punched myself in the face a couple of times for good measure. Who was I? Not only on this trip but in this life. Now naked and stripped down to nothing, I was only a child of God, and nothing more. Soaked in cold sweat, I vomited until there was no bile left in my belly, then passed out from exhaustion.”
