
Not My Own Agenda, Lord, But Yours
Habemus Papam! (We have a Pope!) Hope surged through me as the newly elected Pope walked out onto the balcony in St. Peter’s square. Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, offered peace to the people of God. He will steer the ship in his own unique way, charting a course in the trajectory of Pope Francis. And, yet, he is not Francis.

Nothing is Hidden
I’m pretty thorough when it comes to cleaning dishes, but every now and again some grime is left on the inside of a bowl. So, I go back and clean it again. Who likes a dirty dish? Even Jesus hated dirty dishes. He questioned the Pharisees and lawyers in his day who focused intently on their purity rituals. Jesus poignantly used the metaphor to accuse them of cleaning the outside of the dish, but leaving the inside neglected. In the Hebrew world, the “inside” refers to the heart, but not the way we think of it in our Western culture.