60 Seconds of Hope with Horace McMillon

Send us Fan Mail Seek Peace Over Wealth and Status  “Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” - Ecclesiastes 4:6 The writer of Ecclesiastes encourages us to live balanced lives. While acknowledging that “money answers all things”, the writer also declares that the person seeking silver will never be satisfied with it no matter how much they get....

Send us Fan Mail How to not lose heart “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” - 2 Corinthians 4:16 I find this verse extremely difficult and simultaneously profound. In this verse Paul is describing an external circumstance or condition that he doesn’t expect to get any better. There’s no happy ending coming.  He recogn...

Send us Fan Mail Living in Harmony  “ How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” - Psalm 133:1 I have come to believe that we do not need to think alike, understand alike, or believe alike in order for us to love each other and live with a type of oneness or unity.  Perhaps the most helpful definition of unity I’ve come across is harmony. When folks are singing together...

Send us Fan Mail Tell Your Story of Hope “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, those he redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands.” - Psalm 107:2 Another word for redeem is restore. An important part of our healing and restoration includes the sharing of our stories.  Remembering where we came from helps us remember where we are going and why.  Sharing our stories of redemption and rest...

Send us Fan Mail Life Is Not Always Fair “The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” - from Ecclesiastes 9:11 Life is not always fair. We do not always get what we deserve. Sometimes not getting what we deserve is a good thing, but that’s a separate reflection....

Send us Fan Mail Knowing Our Seasons  “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” - Ecclesiastes 3:1 I’ve come to embrace this wisdom as one of the central truths of my existence. It’s important for us to discern not only the whats but also the whens, wheres, and whys. In order for us to flourish and contribute our best, we must do the right things, in the r...

Send us Fan Mail Throw Off That Yoke: A Father’s Blessing  On this particular Father’s Day, my mind goes back to the unusual blessing that Isaac gave his son Esau in Genesis 27. It’s a blessing I suspect all of us need.  Listeners  and readers not familiar with this story should know that the father Isaac had been fooled into giving Esau’s intended and rightful blessing to his twin brother Jacob a...

Send us Fan Mail Eat, Drink, Be Merry, and Grateful  “So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.” - Ecclesiastes 8:15 Our days in this life are few. Life itself can be extremely unfair. Sometimes there are no go...

Send us Fan Mail Love is its own reward. “Living a life of love and service is its own reward.” - Horace McMillon I think it likely someone else has spoken these exact words well before me. Google offered me no answers this morning. So I’m claiming them as my own.  I grew up in a faith tradition that emphasizes that the decision to follow Jesus on his way is an individual decision that can only be...

Send us Fan Mail What if we believed we could… What if, for a moment, we were willing to believe that our lives have meaning and purpose? What if we were willing to believe that each of us is here in this world to be a blessing to someone in some way?  “On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar. Under it every kin...

Send us Fan Mail It’s ok to want more “May he grant you your heart's desire, and fulfill all your plans.” - Psalm 20:4 We don’t have to cut our hopes, dreams, and aspirations down to make them fit into the box of our current limitations. It’s ok for us to want more for ourselves, our families, our communities, and our world.  It’s ok to desire more as long as our desires are centered in grati...

Send us Fan Mail Only God Sees What’s Inside Us “for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." - 1 Samuel 16:7 The world looks at us with suspicion and prejudice. We, ourselves,  look at others and judge them harshly. We even do the same when we look at ourselves.  The trouble is that we can only see ourselves as we are now, a...

Send us Fan Mail What speaks to your heart? “Keep only things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest.”  - Marie Kondo We live in a world of limitless possibilities. There are more things to do than we have time or energy to pursue. It’s important that we become highly intentional about what we keep in our physical and mental spaces, highly intentional about how we...

Send us Fan Mail Develop a Mountain Mindset  “All battles are first won or lost, in the mind”-Joan of Arc (via Monique McMillon) One of the saddest stories in the Bible? The people of Israel had been liberated from 400 years of slavery, endured a trip through the wilderness, and were on the verge of entering the place God had for them. But they turned back because they saw themselves as grasshoppe...

Send us Fan Mail Our external circumstances need not dictate our internal state. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardlywe are being renewed day by day.” 1 Corinthians 4:16 Paul dealt with a lot of adversity in life. After his experience of God on the road to Damascus, and after the kindness and care he received from the Christians he once persecuted, he...

Send us Fan Mail When you find your path, keep running. “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” - Hebrews 12:1 I wish that I could tell you that the road is easy. I wish I could tell you that you will never experience setbacks, failures, and disappointments. I cannot tell you that.  I will encourage you to keep ru...

Send us Fan Mail What it means to live by faith.  “Now the just shall live by faith.” - Hebrews 10:38  (Also see Habakkuk 2:4) I’ve come to understand that we can’t always wait to see if love is stronger than hate, and if good will prevail over evil before we decide whose side we are going to be on, before we decide how we are going to live.  We can’t wait until harvest season to decide if we are...

Send us Fan Mail Called to Hope “O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.” - Psalm 130:7 There are quite a number of people in my faith tradition and others who have given up all hope for this world. I understand the inclination. It’s easy to despair when we see the injustice and exploitation, when we see the human inflicted suff...

Send us Fan Mail Don’t Suffer in Silence  “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.” - Psalm 130:1 We don’t have to pretend. It’s ok for us to say when we are not ok. When we are feeling afraid, or anxious, or alone we are invited to cry out and trust that there is a loving presence that hears us and understands. We are invited to believe that we are not alone and that we are not forsaken.  We are...

Send us Fan Mail Shine Bright! Become Your Best Self.  “ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.” - Psalm 139:14 Do not let anyone use your past against you, or use your present circumstances to deny your future possibilities. A gold coin covered in mud is no less valuable than a shiny one. So it is with us. Each of us is the handmade...

Send us Fan Mail “Be still, and know that I am God;” - from Psalm 46 Generally speaking, I emphasize how important it is for us to get up and get after it in life. That we are called to be active participants in facilitating what Jesus described as the Kingdom of God- a world where kindness and compassion reign supreme, human dignity is honored, and the least of these are cared for.  What I someti...

Send us Fan Mail Our lives have meaning and purpose.  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” - Jeremiah 29:11 These words were written during extremely difficult times for audience Jeremiah was writing to. They were hard pressed by the great nations of the world and were on their way to being conquere...

Send us Fan Mail God’s Love Is Ultimate  “Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime;” - from Psalm 30 I speak and write almost exclusively on God’s love for humanity and the hope, health, and wellbeing we as individuals and communities experience as we strive to live into that love.  My view of God...

Send us Fan Mail Coming Back from the Pit “O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.” From Psalm 30 When we are going through our most difficult times, we must never give up. On our most difficult days, we must remember that the way things are - are not the way they will always be.  There are no situations where God is not. The...

Send us Fan Mail “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” - Psalm 46:1-3 This is a verse many of the old timers I was around growing up use to frequently quote. Looking back, they were probably...