60 Seconds of Hope with Horace McMillon

Send us Fan Mail Do your best and stop being afraid.  We can stop being afraid. Stop being ashamed. Stop feeling guilty. The internal and external voices that tell us that we are not good enough or worthy enough are not from God.  The book of Revelation describes those voices as the voice of the accuser. (Rev. 12:10-12). God silences that voice throws it out. We are fully and unconditionally loved...

Send us Fan Mail In looking at the world, I cannot offer you empirical proof that good overcomes evil and that love overcomes hate. Nor can we be certain that the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice as MLK declared.  Most of us are like Thomas. He wasn’t with the other disciples when the resurrected Jesus appeared. He was told. He wanted to believe. Nothing would have made him happier....

Send us Fan Mail The light brings us into fellowship with each other.  As we walk in the light, we come into fellowship with God and with each other. It’s impossible to have one without the other. This fellowship completes us, perfects us, cleanses us. Three descriptions that point to the same internal reality.  “but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with on...

Send us Fan Mail What does it mean to walk in the light?  We are encouraged to  walk in the light, to be children of light. What does that mean? Practically speaking, what does that look like?  I’m drawn to these words from Micah for a description: “God has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Ac...

Send us Fan Mail Owning Our Own Shortcomings  For many of us, one of the most difficult things we can do is to acknowledge our own shortcomings and mistakes. Often we demand accountability from others while completely excusing ourselves from all responsibility or blame.  Owning our shortcomings is not about making ourselves feel guilty or ashamed. It’s definitely not about pointing out the shortco...

Send us Fan Mail “When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." - John 20:22-23 Sometimes we wish we could just leave it to God to do all the forgiving and non forgiving? We would have no responsibility. We would not have to deal with our pai...

Send us Fan Mail “There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.” - Acts 4:34-35 The first implication of the resurrection as described by Luke-Acts was that the divisions of race and class were destroyed and the personhood of...

Send us Fan Mail In the immediate aftermath of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, Peter shared this insight with those gathered: “Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who reveres him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” - Acts 10 The book of Acts is part of a two part series which comprises Luke and Ac...

Send us Fan Mail Help Carry the Cross A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. -Mark 15:21 The work of redeeming the world requires our participation. We will let theologians and philosophers debate rather this is by design or by necessity. What we know is that each of us  must take o...

Send us Fan Mail “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,” - Hebrews 12:1 In every generation there are people who catch a glimpse of the divine vision for themselves and the world. In every generation there are people who welcome that...

Send us Fan Mail “For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant.” Job 14:7-9 Over and over again, during Holy Week we are reminded that adversity, hardship, and struggle are part o...

Send us Fan Mail “When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.” Matthew 27:57-58 When the Romans tortured and executed a person for insurrection- as they did with Jesus, those bodies were dishonored. Often the bodies were left on the cross to b...

Send us Fan Mail “Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel. For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.” -Psalm 71:3-5 On this second day of Holy Week, we acknowledge that the world is not as it should be. Evil and injustice are widesprea...

Send us Fan Mail “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.” -John 12: 5 & 7 Jesus lived his life in service. As a result of that service, he was on the verge of being arrested, tried, tortured, and executed. He knew had days to live - not mo...

Send us Fan Mail The next step to beating anxiousness is to actively practice gratitude. We get more of whatever it is that we focus on.  Yes, we have specific problems and challenges- for some of which we have yet to find a solution. This is true. What is also true is that we have even far more to be grateful for.  We can be thankful for our friends and family, the people in our lives who care ab...

Send us Fan Mail The final step in beating anxiousness is to live in trust. Martin Luther King, jr. describes faith as “taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.”  It’s ok and even necessary for us to acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers. We may not even have all the questions. But if we can see our way to the first step, we must the have the determination t...

Send us Fan Mail In part one we discussed how debilitating an amorphous sense of angst can be. It’s as if there is a monster lurking in our closet waiting to pounce on us.  The first step to dealing with the monster in the closet is to open the door. Make a list. Get specific about the scale and the scope of the problem, the resources you have to address it and the actions you can take. Turning on...

Send us Fan Mail Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 How many of us have a creeping sense of dread? We can’t specify it but   we have this nebulous   sense of  fear? We worry...

Send us Fan Mail “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone”. - Psalm 118:22  These words first written by the ancient song writer and then later applied to Jesus, can also apply to us.  Not everyone grows up in a positive nurturing environment. Some of us have been told that we are not smart enough, talented enough, or attractive enough to achieve our goals. Some of us...

Send us Fan Mail Until Everyone is Free "I had my jubilee three years ago. I rejoiced all I could then; I can't rejoice no more." - Harriet Tubman Decades later civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer articulated a similar sentiment: “Nobody’s free until everyone is free.” Harriet Tubman found her own way to freedom. She experienced her own personal jubilee. At some point, she understo...

Send us Fan Mail “I have heard their groans and sighs, and seen their tears, and I would give every drop of blood in my veins to free them.” - Harriet Tubman One of the more surprising statements I’ve come across came from Tubman. She stated that she would not be surprised to see some slaveholders in heaven because some of them really didn’t know any better. In that moment I came to see that all o...

Send us Fan Mail “..and I prayed to God to make me strong and able to fight, and that's what I've always prayed for ever since." - Harriet Tubman I believe the world is changed for the better by people who stop accepting the unacceptable. Our individual lives are changed for the better, when we stop accepting the unacceptable. Tubman changed her own life when she escaped to freedom....

Send us Fan Mail “Oh, Lord! You’ve been with me in six troubles, don’t desert me in the seventh!” - Harriet Tubman When faced with a major challenge or problem, it’s easy for us to become overwhelmed and discouraged.  Like the character in the “Cat in the Hat” we might feel like the problem is so wide and so deep and so tall that there’s just no way at all.  Harriett Tubman had such moments. Tubma...

Send us Fan Mail “Do not let yesterday hold tomorrow hostage! Walk away from your investment in the penny stock of pride; it never pays dividends.” - Neal A. Maxwell Some of us have had some difficult things happen to us. Some of us have experienced profound injustice. Some of us are experiencing these difficulties right now.  Let me say that what happened to you, what’s happening to you is not ri...

Send us Fan Mail There can be no self-care without self-compassion, which is compassion turned inward. It is the ability to connect to our feelings, to respond to our suffering with kindness, and to desire that our suffering be ameliorated. —Chanequa Walker-Barnes  The Biblical tradition assumes a healthy self center. The command to love one’s neighbor as one’s self has built into the presuppositi...