60 Seconds of Hope with Horace McMillon

Send us Fan Mail “ Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows.” - from Galatians 5 Paul then known as Saul lived somewhat of a tortured life prior his being literally knocked over by God’s love on the road to Damascus.  Despite all of his study, despite all of his  religious practices, he never felt good enough. Religion was a heavy burden that he struggle...

Send us Fan Mail True religion always has a deep intuition that we are already participating in something very good, in spite of our best efforts to deny it or avoid it. —Richard Rohr  There’s a lot of religious folks waiting for something to come that’s already here. This is how Jesus put it according to the Gospel of Luke. “ Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would com...

Send us Fan Mail "Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother"-Jesus (Mark 3:35) And what is God's will for us but that we are merciful with one another, that we do Justice to one another and that we walk with humility in all of our being and doing? What is God's will for us other than that we live lives of loving engagement with the world around us? Being...

Send us Fan Mail We all long for someone to tell us who we are. The great struggle of the Christian life is to take God's name for us, to believe we are beloved and to believe that is enough. Rachel Held Evans The name satan means accuser or advisory in Hebrew. In other words the negative voices around us and in our minds are not from God whose very essence is love.  Any voices that tell us t...

Send us Fan Mail “Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” Maya Angelou  Each of us has an inner light that has been given to us by our creator. That light is not to be hidden or extinguished.  Rather the Gospel of Mark recalls Jesus saying that our lamps should  be put on a stand so that everyone in the house might have light.  Believe that you are a worthwhile person no matter how mu...

Send us Fan Mail “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” - From Jeremiah 31:33 An important step in our spiritual journey is to grow beyond obligation based ethical practices which are imposed on us externally to love based ethical practices which are internally driven.  For most of us rules and regulations are an...

Send us Fan Mail “God’s relentless care for those who are poor and suffering is the visible expression of our compassionate God, which moved the prophets from the praying stance of the psalms to courageous action on behalf of God's children in need.” —Catherine T. Nerney  We pray that God opens our hearts, our minds, our spirits. We pray that  we are given the empathy and understanding, the a...

Send us Fan Mail So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.” ‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5‬:‭11‬ Just about everyone we meet is going through something. Some have physical health challenges. Some are struggling mentally and emotionally. Some have financial challenges, career challenges. Some are struggling to fit in, to find their place in the world.  Life can be hard....

Send us Fan Mail "I am often struck by the dangerous narcissism fostered by spiritual rhetoric that pays so much attention to individual self-improvement and so little to the practice of love within the context of community." - bell hooks Today we couple this quote from bell hooks with Bishop Desmond Tutu’s description of Ubuntu: I am because we are.  The concept of being an individual i...

Send us Fan Mail Over and over, when I ask God why all of these injustices are allowed to exist in the world, I can feel the Spirit whisper to me, You tell me why we allow this to happen. You are my body, my hands, my feet. Shane Claiborne The Biblical witness says that God created this world, created humanity and put us in charge of caring for it and for each other. It also describes us as being...

Send us Fan Mail “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” - 1 Peter 4:10 Another one of my favorite verses challenges not to just be hearers of the word but doers as well. We are not called to stand and watch the world pass us by. We are called to do whatever it is that we can do to make the world better- eve...

Send us Fan Mail Just as the people in the wilderness during Moses’s time were living in a toxic environment largely brought on by their toxic attitudes and their toxic behaviors, we live in such an environment now.  When the folks in the wilderness looked looked on the bronze serpent lifted up they were healed. The first step to our healing begins with our recognition of the ways we are toxic. Je...

Send us Fan Mail “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. “ - 1 Peter 4:8 Both in the ancient world and today, many of us are stuck with the idea that every wrong someone has done must be punished, must be paid for, before we can move forward.  We often demand restitution or retribution before we consider offending any level of forgiveness. We want the pers...

Send us Fan Mail “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” - John 15:15 The Gospel of John begins a profound transformation of our understanding of and relationship to God, our relationship with life itself.  We no longer see ourselves as slaves t...

Send us Fan Mail Even though the gold of your true nature can get buried beneath fear, uncertainty, and confusion, the more you trust this loving presence as the truth of who you are, the more fully you will call it forth in yourself and in all those you touch. —Tara Brach  Our hurts, our insecurities, our pain… our  anger, our fear, our resentments can make us lose focus on the reality of who we...

Send us Fan Mail “Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” - Genesis 32:28 All of Jacob’s insecurities had caught up with him. From the time they were born, Jacob envied his brother. The name Jacob itself meant grabber because it is said he was holding into his brother’s heel when they were born.  Jac...

Send us Fan Mail Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon. Booker T. Washington There is nothing more important than having a dream. We must develop a positive vision for ourselves and for our futures. This vision should be so compelling that it inspire...

Send us Fan Mail “That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.” - 1 Timothy 4:10 The season of Lent contains two components: First, we mourn. We grieve the brokenness in the world, the brokenness in our communities, the brokenness in our families, and the brokenness in ourselves. We acknowledg...

Send us Fan Mail “Talk without being offensive. Listen without being defensive. Always leave your opponent with their dignity.” - John Hope Bryant  I am fully convinced that our ability to build a better future depends on our capacity to listen to each other, communicate with each other, and respect each other.  So, “Let our conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that we may...

Send us Fan Mail “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” - Martin Luther If one is even half way aware of what’s going on in the world, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and discouraged. There are prophets of doom and gloom everywhere. I have no idea if gold is a good investment or not. But I do know that the idea that we all need to be hoardin...

Send us Fan Mail “He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” - Mark 8:34-35 We all need money and material resources to live in this worl...

Send us Fan Mail “All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don't tiptoe.”  Shane Claiborne One of my favorite sayings about life: “They slap you when you come into the world and throw dirt on you when you leave.” None of us make it out of this thing alive.  While it’s a good idea to...

Send us Fan Mail “And Ain’t I a woman?”- Sojourner Truth “And ain’t I a woman?” - perhaps the greatest refrain to a public speech in America history delivered by Sojourner  shows us how to affirm ourselves.  Truth lived reality of double discrimination being both Black and a woman. She gave her speech in the immediate response to a man who argued that women didn’t deserve equal rights because they...

Send us Fan Mail “Rend your hearts and not your clothing” - From Joel 2:13 Those of us who participate in organized religion find beauty and meaning in the customs, traditions, and rituals. But unless we allow these to touch our hearts,  unless these serve as catalyst for transformed thinking, they are meaningless.  The old timers described adult baptism without a sincere change of heart as going...

Send us Fan Mail “Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone” from Exodus 18 Moses is one of the greatest figures in all of human history. He is remembered as someone who gave up his comfort and privilege to stand up for the rights of his people. He is r...