Prayer’s purpose is to make us feel loved.

“You should pray and meditate every day, so you know that you are loved, so you feel the presence of God’s love in your life.” - Mother Teresa

The primary purpose of prayer and meditation is to connect us to that which is greater than ourselves. Some of us call this source or transcendence, some of us call this father, some mother, some wind, or spirit.

On the eve of his execution, Jesus was extremely troubled. The Gospel of Luke describes him as sweating literal blood indicating the high level of stress he was dealing with.

He took some of his disciples with him and went to a quiet place to pray. In his prayer, he confessed how hard a time he was having even though he was clear about his purpose.

In that moment vulnerable moment he asked God, to make it all mean something, to bring glory to his name through the sacrifice he was about to make.

Jesus felt his father’s love in the response he heard. “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” - In other words Jesus felt fully loved and affirmed and knew his life had meaning.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope Peace be with you.

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We are all children of the same God.

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.” -Ephesians 3:14-15

The experience of God’s love was so all encompassing and immersive that it transformed everything about how the early Jesus followers saw the world.

Whereas at one time they saw themselves exclusively as God’s people, they came to see that we are all God’s people, that the entire cosmos lives and moves and has its being in God.

Whereas at one time they believed that anyone who didn’t practice religion the way they did was unclean, they came to see God’s gifts at work in people who were not like themselves. They learned not to call any of these unclean.

Whereas the world was once divided for them by race, religion, gender, and class they came to understand we are all one in the experience they described as Christ.

We are all children of the same God.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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If I Am…

“If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.” -Joan of Arc

In order to become the best versions of ourselves and in order for us to reach our highest possibilities and purposes, we have to be open, humble, and self aware.

Joan of Arc’s prayer is a great one. It invites us to engage in an ongoing honest self assessment of who we are, what we are, and how we are.

Realistically, all of us have some positive traits, habits, and attitudes that we need to maintain, build on and grow.

Realistically, all of us have some aspects of our thinking, speaking, and acting that need to get better- sooner rather than later.

As we look at each area of our lives, we join Joan of Arc in praying that if we are not, God help us become such. And if we are, God help us stay that way.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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Go catch excellence!

It’s just not possible to achieve anything of significance in life without failing along the way.

Steve Jobs was fired from the company he founded. Michael Jordan missed many game winning shots. It took Thomas Edison around a thousand attempts to make a light bulb.

When we have failures and setbacks, the key for us is to learn and grow and try again. Our failures are incidents not permanent conditions.

I’ve now been happily married going on 28 years. Previously, I was married for nine months. I learned a lot about what I needed in a mate and what I needed to do to become a good mate.

I opened a restaurant and went bankrupt. I’ve learned and grown and now lead a team of people with a multi million dollar book of business.

I wrote a book that didn’t sell. I now have thousands of people read my blog every year.

As Vince Lombardi said: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”

Go catch excellence.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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Take Time to Enjoy Life

“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” - Bertrand Russell

Life is very short. Time is something that once spent, can never be replaced. Therefore, it’s important that we are very intentional in the way we use it.

In our current moment, we tend to focus on quantifiable and measurable productivity. While this is a good thing, we must also give attention to the things that cannot be measured.

Let us never be so productive that we don’t leave time to share a meal with our friends. Let us never be so busy that we fail to behold a beautiful sunrise and/or a beautiful sunset.

A quiet walk, a fast jog, listening to music or sitting in silence, art, music, theatre, sports, formal worship services, reading a book or journaling, whatever it is that rekindles the soul- take time for that.

Time spent with the people we love doing the things we love is time well spent.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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“Look, you’re going to have to forgive everyone, including yourself.” - Horace McMillon

(Jim Henson has a similar quote.)

Every single one of us has fallen short. Every one of us has missed the mark. (Romans 3:23). We don’t say this to make anyone feel guilty. We don’t say this to shame anyone.

What happened to us wasn’t right. It wasn’t ok. What we did wasn’t right. It wasn’t ok. Perhaps we didn’t know any better. Perhaps, mentally and emotionally, we simply couldn’t do better. Perhaps we just didn’t do better. I don’t know.

I do know that life can only be lived going forward. The pain of guilt, shame, and regret, of anger and bitterness is only useful to us in that it alerts us that something is wrong and needs to be addressed. Once it’s done its job, let it go.

That’s where the idea of being born again is so helpful to us. It gives us a clear demarcation of our past and our present. God has already forgiven us. It’s up to us to forgive each other including ourselves.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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Forgiving Empowers the Forgiver

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” - Lewis B. Smedes

Back when I was in middle school one of my classmates called me the “n” word, completely unprovoked. It wasn’t a convenient time to take revenge. So I kept walking.

I later retaliated in a way that made my hands appear clean. I came across his notebook and put it in the trash. Keeping the notebook was the only requirement of passing the class we were in.

A little time later, as a student assistant, I was filing papers in the office and came across his file. The kid had a lot of issues. I was sorry I had done anything to hurt him.

He was the one who was going to have a hard time in life, not me. In that moment I forgave him and felt the peace, power, and wellbeing that comes from forgiving.

I now understand why Jesus forgave the people who tortured and executed him while they were still doing it. He was not the victim. He was the victor. He had all the power and all the peace.

Forgiving others empowers the forgiver.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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(And We Are All God’s People)

“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” - Psalm 133:1

This verse invites us to consider two central questions. Who are God’s people? How do we live together?

In the first creation story included in the Hebrew Scriptures, we discover that all humanity is created in God’s image. In the second we are described as descendants from the same family.

Jesus urged us to love our neighbors as ourselves. When asked for clarity, he went on to describe our neighbors in such a way that no one was excluded.

When the early Jesus followers baptized, they declared that the divisions of race and religion, class and status, and gender were no more. They were one in Christ.

I’m not sure how we as God’s children will ever figure out how to live in unity until we come to understand that we are all God’s children.

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