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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