The world needs Jesus. People need the love and mercy of Jesus. People need the freedom to embrace suffering in a way that does not crush them; they need to know and experience the companionship of Jesus in their suffering. People need the freedom to forgive and to let themselves be forgiven, so that wounds can heal instead of being passed through the generations until they become great scars that hinder the life of whole societies and cultures.The love of Jesus is everything. Through His love and mercy, I can become a real lover--nothing less than a vessel of God's love. I can make God's love and mercy present in the world. If I look at myself by myself I could never hope to do this. But Jesus loves me, and promises to make me that kind of a person, to heal me and convert me and transform me into a lover. He will make me a lover of God and of human beings in the image and likeness of God, especially those entrusted to me. In asking Him to change me I have already begun to love--a new energy, a new kind of life has been awakened in me. Jesus, make me the person You created me to be.
I place my hope in Him, because I need Him, because what I am writing here comes from real life, from looking at myself, and from Eileen and I acting and thinking and struggling together; it comes from the kids who are growing and need us to care for them and respond to them in new ways. And it comes from the “gathering” of people that my writing has generated, some of whom draw strength from my work, even if it be only a small thing.
Jesus, make me the person You created me to be.
