Would you do your job any differently if you had the authority and resources to do it any way you wanted and total responsibility for the outcome? This is a relatively recent concept in the world of commerce and is referred to as empowerment. But it has been around a long time in the Kingdom of God. Have I not given you the authority to act in my name from the very first? Have I not promised to grant all your requests and to provide you with all the resources you need to do all that I have commanded you? I told you to occupy until I return.

Do you ever seek solitude? Do you ever feel the need to get away from the noise and activity of the crowd? Even I was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and later went into the desert to pray, and the founders of faith traditions went away from human company to encounter God. Do you do this because you find people to be annoying? Yet you are called to love your neighbor and your brother. In fact loving God and loving your neighbor are inseparable. It is too easy to think you love your brother when he is not around.

Do you seek out a community to avoid living in isolation? When I said that it was not good for the man to be alone it was the expression of a universal truth, and there is a deep human longing to connect in community. But communities can themselves be isolated, and you have seen examples of this. If it is not good for the man to be alone, how much better is it to be in a group that is small, exclusive, intolerant, adversarial, and judgmental? This would not appear to be much of an improvement.

Have you ever been wounded? Not all wounds are physical and visible. What is your attitude toward yours? Do you see them as hindrances and sources of shame and diminishment? What is your attitude toward my wounds? Do you see them as the redemption of humanity? Who can escape being wounded? Suffering is a part of life, but it doesn’t have to be a hindrance and a source of shame, or victimization. All wounds start out as ordinary. Your response to them determines what they become. Mine became sacred wounds. Can you regard yours in such a way that they do too?