87...up in the hills:

It's great this weekend to be up in the hills (my affectionate name for these beautiful Rocky Mountains) with a tremendous group of men from a fine church in CSprings (yes...there is one there...in fact, there are two or three).  In a few hours I will be leading a session on mentoring.

One book from Richard Rohr I've now read three times over in the past several months has a quote (pg. 169) from Martin Luther King, Jr. I will be using in what I share.    Being a part of an extraordinary team of men in presenting this retreat, being their mentor, individually and as a group, there is a sense of the sacred every time we are asked to speak to and encourage men.  Even as last night's session concluded...the Spirit was at work in a remarkable way among those who signed up.

The book of Rohr's is now so marked up (a long time habit...)...but this by the Rev. Dr. King stands out as this day begins.......

*       *       *       *       *       *       *

You may be 39 years old, as I happen to be.  And one day some great opportunity stands before you and calls yo to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause.  And you refuse to do it because you are afraid....  You refuse to do it because you want to live longer....  You're afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you're afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand.  Well you may go on and live until you are 90, but you're just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90.  And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

Comments

[Matt(or Mark)]

Wes,
I really appreciated your contributions to the BoB weekend retreat. I just wanted to pop off a note to let you know that you called me Mark in your comment on my blog. If it's easier for you to remember me as Mark, I am more than willing to try it out for a while (but only when in conversations with you). Just joking! Thanks again.