Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Over the past several years, my heart has been increasingly drawn toward the life teachings of Saint Francis of Assisi. I don’t know what his enneagram number might be, but as a 9 who desires to avoid conflict and be at peace with everyone, I would like to think I’m in his company.

Injury and Pardon is going to hopefully be a place where I can share some blunt, sometimes ugly, truths about myself, about Christianity, and about God. We need to have times of speaking clearly and truthfully about the challenges and failures within the church, and within ourselves. But I also think we need to see how the ugly truth can point us to a beautiful Truth.