05.40 LCK Abusing Pretty Faces

77% Weekly Newsletter


The 77% Weekly
The 40/52-weeks-a-year, quick-reading, thought-lingering, spiritual-religious newsletter.

Religion-Outside-The-Box (oldrotb.wpengine.com) is a donation supported not-for-profit empowering adults to find and be with (the) God (of their understanding).  

5/40
From the desk of Minister Laurence C. Keene


 

Abusing Pretty Faces
Logo for 77% Weekly

O Lord, I was talking with a person the other day who had a blemish on her face. It wasn’t a very large blemish, in fact it was a very small one.However, I found myself focused on this one very small imperfection. She had a beautiful face but all I could see was this minor blemish. Her imperfection drew more of my attention than did the rest of her beautiful face.
I went away thinking about that small, insignificant flaw in her appearance as if that flaw somehow defined who she was. I had missed the rest of her beauty because of my fixation on her blemish. It was almost as if her beauty didn’t exist at all for me because I was so interested in seeing something else. I destroyed her beauty because of my own very narrow and critical perception of her.
O God, why do we do this to one another? Why do we slay the beautiful and ignore the wonderful in the people we meet each day? What arrogance in us drives us to define the people we meet in the basest of terms instead of seeing your divine image reflected in each one of your children?
Please, dear Lord, give me a better eye to see the best in everyone I meet. The next time I find myself tempted to be critical of someone’s face or character or appearance, please hand me a mirror.

Love,Larry.
larry@rotb.org
The 77% Weekly

The 77% Weekly: The Religion-Outside-The-Box Newsletter
helps people find and be with (the) God (of their understanding) 40 out of 52 weeks a year.

 

Why 77%?
Two reasons:
1) 40/52 = 0.76923. The newsletter is sent every Monday except the last of each month.
2) In school 77% was a passing grade and ROTB wants to remind you that life isn’t graded.

Religion-Outside-The-Box is a donation-supported,
non-denominational, internet-based, 501c3-tax exempt religious congregation.

 

Slow Down, Good Sam

In 1973, researchers John Darley and Daniel Batson at Princeton University conducted a study based on the biblical story of “The Good Samaritan.” ✧✧✧ A little background on the story: Samaritans, in the biblical world, were not considered “good.” The phrase “Good Samaritan” would have sounded like a political oxymoron—something like “compassionate MAGA” or “patriotic liberal.” In the story, a

Read More »

A Letter

Beloved, Let me tell you something I often say when counseling those mourning the loss of a loved one. “Unless you are a rabbi or minister, you shouldn’t be good at writing eulogies.” And then I add: “Let me give you a pro tip—think about writing a letter. Because you know how to write a letter and this way you

Read More »

With Bread

 Love. With Bread. ✧✧✧ I live in a very progressive city. But, not everyone is of one mind. In fact, three houses to the north live Merrilee and Sardar, who, prior to the 2020 election, posted a “Trump—MAGA 2020” sign in their yard. The day Biden was elected, I texted them that a number of my friends and I were

Read More »
77% Weekly Newsletter
77% Weekly Newsletter