2. Spend less time in front of a mirror and more time being a mirror to others. God is seen in all our faces. Even -- and maybe most especially! -- in the faces of our enemies.
3. If you have doubts about whether God loves you, consider Good Friday. Bloody, beaten, bruised, and dying with the load of sin, God loves Jesus no less than a father loves his son. That is the love with which God loves us.
4. Every one of us has been the victim of oppression. And every one of us has been the perpetrator of oppression. We are all capable of being both Shakespeare and Hitler. God grieves for both sides of us. God loves all his enemies.
5. God gave us each unique gifts and talents. Spend time learning from everyone you meet, and you will learn more about God.
6. If you find it difficult to forgive someone, imagine that living with a hardened heart is like spending your life in a dark cave. Compassion is God's gift of light to see the world in new ways.
7. God sometimes does give us more than we can handle -- as a reminder that we don't have to handle our burdens alone. This is a particularly difficult lesson for pastors to learn.
8. God does live inside a church, but you will also find God in homeless shelters, soup kitchens, prisons, and hospice houses. And God loves visitors. There is no path through hell that God has not already walked in Jesus Christ. There is no where God is not.
9. God abhors the comfortable and the status quo. If we are only spectators to the prejudice, greed, and injustice in life, we are complicit in their perpetuation. God is nothing if not a trespasser -- he will go places you don't expect the holy to be, and if you aren't looking to find him in the places least expected, you can be sure you're on the wrong team.
10. For each morning that we awake to the gift of life, we should ask God with gratitude and humility how we can be a servant to others that day. If you are not a servant leader, you are not a pastor.