Reverend Jennifer Nordstrom

Deep in ourselves resides

the religious impulse.
Out of the passion of our clay

it rises.

 

We have religion when we stop deluding ourselves that we are self-sufficient, self-sustaining, or self-derived.

 

We have religion when we hold some hope

beyond the present,

some self-respect

beyond our failures.

 

We have religion when our hearts are capable of leaping up at beauty, when our nerves are edged

by some dream in the heart.

 

We have religion when

we have an abiding gratitude for all that we have received.

 

We have religion when we look upon people

with all of their failings and still find in them good;

when we look beyond people

to the grandeur in nature

and to the purpose in our own heart.

 

We have religion when

we have done all that we can, and then in confidence entrust

ourselves to the life that is larger than ourselves.

 

-Ralph N. Helverson