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

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

Larry Keene is an ROTB board member, a retired minister, a retired sociology professor, and Rabbi Brian's best-buddy.

 

Replies to this e-mail go directly to Larry.




18/40  
From the desk of Minister Laurence C. Keene 

The Burden of Imperfection

Logo for 77% Weekly

 

I wish I could do one single thing perfectly well, dear Lord, so I wouldn't get so discouraged at the many things I do so imperfectly.  

 

I eat too much; I get angry too often; I think unkind and impure thoughts more than I would like to admit; I am far too ambitious; too frequently I am jealous; and I am much less thoughtful than I know I ought to be.  

 

After decades of trying to improve myself one would think I would be getting more things right than I do. The truth is, I am not actually inventing a whole lot of new and foolish things to do each day. Instead, I find myself simply repeating the same old foolish things I have done for a long time. I am having to re-learn those same old not-quite-learned lessons all over again. Practice has not made me more perfect. It has, instead, made me more discouraged and weary.  

 

Be patient with me, O Lord. Help me to be more patient with myself as well. If I act foolishly, please help me to make that foolish action a solitary occurrence. Keep me from the embarrassment and suffering of revisiting and repeating old failures over and over again. I know that I am not yet what I ought to be. I just don't want to be stuck on what I once was.


Love,

Larry

dr_minister_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.