"Remember, Jesus, whatever we're making, along with it we're always making a home for Spirit. ⁽¹⁾ Your mother thinks a home for Spirit is like an empty cup. But I favor a spacious room with a large window for sun -- and a door that is hard to find.

"The best way to begin is to clear a space, and the best way to clear a space is to stop the mind from judging. That takes prayer time. Whenever things seem simple and obvious and the mind is feasting on its certainty and outrage, go slowly. There is more than you think; only it hasn't appeared yet. Judgment closes possibilities.

"Also, when you do not judge, you often avoid disgracing another. The law is our measure. It is a tool of judgment, but someone always wields it. Do not use the law as a hammer to hit or a saw to cut. Our tools are to fashion a table, not to brutalize the wood. The law is a tool to fashion a people of love, but it can break people and lose its sense of purpose. The law always fears life will get out of control. So it wants to make examples of people who break it. It feeds and grows strong on transgression. It smacks its lips over scandal. But scandal is not the same as real offense. Scandal can be the irruption of God's love that our feeble minds have yet to understand. So find a way to honor the law and honor the person who, in our limited understanding, has broken the law. This is not easy.

"It requires making law work for love. Love is the sun; law its furthest and often weakest ray. If you hold onto love, you will see how the law can reflect it. If you lose love, law will not substitute for it. The law without love will only be something you use to promote yourself and punish others. When you love the person through the law, you shape the law to the reality that is always more than you know. This gives life a chance to breathe and people a chance to change. And the deepest change will not be in other people, but in yourself. Love takes the beam out of your own eye. It does not focus on the splinters in the eyes of others.

"Once something happened to me, and I was tempted to judge and punish. But I held back and waited, and a deeper door opened -- the door that is hard to find. I was led into a room of sun, a home for Spirit. Your mother and you were there -- and a presence of light who talked to my fear. It was a dream, but it was not sleep. The dream awakened me. It took the beam out of my eye. I saw that making a home for Spirit is an endless adventure -- like you growing up, my son.

"We carpenters say, 'measure twice, cut once.' So see everything twice, Jesus. See it once with the physical eye and then see it again with the eye of the heart. At first glance, you often see an uneven and unusable piece of wood. You may be about to throw it away. But do not be fooled by surface appearances. Look deeper. On second glance, you may see a lovely arm of a chair hidden in its unaccustomed shape. When you see the loveliness, Jesus, embrace it. Take it into your home. Do not hesitate and do not ask questions. Argue with everything, Jesus, but be obedient to love."