#wayne muller

When I die, let them write about all the mistakes I’ve made. Let them mention in the headlines how many rejection letters I’ve received from The Sun. Let them say, “Missed her calling for Broadway back in 1987.” Let them say, “She trained hard, but never won a Nordic skate race.” They can note how my children fought in front of company. How every chocolate cake I made sank in the center. How the beets in my garden were never bigger than golf balls. How I never even watched the Super Bowl, much less knew who played for the Colts back in 1969 while I was still forming in my mother’s womb and Lou Michaels missed two field goals that helped the Jets win. What do any of us really accomplish? My friend Wayne says, “We do what we can and have mercy.” Yes, let them say I did what I could. Let them say that I loved the best I knew how and messed that up, too. It’s what we do, we who are kicking our way to the back pages of the paper. Well-intentioned and foundering, faithful and confused as we are, we mess up. Yes, mercy on us, mercy on all our failing little hearts, how they beat so sincerely, mercy on this longing to shine, this reminder again to kneel.

Oh yeah. But like... I guarantee you lots of mainline protestant and/or progressive clergy have this guy's book(s) on their shelves. I have his book Sabbath. However I haven't read it, and I've inherited a good portion of my library from other pastors. I looked inside the cover and was relieved to see it was gifted to the guy who gifted it to me. So at the very least I didn't pay for it. Also it has 2 pages of promotional blurbs. I recognize none of them... except one. Fred Rogers. Who, Muller quotes on his page. And I mean, if I had a promotional quote about me from Fred Rogers, I'd use it too... but like it feels extra dirty after all this that Muller is using it. Cause the thing with book blurbs is that publishers just ask a bunch of people to do them. It's usually big names, and usually people who know nothing about the author except the book and probably didn't even have time to read the whole thing. Case in point: I personally know 2 people who have blurbs from Desmond Tutu on their books. They've never met him, were never in contact with him. Their publisher just managed to ask and Tutu happened to have the time. So it certainly doesn't mean that Mr. Rogers himself actually endorses Muller, but Muller took that blurb quote about his book, and removed the context then put it on his website as if it is an endorsement of him personally. And that's gross.

Yesterday I finished Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives by Wayne Muller. This was a really good book, filled with such insightful nuggets about Sabbath that opened my eyes in understanding what Sabbath truly is and should be. It's not just a day of limitations and "don'ts," which I already know, but feel like is often the rhetoric within Adventism and other faiths that keep the Sabbath. This book unpacks the possibilities of what Sabbath could and should bring – whether you are a Sunday or Saturday or any-other-day keeper. And honestly, it was such a refreshing read. This is not an Adventist book by an Adventist author – and I really liked that. It takes a little more of an objective approach to Sabbath, not clouded by Adventist (or Jewish or any other traditional Sabbath-keeping faith) bias and legalistic notions. But I would honestly recommend this book to any of my Adventist friends nonetheless, and really to anyone that desires to find true rest.

— Wayne Muller, Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantage of a Painful Childhood

Das sagen wir mit großem Stolz, als sei unsere Erschöpfung eine Trophäe und unsere Beslastbarkeit der Ausweis wahrer Charakterstärke. Keine Zeit zu haben für unsere Freunde oder Familie, keine Zeit zu haben für den Sonnenuntergang, ohne einen einzigen achtsamen Atemzug von Aufgabe zu Aufgabe zu hetzen, das ist zum Inbegriff eines erfolgreichen Lebens geworden.

Wayne Muller

Wayne Muller