Many days I lament not experiencing the "derision and reproach" of which Jeremiah speaks. Better to be an infamous prophet than an obscure one, or so it seems in those moments. But that is just me "thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." My job is to take up the cross and to walk my own Via Dolorosa wherever it may lead. Whatever beauty emerges from that journey belongs to the One from whom I cannot escape and for whom my soul thirsts "like fire burning in my heart."