Faith & Life Inspirational Message

One of the most influential men of our times has died.  James Cone, noted theologian and leader recently passed away.  James Cone was the founder of what came to be known as Black Liberation Theology.  I met Cone a few times and heard him speak throughout the decades I have known him.  I fondly remember a recent time when he was on my own campus and delivered a challenging message.  He was very good and, I thought, the current generation of students need to hear him.  I like to think of Cone as one of the key bridge people.  Let me elaborate.     Cone was born in Fordyce, Arkansas in 1936.  The means he lived fourscore years in an America that changed remarkably during his lifetime.  And it means he lived in a country that did not change as much as he might have wanted or, even, expected.  He grew up in the deep South of the 1940s and 50s with all the racial bigotry that we associate with those years.  When he would t...

I have no clue when I first heard about a legacy.  I doubt I knew anything about it until college days or even later.  It might have been one of those things I heard about, but it never registers.  I doubt very many young folks pay any attention to those kinds of things.  By the time I was teaching and, especially, doing some fund raising, I became very aware of the idea of legacy.  Only recently and only occasionally have I given any thought to my own legacy. The word, legacy, often is associated with wills that dead people leave and about which the survivors learn in a court session or with the lawyers.  Often, legacies have to do with money and property.  Of course, some people are quite wealthy and their legacies to their heirs are remarkable.  My parents did not fit that category!  They left me and my siblings almost no money or property.  I did not care.  I did not have them as parents to make me wealthy! It would be wrong...

I am sure one of the personal benefits I get by writing a daily inspirational piece is the benefit of paying attention.  That is not to suggest that folks who don’t do this kind of discipline don’t pay attention.  However, I know I pay more attention because of the discipline.  Paying attention builds on my assumption that ordinary, daily life provides much content for spiritual experience and reflection.  In fact, that links to a functional definition of spiritual that I have: experiencing the Presence in the ongoing present of our lives. This means there are lessons, challenges and assurances all over the place.  I get ideas in very predictable arenas, like the daily lectionary I use from the Benedictine monastic tradition.  The lectionary simply guides me through some daily spiritual readings.  It gives me a focus and framework for taking a bit of time to reflect, to pray and to wait.  I call it “waiting time,” rather than “wasting time.”...

A relatively new book I have been reading is by the English poet with Irish roots, David Whyte.  Whyte studied zoology, which may account for his interest in and able description of nature and the world in which we live.  He moved to this country in 1981 and has had a fascinating career.  He has taught, been a consultant in major corporations and other oddly interesting venues for a poet.  He is well-known for his focus on “conversational leadership.”  I have come to know him through his recent book, Consolations , which is subtitled, The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning .     This book is like reading a selective dictionary with extended commentary.  He takes ordinary words and does extraordinary things with the word.  For example, he begins with the word, “alone.”  This is one of his longer commentaries---going some five pages.  He finishes the book with a look at “work.”  As I work my way through his book, I h...

Quakers do not have saints.  We do have an unofficial category (loosely defined) called “weighty Friends.”  To understand this fully, it is important to know a more technical term for Quakers is the Religious Society of Friends.  Growing up as a Quaker, we often referred to ourselves as “Friends.”  So weighty Friends were those (usually) older Friends who somehow always brought wisdom to the table.  Sometimes they were weighty because of what they knew.  Some were steeped in Quaker spirituality or history and could always help a group of Quakers have a better idea how to proceed.  Sometimes the weighty Quakers were not particularly educated, but they had lived a life that somehow was exceptional.  An example would be John Woolman, who worked tirelessly long before the Civil War to eradicate any slavery among Quakers.      So without saints in my tradition, I have enjoyed my close affiliation with Catholicism.  They have sa...

Sometimes while I am reading, I run across an interesting sentence or even phrase that jumps out to grab my attention.  This often will happen even in article or books that have no special meaning to me.  This happened in a recent article I was reading in The Chronicle of Higher Education.  I read this weekly education publication to stay current with the themes and trends in higher education.  The piece had to do with the teaching of humanities and, particularly, the state of literature in our colleges and in our culture.  So this is not exactly in my own field, but I am nevertheless interested.     Of course human beings have been reading and writing for a long time.  Writing has served multiple purposes.  Sometimes it is for spiritual or philosophical edification.  It is easy to think about the sacred writings in the many different religious traditions.  All the major religious traditions have their sacred scriptures.  ...

I began reading the rather scholarly article, which is not unusual.  One of the things that you get when you earn a doctoral degree is the assumption on the part of people that you are a scholar.  I could probably offer a decent dictionary definition of what being a scholar means.  But let’s keep it simple.  Clearly, a scholar is linked to school.  And surely school connotes education.  So my preference is to link being a scholar with education.  In my case, I hope that is life-long education.  To me that is not a throwaway phrase used in higher education, as well as, business circles. I find scholarly articles still helpful in my life for two reasons.  In the first place, they challenge me to think and reflect at a higher level.  Reading this kind of piece requires that I engage it and ponder things as I go.  It is an active form of reading.  In the second place, these scholarly pieces provide new and/or challenging content....

It is pretty common to find some kind of vision statement in a business or even non-profit.  It is even typical for these organizations to revisit occasionally the vision statement to see if it still matches what the organization sees as a reason for its being.  I think this is quite healthy.  This should be the case for spiritual communities, too. It is not unusual for people to know the phrase, “where there is no vision, the people perish.”  What many folks probably do not know is that phrase comes from the Old Testament.  It can be found in Proverbs 29:18.  If we were going to do the passage justice, we would have to look at it in its context.  That should help us know what it likely meant at the time it was written.  But for our purpose here, the focus is on vision.  And the argument I would make is the people will, indeed, perish without vision.  I think this is the typical organizational perspective, too. The first question mig...

When I was taking Latin in high school, my heart was not really into it.  I was doing it because someone told me I should do it.  I don’t actually remember the reason why I should do it, but I did it.  As with many things in life, in retrospect I wished I had put more into it.  I did not do anything with Latin while I was in college.  But then to my surprise, I went on to graduate studies.  A theological degree led to a doctoral degree.  It turns out, I had to do more Latin.  My doctoral studies focused on the early Christian centuries.  I became fascinated with the early church.  How did a little known Palestinian Jew, Jesus, gather a motley band of disciples, get killed and in the process became the most famous person in world history?  And how did that motley little crew somehow manage to survive the death of their leader and sow the kernel seeds of what would become a worldwide movement that today numbers more than two billion...

I was saddened when I recently read this headline: “What’s Auschwitz?  2/3 of millennials don’t know it was a Nazi death camp, survey reports.”  Immediately, the well-known line from historian, George Santayana.  He said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  The lesson is don’t forget!  I suppose most people my age should remember Auschwitz.  It was the largest of the Nazi concentration camps.  Located in occupied Poland, Auschwitz was the scene of the death of over one million Jews and others.  It is a primary symbol of the brutality of the Nazi regime.  I will never forget Auschwitz.     Apparently younger folks either don’t learn about it or forget Auschwitz.  While at one level, I am not surprised, I am sad and hopeful something can be done about youth education.  Perhaps more troubling would be the young person who may have heard of Auschwitz, but didn’t know it was a “killing camp.”...

I am glad I live in a part of the world that has seasons. Sometimes in the middle of winter, I think about going somewhere that is always warm.  Many of my friends head to warmer climates when the weather starts to get more challenging.  I am sure part of what I like about the seasons is the association that seasons have to the glorious world I see as part of God’s creation.  In fact, I am good with the classical image of the world as the body of God.  The world is God’s self-expression.      This is certainly part of why I think the environmental issues are worth our attention.  I do think we humans have not done a very good job as stewards of our earth.  The sad part is I am old enough, I will get away with it.  I will likely die and be gone before we have to pay a price for the way we have treated things.  I am worried about my grandkids and their kids.  Maybe the sins of my generation will be paid by them.  Of cou...

Many people are now commenting on Pope Francis’ recent papal paper, Gaudete et Exsultate (“Rejoice and Be Glad”).  Even though clearly it comes from a Catholic, I personally find that much, if not most, of what the Pope puts forth is good for all Christians.  And maybe some of the material is good for any person of any religious tradition.  I like to read the various commentator’s opinion.  They often see things differently than I do.  And they have different kinds of backgrounds and education, so they can bring forth things I could never do.  They enrich my look at the papal document.     One commentator, Brian Flanigan, has written one I really like.  He entitles it, “In ‘Gaudete et Exsultate,’ Francis calls on us a journey of ‘small holiness.’”  Flanigan teaches theology at Marymount University in Arlington, VA.  This personally intrigues me because that means he works about two miles from where my daughter lives!  Now...

The phrase, which became the title of this inspirational piece, came to me during a recent conversation.  The person with whom I was conversing periodically was talking about wishing for this or for that.  As I listened to her, I realized that wishing for certain things was a way she expressed hope.  For example, I am sure at one point she must have said something like, “I wish I can have some kids.”  Translated that would have meant that she planned to have kids…and did have them. In many ways I can relate to that.  I suspect I am not unusual in saying that I have spent a lifetime wanting certain things.  When I was a kid, I wanted to play sports and, of course, wanted to be good.  I did get to play sports, but I was average at best.  I would have to confess I wanted to date certain girls and sometimes got what I wanted.  Other times I got a flat “No!”  That was disappointing, but it didn’t kill me.  I suppose most of us realize ...

If you recognize the title of this inspirational piece, you are really with it.  The title comes from the just-issued papal exhortation from Pope Francis.  From time to time, popes issue encyclicals and various kinds of exhortation to the Catholic faithful---and the rest of us if we want to listen to his admonition.  The newest document in Latin proclaims Gaudete et Exsultate , “rejoice and be glad.”  The subtitle, if you will, is “on the call to holiness in today’s world.”  I have not read it entirely, but wanted to have a first look at it and invite you into that process.  The Latin phrase comes from Matthew’s Gospel, namely, Matthew’s 5th chapter (the Sermon on the Mount material).  Indeed, Jesus says to “rejoice and be glad.” (5:12)  In fact, the words come immediately after the Beatitudes---blessed are the poor, the meek, etc.  To recognize the context for Francis’ words is extremely important.  Obviously, the Sermon on the Mount...

I have been reading a new book that is both informing and challenging me to think about the way I go about my work.  The book is The New Copernicans by David John Seel, Jr.  The subtitle tells you about the book: Millennials and the Survival of the Church .  Seel offers a sociological look at the cohort called millennial---roughly people born between 1980 and 2000. I have read some general things about the various generations, from the Boomers to today.  But Seel has done his homework and provides me with some great information and trenchant analysis of what it means.     Although he is most interested in what evangelical churches can do to respond creatively to the millennials, I am more broadly interested in the material.  For one thing, most of the students currently in my class are the tail-enders of that generation.  And my own two girls stand at the headwaters of that same group.  Reading this material helps me be very careful of ...

I recently read an article by Patricia Lefevere who speculated what a meeting between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thomas Merton, the famous Trappist Monk in Kentucky might have been like.  Since I have done a fair amount of work with both figures, I was particularly intrigued what she would say.  I know some people who knew both King and Merton.  Both died tragically in 1968---King in April and Merton in December.  Although they never met, they had plans to meet---perhaps later that month of April when King was shot and killed.      King and Merton certainly knew each other’s work.  They had exchanged letters and both looked forward to a face-to-face encounter.  King would have had to travel to Kentucky, since it would have been unlikely the Abbot of Gethsemani would have given the ok for Merton to go somewhere to meet King.  I personally knew June Yungblut and her husband, John, friends of the Kings in Atlanta and who also had visi...

A regular reader of this inspirational reflection series knows that one of my spiritual disciplines is to spend a little daily time with the lectionary.  A lectionary simply is a group of readings.  Lectio in Latin means to “read.”  The lectionary I follow comes from the world of Benedictine monks.  The traditional Benedictine monastery used to have seven periods during the day when the monks would gather for worship.  Most monasteries today have reduced this to four or five daily gatherings.  The lectionary readings have been chosen by representatives of the group.  Hence for the Benedictines they know every monastery across the land is reading the same set of readings at the same appointed gathering.  The Psalms play a central role in the lectionary.  Every Benedictine monastery would read from the Psalms at every gathering.  For one who grew up as a Quaker, this was a totally new experience.  As I have hung around monasteries,...

Today we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the shooting of Martin Luther King in Memphis, TN.  People my age can remember hearing about that event and cringing.  We knew that would probably take the civil, racial unrest to a new level.  In my own case as a Quaker pacifist, I respected and wanted to emulate the non-violence that characterized King’s approach.  His life and ministry were grounded in his Christian faith.  It was easy to be aware of the others at that time who were calling for violent, forceful engagement of the issues.      I never met MLK.  I did know some people---a couple of Quakers---who knew him.  I knew people who went to parts of the South to march for justice.  For many, the civil rights movement was linked to the peace movement trying to end the strife in Vietnam.  It was a complex time, but the issues of justice were very clear.  To do nothing was to be aligned with the wrong side was how m...

One of the delightful results of agreeing to do things is the preparation I have to do in order to make a presentation.  One such fruit of my labor is the reading I am doing for an upcoming presentation on Martin Luther King Jr.  I have welcomed this chance to work more closely than I ever have with King’s speeches, sermons and other material.  I am old enough to remember King’s presence and impact on American society.  It is fun to delve back into that memory and to enrich it.            I am certain King’s most famous speech is the “I Have a Dream” speech delivered in Washington, DC.  I remember watching that one on television and listening to news folks talk for many days afterward about its implications.  It is one of those events I wish I had attended, but alas I have no idea what I did that day!  Every time I see a video clip of that speech, chills creep back into my body. But I don’t want to focu...