Faith & Life Inspirational Message

Recently, I read a great quotation from French-Cuban essayist, Anais Nin, who died in 1977.  I know a little about her, but not enough to sound at all like I know what I am talking about.  The quotation is simple.  She said, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”  No doubt, I will use this in many contexts.  It certainly will be shared with students and encourage them to get on with their lives and be willing to take some risks.  I am confident the student-athletes will get it, but whether they can implement it is another matter. Rather than chasing those contexts, I want to apply it to the spiritual life.  By doing that, I also hope to implicate what organizations, like churches and some non-profits, might consider.  As I experience my own spiritual life, I do think lack of courage has been an issue.  Furthermore, in my life in many different faith communities, I believe the same problem affects them.  And yet, when w...

Yesterday I wrote a reflection on the short section on “unrequited” in David Whyte’s book, Consolations .  This is a challenging, deeply profound book and the little piece with this strange title belongs in that category.  Requited means I get back what I put out in a relationship or in the world.  For example, if I am kind, I am requited with kindness back to me.  It is probably obvious this is what many of us are looking for in relationships.   Unrequited, on the other hand, means we don’t get back in kind what we gave out.  If we are honest, much of our loving has gone unrequited.  And in my case, I am sure I have done it to others.  Naturally, it is much easier to complain about what I didn’t get, than it is to experience the guilt of having fallen short in my own efforts at loving.  This is why I read with such interest what this poet from Ireland, but living in the US, was going to tell me. Whyte puts in his own words what I just tried ...

I recognize that some folks might see this one-word title and have no idea what it means.  I am sure nearly every student in one of my classrooms has no clue.  And I also know, not one of them would bother to look it up, although with technology, it takes about one-fifth the amount of time it used to go to a dictionary and look up a word.  In my mind I did this all the time, but maybe that is another lie I am telling myself as I get older!  But I do know I realized in college how limited my vocabulary was.  I had to learn a bunch of new words. It is a good guess that unrequited is the opposite of requited.  So we can look up this word and discover that requite means offer something appropriate in return for a favor, gift or even a wrongdoing.  It means if someone is kind to me, I try to return the favor---I “requite” their kindness.  The same goes for wrongdoing.  To talk about unrequited, therefore, means that whatever is done is not met wit...

I might be a sucker for survey results and those kinds of overview of complex issues.  A recent report I have read offered the intriguing title, “How We Gather Digitally.”  The study by sociologists Robert Putnam and David Campbell looks at millennials, generally those younger folks up to their forties now.  I am aware of a number of studies that matches what all of us know: younger folks are not as interested in religions and churches as earlier generations.  Scholars and analysts have given a variety of answers why this is the case.  And so, I looked forward to what these two authors were going to say. Figures vary from study to study, but generally two-thirds of Americans don’t actively participate in organized religious life.  On the other hand, a huge proportion of these disaffiliated folks still believe in God and have, what might called, still some religious view of the world and life.  This becomes a key focus of inquiry. I like the way Putnam ...

A recent discussion in class remind me of a distinction I learned a long time ago.  I learned there is a distinction between being responsive and being reactive.  This is a fairly simple distinction, but it is a huge learning to implement.  And I do believe it was a spiritual growth issue for me.  Perhaps it is not spiritual for everyone else, but it was for me.  Being part of that class discussion reminded me that I have not fully incorporated the learning in my life.  At times I still find myself reacting inappropriately.  The class context for the discussion had to do with emotions.  Many folks do emotions really well.  Some of us don’t do emotions well at all.  And of course, there is the big group of people in the middle.  Sometimes we mess up our emotional life and sometimes we do fairly well.  Probably I am in the big middle group.  But I am old enough to have joined the good people by now.  But I am a work in ...

I read the recent words of Benedictine sister, Joan Chittister, and knew I should share her insights with us.  Sister Joan has been at the forefront of Catholic social justice issues for decades now.  I have spent some time at the Benedictine monastery in Erie where Sister Joan has lived for a pretty long time.  The whole group of women in that community are an inspiration to anyone who wants to live a life of meaning and give back to God and the larger community.  Sister Joan has been a leader among leaders. In her recent article she was reflecting on freedom.  Her title enticed me: “Land of the free, home of the self-centered.”  I smiled when I read that because I knew her ornery prophetic spirit was on the loose again; I just didn’t know what she was going to address.  Her first words mentioned the pandemic, so the context was clear.  She was addressing the bane of our existence right now.  Her commentary was “The world has gone into lockd...

As the Covid pandemic continues, people are now feeling the effects of it.  It is easy for folks to name the obvious things we don’t like or have cost us something.  At the saddest level, of course, are the deaths that have come as a result of this pernicious virus.  And next would be the extensive illnesses suffered by countless others.  We see daily figures about deaths and positive cases, but no one thinks this is the real total number.  Surely, there are others have had contacted it, but are unreported. The next level would be the suffering that lost jobs have caused.  Often these jobs hit are the least able to bear the suffering.  Of course, those in the African American population have suffered the most, with other non-whites dealing with more than their share.  Besides the lost jobs, many of us are still working from home. For some this is a welcomed alternative to the office scene, but for many of us, it is not at all what we prefer. Besid...

The picture accompanying the article in a piece I just read both lured me to look closely and heightened some fear in me.  The picture looked like a blazing inferno.  It clearly was a mighty fire or conflagration of some kind.  The reds, oranges and yellows dominated the picture.  It obviously looked hotter than hell!  I read the caption below the blazing image to confirm it was a forest fire being blown out of control.  Fear is the appropriate response to such a sight.  Just looking at the image is intimidating.  To be in the actual presence of such a fire would be even more scary.  And to have to cope with the reality of the fire descending on me or my property would be devastating.    The article was entitled, “Beneath a smooth surface, a bubbling of fear and instability.”  The author, Amy Morris-Young, is someone I have before encountered.  I like the way she thinks about spirituality and translates it into her daily l...

An interesting thing happened to me recently.  I spoke in a Sunday worship for a Quaker gang I know quite well.  It was a fun thing for me to do, because so many of them are friends.  Their congregation is going through some significant period of transition, on top of the craziness of our own time in a pandemic and other public issues.  I am sure members of that congregation are feeling like, “enough already!”  Some days I feel like that, too.  And then I recognize that so many more folks have struggles I don’t.  I try to be grateful. You probably are wondering, so where’s the story here?  At one level, that is the story---and it is not much of a story.  I did what I have done countless times: spoke to a group in a way they appreciated, but it was not astoundingly profound.  Of course, I tried to share with them a message that I thought might be appropriate to them at this time in their transition.  I used the story of the Israelite...

When someone wants to talk about theology and becoming a theologian, some people want to duck or run out of the room!  Of course, if you are going to be a Christian (or a Jew, Muslim, etc.) you will have some theology, whether you think about it or not.  A theologian is someone who thinks about what he or she believes.  Theologians strive to make what they believe have some coherence, consistency, etc.  For me personally, theology made a great deal of believing possible.   I will elaborate with some personal examples.  I came of age during the Vietnam era of the 1960s.  It was a tumultuous time.  I had dutifully gone to church as a young Quaker.  For the most part in those early years of mine, “going to church” was considered part of what it meant to be an American.  It would not be unusual to hear someone query, “did you go to church today?”  Most of the farmers in the area in which I lived did not work on Sunday, except to milk th...

I wanted to pursue a further look at the new book, Back-Pocket God, by Melinda Lundquist Denton and Richard Flory, which I examined yesterday the review by Rebecca Collins Jordan.  Jordan offers a rather lengthy, thoughtful look at this book, which examines the spiritual interests among the group they call emerging adults.  Many of us think about this group as millennials, basically 18-30 years old.   I am finding it particularly helpful, since that is the age group I spend most of my time with. I begin today’s reflection with Jordan’s summary of the book.  She says, “It tells a story of western religion, and namely Christianity, no longer posing any real utility in young people's lives.”  That offers a clear picture.  Religion is no longer of any use to these early adults.  It does not mean they don’t believe in God.  They are not bashing the church.  Rather, they simply write it off as irrelevant.  That is a hard pill to swallow i...

The first thing to admit is the title for this inspirational piece is not original with me.  In fact, it is the title of a new book about which I read a review and now want to read for myself.  The book is authored by Melinda Lundquist and Richard Flory, both university professors, but not at the same institution.  The review of the book by Rebecca Collins Jordan is very well done.  It gives me a good sense of the focus of the book, plus some insights and teasers, if you will, of what we will find if we read the book.  I do not know any of these three folks, so there is nothing personal going on here. The subtitle of the book gives you the focus: Religion and Spirituality in the Lives of Emerging Adults .  Describing emerging results is a conscious choice instead of millennials.  It reflects a particular stage of life---usually young adults in their college years up to maybe 30 years old or so.  This is the group I see nearly every day in the clas...

I had the occasion to be worshipping with a group of Friends via zoom.  That is the way things are these days.  More seems to happen online than in person.  I can grump about this, but I am grateful to technology for making things possible.  Otherwise, life is not a rich as it could be.  Why not be grateful for all that we have.  Sometimes I think our society is better at being grumpy than it is for being grateful.   The speaker of the morning did something I have never seen.  He preached a sermon of sorts.  But at the same time, he was doing magic tricks with ropes.  The magic was quite good.  Clearly, he is no magic rookie.  For example, one trick was with three different size ropes.  By the end, all the ropes were the same size.  And then he undid it and the ropes went back to their original size.  As with most magic tricks, I have no idea how he did it. I know he was simultaneously speaking.  There were ...

The title of this inspirational piece dropped into my mind without warning.  I am not sure what I was thinking about, but there it was: the privilege of possibility.  Immediately, I like the sound of it.  I like packing together words that begin with the same letter.  Alliteration, it is called.  I am not sure when this attraction to alliteration began.  I do remember the first time a friend told me that’s what I was doing.  I had never before heard the word, alliteration.  But I liked it.   And so the phrase, “the privilege of possibility,” popped into my mind.  I don’t recall thinking about the phrase, so I am willing to accept it as an instant of revelation.  I think all of us get these moments of inspiration.  I suspect most of the time we pay no attention to them, so they are missed.  They simply disappear into the mist of our forgotten history.  Somehow this one stuck.  And now I get to ponder it and play a...

I was looking at a recent journal for alums, which came from one of the institutions I attended.  This one was from Harvard Divinity School.  The Seminary was a very good next step for me when I was finished with my undergraduate degree.  Clearly it has world-class resources---more resources than I ever had have since being there.  One of the most amazing resources was the group of people with whom I associated.  Being an Indiana farm boy, that experience at Harvard was a growing, stretching time.  It helped me become the person I am.     When I look at a journal from my alma mater---whether it be undergraduate or graduate institutions---I have some interest about what’s going on and what kind of work is being done.  Of course, it has been so long since I was in school, all the actors are different.  Some of them I know because I have met them along the way, but most of the faculty and staff are not people I know.  A person who...

Recently I read an uplifting article about another Mary.  Everyone is familiar with Mary, the mother of Jesus and probably Mary Magdalene, who is the only person named in all four gospels who was at the empty tomb on that first Easter Sunday morning.  I figure Mary may be the name of more young girls in the world than any other name, since over two billion of earth’s population is Roman Catholic.  That said, the article I read introduced me to another Mary, whom I did not know. This Mary lives in Philadelphia.  She is a nun, a member of the Sisters of Mercy, which is a group I don’t know.  Sr. Mary grew up in Philadelphia, daughter of two uneducated Irish immigrants.  She was exposed early on to the nuns.  The Sisters of Mercy are a group of religious women founded in Ireland in 1831.  As Sister Mary Scullion finished high school, she decided she wanted to be part of this group of women.  She stayed in Philadelphia for college at a Jesuit ins...

We have survived Labor Day for yet another year.  As holidays go, it is one of the least important for me.  Maybe it is because I grew up on a dairy farm, so Labor Day was pointless; we still milked the cows twice that day just like any other day!  But clearly, it is special in many ways for many people.  And I am always intrigued by the history of a special day. Labor Day was declared a national holiday in 1894 by President Grover Cleveland.  The traditional day of celebration apparently was chosen by some unions in New York.  Since I have spent some time abroad, I know the traditional global day of celebrating labor is May 1.  Sometimes these international days of celebration can lead to political protest and disruptions.  It seems President Cleveland was concerned about that, so he wanted to avoid that May date.  So the first Monday in September was a safer alternative. There are typical associations with Labor Day.  ...

We celebrate Labor Day for another year.  As holidays go, it is one of the least important for me.  Maybe it is because I grew up on a dairy farm, so Labor Day was pointless; we still milked the cows twice that day just like any other day!  But clearly, it is special in many ways for many people.  And I am always intrigued by the history of a special day. Labor Day was declared a national holiday in 1894 by President Grover Cleveland.  The traditional day of celebration apparently was chosen by some unions in New York.  Since I have spent some time abroad, I know the traditional global day of celebrating labor is May 1.  Sometimes these international days of celebration can lead to political protest and disruptions.  It seems President Cleveland was concerned about that, so he wanted to avoid that May date.  So the first Monday in September was a safer alternative. There are typical associations with Labor Day.  When I w...