Faith & Life Inspirational Message

                 I keep reading so I don’t shrivel up and become a blob sitting in my chair watching television all day.   It is hard to imagine Jesus doing that.   And if I somehow want to claim being a follower, I have to do better than blob-living!   Some of the reading I do is not directed to some specific end.   Generally, I want to be more informed.   I want some ideas to provoke me to think, ponder and see where it takes me.   And so recently I ran across an article in the periodical, Aeon.   This is more scientifically based, so it challenges and keeps me mentally engaged.             The article was entitled, “Cognition all the way down.”   It was by two Tufts University professors who are rather big names among scholars.   I loved their subtitle: “Biology’s next great horizon is to understand cells, tissues and organisms as agents with agendas (even if unthinking ones)”   “Oh boy,” I thought as I dived in.   It began by admitting that biologists were “prop

                 Recently, I reread Brian Doyle’s book, Eight Whopping Lies .   Doyle has an uncanny way of telling a compelling story within about two pages.   The stories originate out of real life and it is so easy to relate to the ordinariness of the story.   And then Doyle drags us deep into profundity and that is where the enlightenment emerges.   Wow, that is an amazing revelation is my normal response.             Still near the front of the book is the little story Doyle entitles, “Is That Your Real Nose?”   I had no clue what this story would narrate.   I suppose I had my doubts that it would be about real noses.   So I eagerly began to read.   Doyle has a charming, simple way to engage the reader.   This entry begins with the cryptic question: “Best questions I have been asked?”   As a writer and speaker to many groups, I am sure he has been through his fair share of Q&A, as they are called.               Quickly, he tells us his favorite question.

                 I have developed the habit of reading stuff that I don’t think I will like.   The reason for this is so I can grow in my knowledge.   Secondly, if I only read stuff I like or that is close to what I already know, then my chances of learning new things and being innovative are about nothing.   In this I do not think I am normal.   My experience is that most folks have developed their own party line---about religion or politics or anything else.   And once that development takes place, it becomes cement-like!   It would take a jackhammer to make any changes.             My experience with cement is it seldom changes and never transforms.   When you pour cement, you can shape it as you wish.   It is moist and pliable.   Comparably, that is like our youth.   Through parents, education and so on, we are molded.   Once cement sets, change is over.   While that analogy does not hold true for all people, it is true enough to describe many folks.   Hence, my

                 I am not quite sure what caught my eye as I was trolling though my Twittter account.   Perhaps it was the title: “Growing People: A Vital Imperative for Organizations.   I did not know the author, Julia Daley.   Her short bio describes her as a leadership coach and mentor.   She is an educator and speaker.   I smiled because that could be my bio, too.   It is fairly general, but I decided to read the article and am glad I did.               I am interested in growing in my own way.   I want to grow spiritually, intellectually and emotionally.   And I have spent a great deal of my adult life helping other folks grow.   Sometimes it has been students and sometimes it has been members of a congregation I was serving.   I think I know quite a bit about what this means, so I was intrigued what the article might tell me that I didn’t already know.   I was pleasantly surprised.               The first paragraph posed an important question.   We were aske

                 Recently a writer for the New York Times died.   David Carr wrote about culture for that famous newspaper.   He is someone I read sometimes, but I was not a regular reader of his material like I am for someone like David Brooks, whom I very much respect and from whom I learn a great deal.   When Carr died, he was given much press and was lauded as very smart and quite influential.   My interest was piqued, so I read more about him than might be expected.             Carr was still relatively young when he died.   He was born in 1956.   I was intrigued to track his career.   Clearly, he had learned to make a living using words.   Jobs like his fascinate me.   I wonder how many kids think that they could figure out how to use words and make a really good living?   After all, everyone uses words!   He just learned how to use words very effectively.   He learned how to use words and manage to have people pay to read those words.   That is clever!     

  Once in a while I bump into an idea that is strikingly novel to me.   It challenges me in a way I have never been challenged.   Usually in the face of this, I have to pause and admit that I don’t know what to think.   It is only after some pondering that I begin to find my way through to an understanding.   I encountered one idea recently when I settled down, picked up one of my alum magazines and began to flip through it.             I landed on an article that had an intriguing title, “Cities, Climate Change, and Christianity.”   I know the author, Sallie McFague, and I very much like her work.   Probably, I have at least three of her books on my shelf in my study.   So I trust whatever she is thinking is worth reading.               Rightly, I assumed, the article had to do with global warming and sustainability.   It seems like we are hearing a little less about global warming now than we did two or three years ago.   But that does not mean much except it is

                 The title of this inspirational reflection suggests two different academic disciplines or departments.   On my campus if we were to talk about spirituality and the market, we think Religion Department and the Business Division.   In most cases the two would not be in conversation.   In my own case, however, I have done a great deal of collaborative work with a colleague from the Business world.   It has been productive work and surprising where our joint efforts have made a difference.             I have often said that it is only on college campuses that artificial divisions exist.   Sometimes I think it is unfortunate that we make students choose majors.   And too often, the students operate with the illusion that a particular major leads to specific kinds of jobs.   Of course, there are times when that does seem to be the case.   It a student is an accounting major, then it is true that he or she can probably find a job as an accountant after gra

               I have been doing quite a bit of reading for the work my co-authors are engaged with writing a new book.   Writing a book is a dual process of bringing together some of the things I already know along with reading and researching to learn new things to add to the mix.   It is an interesting process and provokes me to think about the learning process itself.   I think there are two forms of things we know---hence have learned.   Some things we know are simply good to know---for no other reason.   An example of this is the fact that we are loved.   For me this is theologically true---God loves all of us without qualification.   There is no ulterior reason for this.   It is just simply true for me.   I cannot prove it, but I have learned it is true.   The other form of learning is the things we know in order to be able to do something.   This includes all sorts of practical things. And it includes things like the skills we have learned in order to do ou

                 I was not very far into my walk yesterday, when I noticed them.   It was a gorgeous fall day.   It was warm, the sun shone brilliantly in the sky and the leaves are soon turning multiple colors.   It was a good day to be alive and to be outside.   Besides it was more fun than reading and grading papers, as some will soon do!             I noticed ahead of me on the other side of the road a bunch of kids and two adults.   They were just emerging from a yard and were coming toward me on the side of the road that has no sidewalk.   It is not a hugely traveled road, but there are quite a few cars and the road is relatively narrow.   From what I was guessing, there were two mothers and five kids as I differentiated the pack unfolding one person at a time.             Naturally, the kids bolted to the front, forming a single line to include the mothers at the tail of the line.   I was not paying close attention as I loped along in my own little world.  

                 Yesterday I had lunch with a friend.   That is not breathtaking news.   There was no special occasion.   There was no news that we were dying to tell each other.   When the lunch was finished, I was not profoundly moved, had no penetrating insight, or strong resolve to go out and save the world.   It was just a lunch.   I had soup, not sushi.               The lunch was perfectly ordinary, just like the soup.   There were no sushi qualities to it.   I associate sushi with some extraordinary---something special and unusual.   I like sushi, but it is not an ordinary lunch fare for me.   Most of the time, I am just a soup kind of guy.   And so is my friend.   And so was our lunch.             Economically it was a loss.   I bought both lunches!   It would have cheaper to go to lunch by myself.   I smile as I type this because I know when we go to lunch again (when, not if), he will pay for the lunch.   And I know that day it will feel like a gift tha