Faith & Life Inspirational Message

Reading the title of this inspiration piece probably makes no sense until you get an appropriate context.   The context comes as I begin re-reading a classic book for me, namely, Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek .   I have used this book in a course I teach and I always love returning to the pages of this contemporary contemplative of nature.   I don’t know how else to put it, except to say Annie Dillard is an exciting writer.   Originally appearing in 1974, the book reads as if it were published only yesterday.             The reader would not know it, but Annie Dillard summarizes the entire book in a paragraph in the first chapter.   I would not have known this until a second or third read of the book.   This summarization comes in a paragraph where Annie describes where she lives.   Quite simply she says, “I live by a creek, Tinker Creek, in a valley in Virginia’s Blue Ridge.”   A...

I arose early this morning---long before the first glimmer of light appeared in the eastern sky.  With my first step out the door, I was aware of how cold it was again going to be today.  I could feel it on my exposed cheeks and the sound of the snow’s crunch underfoot told me that sub 32-degree weather still engulfed us. Having a hot cup of coffee and sitting inside a warm room means all is well---for me.  But I know that people will complain about the cold weather, and the snow will be condemned as a nuisance or a problem. As I think about this negative view of the winter weather, I wonder what would happen if we looked at the snow as this season’s blessing from nature.  The snow is white---for centuries this has been the religious color of purity.  Let us look at the snow as God’s natural way of purifying this part of the world.  I want to be able to see my “white world” this day and appreciate the beauty of its purity. It is so true of our world a...

Sometimes when I am outside, it hits me how majestic and wonderful nature can be.   Since I grew up in rural Indiana, I have always known this to be the case.   However, we live much more insulated lives than people did when I was a little boy.   We live in controlled environments much of the time.   We use air conditioning to keep it cooler in the summer and, then, turn on the heat to keep the rooms warm during the winter months.   I am not complaining and am not suggesting we go back to the good old days! But I do think living life in an insulated way leads more of us to live more unaware.   Because our environments are controlled, we shape our reality as much as it shapes us.   This does not make us crazy, but it does allow us to live in a kind of illusion.   When it is nearly one hundred degrees on a summer day, it probably is a comfortable seventy-two degrees inside.   We have little awareness of the reality of nature.   And we n...

It was a beautiful sky, as I looked backward from the window of the plane.   I was flying from the West coast heading east.   The plane left the ground of the West coast and climbed into a sky bathed in bright sunshine.   There was not a cloud to be seen.   I knew, however, that the plane would be chasing the impending darkness of the East coast.   That gives a person the surreal sense of the day rushing by.             Normally, when we watch the coming of dusk, it is slow and subtle.   If we pay attention, we can sense the late afternoon sun begin to give way to softer light.   And then the colors of dusk come and, finally, the darkness of night itself descends.   As a farm boy, I watched that transformation a thousand times.                But the recent plane ride was different.   And it was at a vastly different s...

One of the ways lately I have been thinking about spirituality is focused by the phrase, poets of the soul.  By itself, the phrase may sound nice, but it does not convey anything special.  If I simply used the phrase, poets of the soul, you would not have a clue what I meant by it.  So let me unpack it a bit and give it a context and some specific content.             No doubt, most of us would have some idea about poetry.  Most of us had exposure to poetry in high school, if not before.  Probably some of us would say something like, “exposure, ha, I was forced to read poetry!  It is easy at my age to have some regrets about my education.  One of my regrets is that I did not take poetry more seriously.  I don’t blame the poets or my teachers.  I am sure the blame falls squarely on my shoulders.  I do not know why I would have claimed, “I don’t like poetry,” but that would have b...

Yesterday I wrote about the beautiful day.   Obviously that day is gone.   I have memories of the day, its beauty, and how much I enjoyed it.   But it exists only in memory.   That does not make it any less real.   But it is not present.   Today is a new and different day.   And it, too, will disappear with the night and give way to tomorrow.   Such is the running of chronos ---Greek word for chronology or time. However, I cannot get my mind off beauty.   That’s ok.   I don’t know as much about beauty as I do about other things.   I have much to learn about beauty.   I want to learn how to sense it more deeply.   I want to learn how to appreciate it more profoundly .   I want to be moved by it.   I am sure there is something significantly spiritual about beauty that I don’t yet grasp. In my attempt to grasp more significantly that spiritual aspect of beauty, I was reminded of some writing that appeared year...

Yesterday was one of those days.   I woke up and was already feeling alive.   I went outside to get a cup of coffee and the newspaper and could tell the weather was going to be splendid.   It was one of those early autumn days…cool in the morning, but you knew as the day wore on, it would become pleasantly warm.   It was a beautiful day.   And the best part was that I had an awareness of this and was thankful.   I am afraid there have been many beautiful days and I was so unaware that I missed it.   I know there have been many beautiful days and I was upset and could not be thankful.   I am sure there have been countless beautiful days and I was so busy that I completely missed the opportunity to notice it and to be thankful.   Yesterday was one of those days.   I was busy, but I was able to be aware and to give thanks.   It was a beautiful day and I took steps to enjoy it.   Given my schedule, I was able to be outside on...