Faith & Life Inspirational Message

It all began with an evening dinner with a friend.   Dinner with a friend is always easy.   We don’t have to impress each other.   The conversation flows.   The interest is mutual and the verbal exchange is satisfying.   Reflecting on it gives me a chance to ponder the beginning and development of friendship.   Even though I teach a class on spiritual friendship, I don’t pause enough to value the gift that friendship is.   As I reflected on it, I realized there are some fundamentals of friendship.   I know we could list even more than I will list here, but these five surely are fundamental to any significant friendship.   I would name the five fundamentals of friendship to be connection, affection, attention, care and good will.   Let’s look at each one of these.   Surely connection is an essential ingredient of friendship.   In fact, we could begin a definition of friendship as the art of making a connection.   ...

I would have no idea how many times I have told people, “take care.”   And I am sure there are just as many people out there who have said the same thing to me: “take care.”   It is very much like the phrase, “how’s it going?”   Most of the time I hear someone ask me that question, I assume it is not a real question.   It is a figure of speech---something we likely are to say to someone we know as we pass him or her on the street or in the hallway.             I am not against this act of cordiality.   I just don’t assume it means much more than that---people being cordial to one another.   It is an extended form of “hi.”   It is not a negative thing and I am not complaining.   In fact, I know the two phrases can become quite meaningful with the right kind of eye contact or voice inflection.   If I actually stop, look someone in the eyes and ask, “how are you,” with the right kind of v...

One of the books I use in a course on contemplative spirituality that I teach is by my friend and fellow Quaker, Parker Palmer.   Parker’s book, The Active Life , tries to describe what contemplative living looks like for the average person who will not join a monastery.   I like the subtitle of his book: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring .     One of the chapters I like focuses on “action, failure, and suffering.”   It is a story about an angel who wants to alleviate suffering---an angel who tries to care.             Clearly all of us know there is suffering in our world.   No doubt many who read these inspirational pieces have known some personal suffering.   I don’t know whether suffering is necessary in life, but I am convinced it is inevitable.   Live long enough and you will suffer.   Something the angel needed to learn was sometimes suffering cannot be allevia...

I like the word, solace.   If I were to use it in a college classroom, I am not sure how many students would know exactly what the word means.   I don’t think this is one of those places where I lament how much the younger generation does not know that I would claim my older generation knew at their age.   I am not sure that is true.   I do know that I learned so much along the way in life.   One great thing that college taught me was how little I knew!   Learning new words and being more articulate was an important learning, but it was one of many.             I know solace means offering comfort to those who are sad or somehow grieved.   Solace also means offering cheer and making folks cheerful.   It comes from the Latin word, solacium , which means to console.   A significant element of the ministry I have done throughout my life has been to offer solace.   I have been wit...

Some days can be frustrating.   On second thought, I don’t think the days themselves are frustrating.   They are what they are.   It is we who decide to be frustrated.   Frustration is an interpretation of what’s going on.   I suppose frustration is, in most cases, a reaction.   Usually frustration boils to the emotional surface when things don’t go our way.   I try not to spend much time in that emotional state.   It changes nothing and it uses up valuable energy to no good end. Nevertheless, recently I had one of those frustrating days.   It all started with a water meter.   Now I have no idea how to make a water meter into a spiritual lesson, so I won’t try that one.   But the water meter precipitated what would turn out to be a spiritual lesson for me.   For that I am grateful, in spite of some frustration in the process.   The story began a long time ago, it seems.   Apparently I have a meter inside my h...

I had tried to resist imposing pictures and stories of my grandkids on people.   I understand that no one cares about my grandkid in the same way as I and the other grandparents do.   I have looked at countless pictures of others’ grandchildren and sat passively as they showed me pictures and all I could do was feign some interest and say something like, “That’s nice!”             These days of cell phones and instant pictures only make the assault worse.   Instead of the hesitation we used to feel when we took pictures, had to develop and pay for them, the cell phone makes multiple, instant pictures seem totally free.   Grandparents figure if one picture of the cute little bugger is good, ten pictures should be absolutely astonishing!             It was easy to feel smugly superior to all grandparents---that is, before I had any grandkids.   I...