Faith & Life Inspirational Message

Sometimes I read something simply because of the person who wrote the piece.   It is typical for humans to have their preferences.   Some people like specific musical groups.   Others are drawn to particular artists.   I am a person who likes specific authors.   In fact, I have a number of favorite authors.   There are the obvious favorites like the late monk, Thomas Merton.   He is pretty famous, which means many people know him.   Another favorite of mine is Paul Knitter.   Knitter has just retired from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.   He is a long-time professor and scholar who is not as famous as folks like Merton.   But he has had a long, distinguished career shaping the   ways young folks think about life and their world. Knitter was one of the earlier people involved in the ecumenical and interfaith conversations.   When I say ecumenical, primarily I mean the interaction and dialogue among diffe...

Most days I do not think too much about it.   But yesterday I became very aware of how many words I use.   That is not surprising, since I am still teaching.   And certainly we know that teaching entrails speaking, even though I never lecture to the students.   I could lecture, but that would prove nothing except that I could talk all the time.   If I am talking all the time, how could I know whether they are learning anything?             I do not spend every waking hour talking.   In fact I am essentially an introvert.   So I enjoy time by myself.   Solitude has never been a problem, especially since I have been an adult.   As a teenager, I am sure too much time by myself caused some anxiety.   But teenagers are anxious as a matter of course!   So I was probably no crazier than any other teenager.             I am cu...

I very much enjoy it when I read someone I respect who is dealing with an issue or theme that I think is important.   More often than not, these experiences are both confirming what I think and also tend to take my own thought further or deeper.   Just such an experience happened recently as I turned to the daily newspaper.   I still buy a hard copy of my local paper.   I also read two or three online papers or news sources, too.   I hit this article by David Brooks in my local newspaper.   But since he is syndicated, it also appeared in the other online newspapers.            I was immediately drawn to the article by Brooks’ title.   It read: “Startling Adult Friendships.”   It also had an interesting subtitle: “There are Social and Political Benefits to Having Friends.”   I have had a long interest in the topic of friendship.   In fact, I teach a class called “Spiritual Friendship.” ...

I am still one of the people who read a variety of news accounts every day.  I even buy a hard copy of my local newspaper, but I may be the last generation doing that.  Neither of my kids ever buys a newspaper and I seldom see a student reading a hard copy paper.  I also read a fair amount of news online.  Obviously that is more planet-friendly.  And it gives me a wide variety of sources to consult.  Clearly, that is a huge upside of our electronic age.  In the early days of my life, I would never had read the London Times or an English version of a Chinese paper.  Now it is very easy.             I was surprised when I went online yesterday to see a story with an arresting title: 4 Teachings From Jesus That Everybody Gets Wrong.  It should not be surprising that I immediately clicked that site.  I was interested that the opinion was by a well-known New Testament scholar, Amy-Ji...

I was recently at a gathering of sports figures, business folks and normal people like me.  It was an interesting gathering in two ways.  The first way the gathering interested me was because of the topic, namely, how to work effectively with young people.  Of course, that is a perennial concern.  So I was all ears to gain some tidbits that might help me do a better job in my own teaching.  The second way the gathering was interesting to me was simply the unlikely collection of different kinds of people.  It reinforced my conviction that some of the best learning I experience comes when I hang out with people different than I am.             The best line of the event came in an almost off-handed comment by a football coach.  While he would not have been tabbed as the philosopher of the group, he had some deep insights because of his own involvement and work with young people.  I listened...

As I began to study religion in college, I began to acquire information and knowledge that helped me to think about my own religious heritage.   Acquiring some knowledge also helped me to think about life.   In the days when I was growing up on an Indiana farm, there was not the technology that exists today.   Because of that, I spent great deal of time by myself riding a tractor in some field.   There were only things to do: think and daydream.   I did a huge amount of both!             This life was a good life.   But there was one drawback, which I did not recognize at the time.   The drawback was that I did not have enough information, experience and knowledge to make sense of life.   I was given a rudimentary religious education that probably helped make sense of life.   But I don’t think I paid much attention and, certainly, did not really “own” it as my perspective.   In so...

People in the major religious traditions of the world, with the possible exception of Buddhism, believe in and practice some form of prayer.  Christians pray to God---classically understood as God the Father.  In my own devotional life, I am just as content to pray to God the Mother.  In fact, I like having both parental images.  One gets different content with each image. Most of us have had a father and a mother.  Even if we came from a single-parent family, many of our friends would have had both parents.  If you think about fathers, then you begin to get a sense of the “content” of the image of God the Father.  In my case, my father---Dad---was a hard-working farmer.  So that image is tinged with all sorts of agricultural images, too.  He cultivated the land; he took care of animals.  So the father image has connotations of someone who cares and is careful.  If your dad worked in a factory or taught school, likely your “con...

May this day bring you a taste of grace---grace without which everything in life begins to dull or maybe even become overwhelming.  Life and grace is what the whole Easter season has been about.  I emphasize life and grace. If we look at the calendar, we know that Easter is over.  Spiritually the challenge now is not to get over Easter!  In saying this, I have in mind more than just the Christians in our world.  I want to include all humans.  Chronologically, Easter is history, but this should not mean we lose its mystery.  Not to lose its mystery is to continue asking God to touch those parts of our lives, which have become deadened.  It means realizing some days we feel like we have been deposited in the tomb.  We may feel deadened.  We require that angelic visit to proclaim life again. We need to keep our eyes open to the awe, wonder and meaning daily around us.  We can put our hands to the task of creating meaning to these...

Even if you are a Christian, I have concluded it depends on where you are---what is your context---how aware of Holy Week and the impending Easter you are.   If you are a Christian and work in a mainly secular environment, you may be relatively unaware of Holy Week.   For many it does not dawn on them until at least Thursday.   And of course, in the secular world there is absolutely nothing special about Thursday.   But even in the secular world, Friday often assumes special connotations.   It might be a holiday---a day off.   It is at my University.   So I suppose it is the one day Jews, Muslims, atheists, and other non-Christians are thankful for their Christian brothers and sisters!   But for the Christian, Friday---Good Friday---is an interesting one.   I suspect that for many Christians Friday is simply skipped.   They see Easter as very special and nothing else really matters.   The resurrection is key for them.   W...

For the western Christian tradition (all those who are not Greek or Russian Orthodox, etc.), this week has brought us the season of Lent.   As usual, my childhood memory of Lent is non-existent.   Basically, Quakers did not observe Lent.   It is not so much that we were against it as that it was not necessary.   Quakers are a funny bunch.   At least originally, they sought to be serious about their faith on a daily basis.   I still find that laudable.   So it meant they were not inclined to set aside days and periods when a Christian should be more serious and others days and seasons when they could lighten up. On the surface, I still agree with my Quaker heritage.   However, I also know the downside of that heritage is that it could produce the sour, dour Quaker who took everything so seriously that there was no longer any spice to life.   There was no reason to laugh and, maybe even, celebrate things.   To be chronically serious is...

This silly little trio of words came to me in a class I was teaching about meditation.   But sometimes these little teaching tools come in handy when trying to explain things and help people move from ideas to action.   Let’s look at the function of each of these three ideas.             Meditation certainly gets much more attention than it did when I was a kid.   Maybe I was out of it when I was younger, but I don’t recall anyone in my church tradition talking about meditation.   Granted I did not grow up Catholic, but I am not sure young Catholic kids heard much about meditation either.   Perhaps meditation is only a grown-up thing.             I know there is a long and storied history of meditation in Christianity.   After studying Christian history and spirituality, I know Christians have always practiced some form of meditation.   I...

We have survived another holiday hiatus!   I realize most folks would not put it this way, but it is a good way to understand the Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year’s Day combination.   I also realize the word, hiatus, is not a word you regularly hear in a McDonald’s coffee conversation.   But it is a good word.   It means a gap or break.   In the way it is being used here, it means a break or interruption in time or routine.   Oddly enough, the root meaning goes back to the Latin word for “yawn.”   So we have just come through a big yawn in routine time!   A hiatus is often a very good thing.   It is not unusual for people to get tired or even bored with their routines.   “Same job day after day,” is a common lament.   Even those of us who like our jobs are often eager for a break.   And certainly those who no longer have jobs because of age, infirmities, etc. welcome a break in their routine.   Busy people need one kind of b...

A rose may be a rose, but a pain is not a pain.   Maybe somebody has said that before, but I have never heard it.   So I am assuming (for the moment) I made it up.   Of course, most of us have heard that line, “a rose is a rose.”   I don’t know who said it first or if I should give it a footnote, but I do know that I did not create that line.   Furthermore, we all could explain what the phrase, a rose is a rose, means. However, if I say, “a pain is not a pain,” the reader may not be too sure what I mean by that.   And if the reader is unsure, he or she does not know whether to agree with me or say balderdash!   So let me explain it by some development.   For sure, every adult knows what pain means.   It is difficult to imagine living into adulthood and not experiencing some kind of pain.   There is physical pain; we all know this.   There is emotional pain----a pain many people know all too well…and others may barely know. ...