Faith & Life Inspirational Message

I enjoy finding pithy or great summary statements.   I just found one in my favorite Quaker book.   Thomas Kelly wrote the popular Quaker book, A Testament of Devotion , which actually is a series of lectures.   Some of these come out of his experience of WWII.   Kelly spent some time in Germany watching Hitler come to power.   He returned to this country.   One of the chapters is entitled, “The Eternal Now and Social Concern.”   The core ideas were originally a lecture delivered to a gathering of German Quakers.             The summary statement embodies so much of what I have been taught when growing up as a Quaker.   Kelly writes that the central Quaker message affirms “The possibility of this experience of Divine Presence, as a repeatedly realized and present fact, and its transforming and transfiguring effect upon all life…”   If I can unpack this amazing sentence and understand i...

I have long been fascinated by imagination.   We only have to spend a little time with kids to witness the power of imagination.   Even fairly young kids---toddlers---can imagine with the best of them.   Imagination is the formation of ideas and images, which are not present to us.   Imagination is, as the dictionary tells us, a creative ability.   Imagination is able to create worlds that don’t yet exist.   Imagination fosters alternative worlds.   Imagination is the key to the future. If memory is the key to the past, imagination is the key to the future.   Memory often is quite a treasure.   Memory is the way we capture mentally those times, which have passed.   Memory preserves.   I have fond memories of some of my own childhood days.   I have quite fond memories of the times my two little girls were growing up, learning things and beginning to make lives of their own.   I am very thankful for the gift of memory. ...

The story of Thomas, as we find it in the New Testament, has always been one of my favorites.   Today is the feast day for Thomas, so I bumped again into the story.   If you are not familiar with the story, let me share it.   We find it in John’s Gospel.   The time frame for it comes after the resurrection of Jesus.   The resurrected Jesus was in Jerusalem on Sunday evening appearing to some of the gathered disciples.   As it turns out, Thomas was not with them.   When Thomas comes, the disciples told him they had seen the resurrected Jesus.    Thomas’ reply is classic.   He says, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” (20:25)   With these words Thomas expresses what so many of us surely would have exclaimed.   I can certainly sympathize with Thomas.   After all, Jesus had been his friend.   His friend had been horri...

Recently it dawned on me that my spiritual discipline is a great deal like my physical discipline.   I am sure that is not novel, but I also am sure I never thought about it quite like that.   Being active physically has been important to me for as long as I can remember.   I am lucky in the sense that it has always been something I wanted to do, rather than felt like I had to do it.   Perhaps growing up on a farm helped the process.   I cannot remember when I did not go outside to work or to play.   On the farm there was a great deal of work.   But there also was a fair amount of play.   Both are healthy.   In due time sports became very important to me.   I certainly was no star, but I played with gusto.   I had fun and was active.   I continue to play long after my eligible years in school were finished.   Being physically active was a way of life for me.   It was not a matter of virtue.   I did it because ...