Faith & Life Inspirational Message

I try to follow the daily lectionary---daily reading---even though I don’t always mention it.   I find the lectionary to be an available, designated group of readings that help me focus for some time.   I know how important discipline is in a variety of aspects of life.   Discipline is part of my spiritual regimen, although I don’t do as well as I want to do.   Clearly, discipline plays a role in other areas, such as physical exercise, eating, etc.             The lectionary makes it a little easier for me to engage some practice.   The lectionary I follow is the one from the Benedictine monastic tradition.   I like the fact that monks around the world are doing the same readings from the Psalms that I am doing.   And they are also hearing the same passages from the Old and New Testament that I read.   It is not the same thing as being there with them, but when I can’t be with them, I like ...

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 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...

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...

The words in my title come from a little online meditation piece I read from one of my favorite authors, Richard Rohr.   Rohr is a Franciscan who founded and runs a Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, NM.   I have been reading Rohr for a long time and still use a couple of his books in my classes.   He is a Catholic who has taught this Quaker a great deal over time.             Rohr always has a fresh way of putting things, even if I have thought about those things in my own way.   He makes me twist my head---symbolic of twisting my mind---and pondering something in a different way.   In a way the title of this little piece is evidence of that.   I never thought about God as a Divine Ambusher!   I don’t know that I would find that image for God in the Christian Bible, but I think the sense of the way God sometimes acts resonates with the title.   Let’s look at how Rohr puts ...

I enjoy the various opportunities that come my way.   I am grateful for the rather wide-ranging reading I am able to do.   But I also appreciate the daily discipline of using the lectionary to guide some devotional time coupled with reflection time.   As I have mentioned in the past, I use the daily lectionary (fixed readings) from my Benedictine monastic friends.   I like the fact that I am reading the same scripture in the mornings that monks across the land are reading.                 The lectionary keeps my rhythm in place and manages a focus for me that I don’t have to give thought.   As with all discipline, the only issue is whether I do it.   The planning is done for me.   The question is my execution.   A discipline is not meant to be onerous or rigid.   I am convinced most effective disciplines are the ones we choose to take on and live in daily lives.  ...

Most of the time I feel quite fortunate.   The nature of my job requires that I read books and other things.   Because I have the privilege of teaching, I have to assign various books.   And then I have to read them and think about the material before I see students who interact with the material.   Sometimes I know those same students groan about having to read the things.   And I want to say, “Really?”   “Would you like to have a boring job instead?”             As I was reading last night in preparation for a class, I ran across these words from the Qur’an (Koran) which was quoted by one of my textbooks.   I don’t know the Qur’an very well, so I was glad to get unexpectedly something from it.   The quotation was simple.   It said, “Wherever you turn, there is the face of God.” (Walsh, 173)   Having read it, I now get the opportunity to think about it.   In many ways this i...

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...

Often I am inspired to write one of these reflections by an experience I would never guess could become spiritual.   This happened recently when I was in a large east coast city.   Since I grew up on an Indiana farm, visiting a city continues to be an eye-opening experience.   As a kid, I had cornfields, not skyscrapers!   I appreciate nature, to be sure, but I also appreciate the marvel of human engineering and building that the large cities represent.               It was during a rather leisurely walk in the middle of this large city that I began to take note of something pretty mundane.   A couple times, I turned off a big, multi-lane street on which I was walking and headed down a much more narrow side street.   There is nothing remarkable about that, until I began to notice the stark contrast between the huge throughway that the big street represented and the tinier walkway that linked som...

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 months, 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 an...

Dealing with spirituality is something like a good meal.   There are various parts to both of them.   When we sit down to a good meal, there are different kinds of foods.   There may be a salad to start.   Then comes the major part of the meal.   But again, there probably is diversity.   There may be the proverbial “meat and potatoes.”   There could very well be a vegetable.   Often there is some form of bread.   And if we are lucky, the meal is topped off with a tasty dessert.   Spirituality has analogous parts to it.   Without trying to match one part of spirituality to one part of the meal, let me identify what I consider to be the “meat and potatoes” for spirituality.   That would be the spiritual disciplines.   They are the basics of spirituality.   Without them, there is no “main spiritual meal.”   In my experience it is not unusual for people to try to be spiritual without actually practicing any of ...

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...