Faith & Life Inspirational Message

Occasionally ideas simply pop into my head.   They come as gifts of the universe or God or some Giver of gifts.   When I write this, I have to laugh.   I laugh because it is true for me.   At the same time, I realize how the truth of this could tempt me to want to manipulate it.   I am tempted to think, why not have money pop into my hands instead of ideas popping into my mind!   I could immediately spend the money.   Ideas come, but they seldom have any value until I work with them, fashion them and put them into a larger whole. This is what I am doing with this inspirational piece.   The phrase, “power of partnerships,” came into my mind.   It would have been the easiest thing in the world to ignore it.   On the surface, the phrase sounds true enough, but there is nothing special about it.   There is nothing that inherently attracted me to the phrase.   But I have learned to receive this kind of gift---even if I do not k...

I participate in some forms of social media, although I have not yet become a Facebook follower.   That clearly means I am not all in!   But I do think there is a role for social media.   One of the roles I see for myself is social media provides one more outlet for me to share some spiritual nuggets that students, especially, would not get.   That may sound arrogant, but there are quite a few folks from my university that read the thing just because I am writing it.   The numbers are not huge, but Jesus only managed a few followers!   I am in good company.             The other thing that participating in social media affords is a chance to keep thinking about life and how to make the most sense out of it.   I grant that so much of the stuff that appears via social media---Facebook, Twitter and the rest---is not profound in any sense.   Much of it is technological chitchat.   I am not...

I realized some years ago that I actually receive many more gifts than I ever would have thought.   I realized this when I changed the way I perceive gifts.   As a young boy I certainly thought about gifts in materialistic terms.   That is why birthdays and Christmas are such wonderful events.   People are obligated to give you things!   Of course, the reverse is also true.   On those two occasions I am also obligated to give others some gifts.             Of course, material gifts count.   I have had some fantastic gifts over the course of my life.   A new baseball mitt that I received in my early youth was about the best gift a kid could have received.   Like me, I am sure you have received many gifts during your life.   Some were likely fairly expensive and others cost hardly any money.   In fact, some of the most touching gifts I have received have come from natural ...

I don’t know why I am always surprised to find rich possibilities for spiritual musing within the worldly, secular realm.   It happens frequently and I am always surprised!   I should not be surprised because I think almost all of us Americans live most of life in the midst of secularity.   Maybe the monks and the recluses don’t, but most of us do.   I know I do…and I am a professor of religion!             Living life in the midst of secularity is not bad.   But it is not spiritual either.   I don’t think the Spirit is missing from the secular world.   But in the secular world, most of us are not in touch with the Spirit and, probably, most of us may not even be looking to get in touch with the Spirit.                This is what hit me as I was doing the most secular task of all.   I was reading the business section r...

Often I have commented that one of the most pleasant things in life is serendipity.   I like the word, serendipity, and I like the experience of it.   Serendipity is a pleasant surprise, an unexpected piece of good fortune.   Serendipity is good fortune finding us when we were not even looking.   Recently I had the good fortune of being the recipient of a little serendipity.   It was not a big deal, but it was touching, nevertheless.   I received an email from a student whom I know, but I don’t know this student well.   He is a leader on campus, so I figured perhaps he wanted something.   So I opened the email with no expectations at all that it would actually be serendipity in the making. The email began with a cordial greeting.   I appreciated that, but was not surprised.   This student is someone who has his act together, so he knows how to engage people.   I read on.   He told me that he was involved with a group...