Faith & Life Inspirational Message

If you are reading this, you too have survived last year and now are living in a new year!   If you participate in the media in any form, from reading newspapers to watching tv, you have become aware of a flood of statistics.   There are countless stories about last year.   I have become aware of the ten most brilliant-this and the ten dumbest-that.   As one who watches sports, I have watched the most amazing-this and the most disappointing-that.   Already coaches are losing jobs because of their involvement in some kind of “disappointing-that.”   As I write this, two professional football coaches have been fired.   I can’t imagine what they will do without their million dollar salaries!   As an assistant coach next year, they may have to scrape by with half that! The other annual fascination of mine as last year gives way to a new year is the making of resolutions.   Two staples of the new year are greeting everyone you meet with the p...

I am not sure how old I was when it dawned on me (or someone told me) that Christmas and the New Year did not come at exactly the same time everywhere in the world.   I am not sure how I felt when I learned the kids in Europe had opened their presents six hours before I did.   And for sure, I do not think I could quite grasp the fact that Chinese kids had done their New Year’s party at noon my time.   And by the time I watch an old year go out and welcomed a new one, the Chinese had just had their lunch!   Now I know fully that all this is due to the fact that our earth is round.   It is a big ball.   And it takes the ball twenty-four hours to spin around one time.   I know this in my head, but honestly I have had very few experiences to convince me the earth is round!   It still looks flat, except when you get in the mountains.   But there is nothing even with the mountains that would tell us the earth is round.   I don’t doubt the s...

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 ...

In this country we find ourselves at Memorial Weekend.  Clearly, the description of the weekend is unambiguous: memorial means remembering.  It is the “Remembering Weekend.”  There will be parades to highlight the festivities.  The little parade in my suburban town is so quaint and tiny, it is hilarious.  Of course, there are the boy scouts and girl scouts.  There are all the Little League baseball and softball players.  The fire trucks gain attention because the siren going off in your ears at a distance of 15 feet is dramatic!  And finally, there are always the politicians! The other thing that is a staple for Memorial Weekend is the visit to the cemetery.  Now that I am living in a much larger, urban context, I am less aware of folks going to the cemetery.  When I was a kid, I did not really understand this ritual.  No one significant in my life had died.  There was no one “living in the cemetery,” as I once put it, tha...

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 many people around the world this week is Holy Week.  I know enough Christian theology and I am liturgically aware enough to know what this means.  But to say that I know what it means is not to say I know what it means for any specific person.  For some it probably has been a deeply moving week, as we head into Good Friday.  For others likely it has been pretty superficial, at best.   I ponder how it might continue to have possibilities of being a “holy week” for you and me.  One necessary ingredient I would be pretty sure is needed for it to be “holy” is that we take time.  This reminds me of the old hymn I heard so many times: “Take Time to be Holy.” I know as a kid when I sang it, I paid little attention to the words and probably even less to what the hymn meant.  Maybe now is to take some time and reflect…to be holy. Another practical guide for learning the art of the holy is to “pay attention.”  Increasingly, it seems, we l...

One of the things I know about myself is I prefer the routine and normal.   I hope this does not mean I am incapable of living in different kinds of times---special times and, perhaps, even crisis times.   I have had some of both, as would be natural for anyone my age.   But in the end, I prefer the normal and the routine.   Maybe that is because so much of life happens in that sphere.   However, special times do come at regular times.   There are the religious holidays. If you are Christian, the two big ones are Easter and Christmas.   If you are Jewish, there is Passover and Yom Kippur, which is the most important holy day.   Of course, Muslims, Hindus and other major traditions have their holidays, such as the Hindu Diwali.   As I write this, I realize a particular day can be a religious holiday for some tradition and just a normal day for another tradition.   I don’t know very many Christians who celebrate Diwali.   And th...

Of course, the title of this inspirational reflection is partly in jest.   But part of me is serious when I say, thankfully, the holiday is over.   Both aspects need some clarification and development.   It is clear that I offer a word play on the most recent holiday, namely, Thanksgiving.   Actually, I am quite good with Thanksgiving Day itself.   I appreciate that it is totally an American holiday.   When we grow up Americans, it may be difficult to revel in that fact.   Truly, it was when I was abroad one November that I realized all my family and friends “back home” were celebrating Thanksgiving and I was simply doing what routinely was to be done on Thursday in the country where I was living at the time.   I missed Thanksgiving.   I like the idea of Thanksgiving.   Certainly I and most of the people I know have been very fortunate.   We all have much for which we can be thankful.   I am ok with taking a day during my...