Faith & Life Inspirational Message

Recently I heard a friend use a phrase that deeply struck me.   I don’t actually remember the context and I don’t remember anything else he said.   But that phrase lingered long after I heard it.   It really was a phrase---not even a sentence.   The phrase simply says, “to make heaven on earth.”   Since I have no clue what he was talking about, I am going to make the phrase my own and develop it in ways that make sense to me.             I am going to take it in two contexts.   One context is overtly spiritual.   The other context is to use it as a phrase that makes some sense, but actually has nothing to do with religion or spirituality.   This might be the way you would hear the phrase in contemporary culture, much like swearing might use God-language, but have no real reference to God.               The first way this phrase ...

There are a few people I follow in the sense that I want to hear and read whatever they are putting out there.   My interest in these kinds of people does not parallel the people the general culture follows.   For example, when I go through the checkout counter in the grocery store, I read with some amusement the cover of the various Hollywood-type magazines.   I usually don’t even know the people about whom the magazine is putting forward.   People are pregnant, getting dumped or duped or generally making a scene out of their lives and I don’t care.   I just want to pay for the carrots!            I am not really interested in the sports stars upon whom our culture lavishes so much blabber.   I don’t care about Tiger, LeBron or Michael.   Certainly, they are accomplished in terms of a skill set for a particular sport.   But that says nothing about the kind of human being they are.   Many a...

A recent reading from the daily lectionary brought me to a familiar Psalm, Psalm 36.   The familiar words come in the middle of that Psalm.   The line I connected with is really a confessional, laudatory line.   The Psalmist says to God, “ How precious is your steadfast love, O God!”   Since most of us do not have the ability to read the Psalms in their original Hebrew, perhaps the best we can do is read a couple English translations.   A different translation of the passage just quoted goes like this: “How precious is your kindness, O God!” Clearly the first passage uses the English phrase, steadfast love, to capture a Hebrew word.   And the second passage uses the word, kindness.   In both cases the Psalmist is praising a divine attribute that characterizes God and God’s action in the world.   The Psalmist is confessing that this divine love or kindness is precious.   For some reason I very much like the idea of precious.   ...

My friend gave me a poem written by Wendell Berry.   My friend knows I like Wendell Berry, although I would never claim that I know too much about him.   Born about ten years before I was born, Berry is still active.   Berry is a fascinating guy.   Berry is a Kentuckian farmer.   However that does not tell you much about this man.   He is a learned farmer.   He is famous writer and poet.   He is an active Christian---a Baptist.   He is a contemporary prophet who has challenged the complacency of so much of the traditional church.   I have laughed at him and cringed at some of his challenge to my own faith.             My friend gave me a poem Berry penned in 1991.   He entitled the poem, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.”   Berry may be the most quotable living American.   So to be given this poem is to be given enough thoughts and one-liners to fill a mo...

I try to follow various people I respect to see what kinds of things they are doing with regards to spirituality.   One of the people I respect is Richard Rohr.   While I don’t agree with everything he writes, I find his Franciscan spirit resonates with my Quaker spirit.   He and I are about the same age, so it makes it easy to understand some of his concerns and issues.   Neither one of us deals with teenage problems any more!             He has the ability to look at a common issue and see it in a way I might not ever look at it.   Perhaps some of that is due to our different backgrounds and experience.   I recall Rohr talks some about growing up in Kansas.   That might not be too different than growing up in rural Indiana.   But he also talks about his caring German, Roman Catholic family.   My family certainly was caring enough.   I have no complaints on that score.   But...

It is obvious that the title of this inspirational message is not in English.   For many of us who do not know any other language, this can be very frustrating.   Suddenly we can feel like the outsider.   It might even bring back memories of being a little kid and being left out of a conversation.   Exclusion is typically not a fun experience.            However, if you know French, you immediately knew the phrase used in the title was a pretty familiar phrase.   In fact, in educated, academic circles, it often is used in an English text and left untranslated.   Again if I am not educated, i.e., if I do not know French in this case, I still feel left out.   I might have a doctoral degree in physics and still not know what the phrase means.             The phrase, joie de vie, means “joy of life.”   Now that we all know what it means, we c...