Faith & Life Inspirational Message

I often wonder what goes through folks’ minds when they see the title of my inspirational reflection.   When I use the word, mindfulness, I wonder what sort of connotations that has for the people who read this.   If they have some awareness of Buddhism, they might figure I am doing a Buddhist thing today.   Certainly mindfulness plays a very important role in Buddhist spirituality.   But mindfulness is not a Buddhist concept.   It is a more general concept which plays a huge role in Buddhist practice.             I suspect there is a role for mindfulness in every major religious tradition.   Clearly, the word, mindfulness, may not be used in all the traditions, but the idea is there. In fact, it is difficult for me to imagine anyone who is religious or spiritual who is not mindful in some way.             Let’s take a general look at what ...

I recently read an interesting interview about a woman who has just written a book on the people who claim to be spiritual but not religious.   Clearly this is a prevalent phenomenon in our world today.   It often is associated with the young people, but I think it is a mistake to assume they are all this way and that older people are, by and large, still religious in the traditional sense.   Things are much more up for grabs these days.             The person being interviewed, Linda Mercadante, teaches in a Methodist seminary.   I found her interview both fascinating and insightful.   No doubt that is partly true because a significant number of the students who are in my classrooms consistently claim they are spiritual but not religious.   I have explored that theme, but not in the depth that Mercadante has.   So let’s examine some of her findings.        There ...

In class yesterday I was having a discussion with some students about life, meaning and purpose.   I don’t believe that our lives come with a ready-made meaning wrapped within.   Finding meaning in our lives is not like going to the Christmas tree and picking up a “meaning package!”   I suppose some people might wish it were this easy.   But I don’t want it this way.             I believe meaning can come to us in a couple ways.   In the first place, I do think we can “find” meaning.   But meaning is not the Christmas package simply laying there waiting to be picked up, opened and, voila, we have our meaning.   Meaning can be found, but even this finding process takes some work---sometimes hard work.   Finding meaning presupposes that we are seeking.             This form of seeking can take us into many different venues.   Fo...

The phrase, which became the title of this inspirational piece, came to me during a recent conversation.   The person with whom I was conversing periodically was talking about wishing for this or for that.   As I listened to her, I realized that wishing for certain things was a way she expressed hope.   For example, I am sure at one point she must have said something like, “I wish I can have some kids.”   Translated that would have meant that she planned to have kids…and did have them. In many ways I can relate to that.   I suspect I am not unusual in saying that I have spent a lifetime wanting certain things.   When I was a kid, I wanted to play sports and, of course, wanted to be good.   I did get to play sports, but I was average at best.   I would have to confess I wanted to date certain girls and sometimes got what I wanted.   Other times I got a flat “No!”   That was disappointing, but it didn’t kill me.   I suppose most ...

What if the title of this inspirational essay were really true, namely, that there was no meaning to express.   That would be sad!   It would be sad because that is a key distinguishing feature of what a human does: make meaning.   In fact, that is one way I like to talk about religion and spirituality; they are ways people make meaning.   Of course, they are not the only ways.   But they are key ways. So if there were no meaning to express, then I would have serious questions about why we are living?   If there is no point to life, then why go through the motions?   Sure, there are some short-term pleasures.   If we are lucky, nice things may happen to us along the way.   But at some point, life usually brings some share of suffering and, then, death.   Hopefully these are not the point in life! I wandered into this reflection when I read parts of an old book that I had not thought about for years.   The book is entitled, ...