Faith & Life Inspirational Message

Some of what I have done in life would be explicitly called ministry.   But most of the things I have done would not have been called ministry, but in fact were a form of ministry.   In this country the term, ministry, usually has religious overtones.   People think ministers are special people within the church who often have designated roles.   Clearly, priests and pastors are doing ministry.   In fact, they are often called “ministers.”   And there are other folks within the church structure who also minister.             This is not a bad use of the idea of ministry.   Truly there are people who are doing amazing ministers in their church context.   But the problem is to limit the word, minister, to a church context.   It is a much broader word.   The word comes from the Latin word, minister , which means to serve.   Therefore, it means servant.   It can be noted tha...

I had not really thought much about it until my friend mentioned it in his remarks to me and some of my younger student friends.   He is a pretty “big person” in our part of the world.   He is a name of national prominence.   I feel fortunate to have a good relationship with him.   Apart from a good friendship, I don’t get any special things from him.   The best thing is his willingness to take time to speak to my student friends.             The “it” he mentioned was in the phrase, “paying it forward.”   There he was in front of us saying the real reason he was spending time with us was to “pay it forward.”   It was appropriate.   He did not have to do this.   He wasn’t going to get anything personally from doing it.   In fact, we could actually be seen as a pain in the neck for him!   But he wanted to pay it forward.         ...

If the first fundamental human question is “who am I,” surely the second question is “what should I do?”   In most cases these two questions are inextricably tied together.   What happens with one question affects the other one.   However, we can only talk about them one at a time, so this reflection piece gives focus to the question, what should I do?             The first thing to realize in this question is the focus goes on the verb.   In the other question, “who am I,” the focus was on the subject---on “who.”   But in this second question the focus clearly shines on the verb---“do.”   The implication is everyone should do something.   Not doing something is, in effect, doing something, i.e. doing nothing.   This tells me that human beings are essentially designed to be somebody and to do something.   The only questions are who am I as a somebody and what should I do, since I have ...

When some people see this title, they probably assume I am going to talk about some special call to the ministry.   For sure, this is often the language of priests and others who do feel a special call into some form of ministry.   I don’t minimize that, but I have a different kind of call in mind.   I have in mind something as simple as a phone call.            Although people may not talk on the phone as much as a few years ago, there is still a great deal of conversation that goes over the phone waves.   Email and texting have not totally replaced actually hearing a human voice on the other end of the phone call.   As I pondered the matter, I quickly realized not all phone calls are equal.   And I have created a little way to distinguish between two different kinds of phone calls.             In order to distinguish two different kinds, I appeal...

I have heard the language of “call” since I was fairly young.   It was not unusual to hear people in my religious tradition talk about people being “called into ministry.”   Although I knew sometimes God was the One who did the calling, I also suspected that God always was the One behind that call.   And if I am to be honest, I really hoped that God would never do that to me!            At the time I did not know anything about the Quaker tradition.   I did not know that Quakers think God calls everyone!   The question is not whether one is called; the question is to what is God calling us to do.   I realized I had a great deal to learn about this “calling business!”             Often it would be funny, if it were not pathetic.   I did not want any call on my life because I had bigger and better plans.   Talk about delusional!   With...

On the surface the title of this inspirational reflection makes little sense.   Why would any person with brains want to do the impossible?   Most of us know that sometimes doing the possible is hard enough!   Why would you try to do the impossible?   And likely fail?   I think I would have agreed with this until I read an interesting little account in a book by my friend, Parker Palmer.            I have been using one of Palmer’s books, The Active Life , in one of my classes.   The subtitle of the book gives you a good sense of its focus: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity and Caring .   It is not his best book, but the content matches something I try to help students and adults think about in their normal lives.   Many of us think monks and nuns can live a spiritual life.   They have made special arrangements in life so that being spiritual becomes their full-time job.   But the res...