Faith & Life Inspirational Message

A regular reader of this inspirational reflection series knows that one of my spiritual disciplines is to spend a little daily time with the lectionary.   A lectionary simply is a group of readings.   Lectio in Latin means to “read.”   The lectionary I follow comes from the world of Benedictine monks.   The traditional Benedictine monastery used to have seven periods during the day when the monks would gather for worship.   Most monasteries today have reduced this to four or five daily gatherings.      The lectionary readings have been chosen by representatives of the group.   Hence for the Benedictines they know every monastery across the land is reading the same set of readings at the same appointed gathering.   The Psalms play a central role in the lectionary.   Every Benedictine monastery would read from the Psalms at every gathering.   For one who grew up as a Quaker, this was a totally new experience.   As I have...

Suffering is not the favorite choice for spirituality focus.   In fact, many more popular spiritualities forego any discussion of suffering.   If you were to read these spiritualities, you would not even think suffering ever happens.   To many of these superficial (in my estimation) spiritualities are chasing what spiritual-psychiatrist, Gerald May, calls the happiness mentality.   In effect, that spirituality contends that if you are spiritual, you ought to be happy.            Let it be said, I am happy to be happy.   I don’t know anyone who prefers sadness to being happy.   Happiness is great; often it is fun.   But the happiness mentality always crashes on the rocks of suffering.   And so far as I know, there is always the good chance we all will have our share of suffering.   Even the Buddhist, who sets out on the spiritual pilgrimage to eliminate suffering, begins with suffering as se...

Some books I continue to return to in order to get a spiritual reminder or a spiritual boost.   One of those books is my friend Alan Jones’ book, Soul Making .   I find reading Jones a challenge, but always rewarding.   However, I also know that when I assign that book in one of my spirituality classes, the students seldom like it!   That usually makes me a little sad.   It is as if the students reject a little part of me.               I think Jones’ book is so important to me because it came at a time when I was in a significant spiritual growth phase.   Simultaneously, I was also trying to figure out whether I could teach spirituality and, if so, how I would do it.   The idea of “soul making" was an eye-opener for me.   Growing up in a fairly rural Quaker meeting (church), I had only heard that language that affirmed people “had” souls.   Of course, at death the soul left the b...

One of the ways lately I have been thinking about spirituality is focused by the phrase, poets of the soul.  By itself, the phrase may sound nice, but it does not convey anything special.  If I simply used the phrase, poets of the soul, you would not have a clue what I meant by it.  So let me unpack it a bit and give it a context and some specific content.             No doubt, most of us would have some idea about poetry.  Most of us had exposure to poetry in high school, if not before.  Probably some of us would say something like, “exposure, ha, I was forced to read poetry!  It is easy at my age to have some regrets about my education.  One of my regrets is that I did not take poetry more seriously.  I don’t blame the poets or my teachers.  I am sure the blame falls squarely on my shoulders.  I do not know why I would have claimed, “I don’t like poetry,” but that would have b...

I lead a group that meets every Monday.   It is a delightful group of people to join weekly.   Our purpose is to discuss life and hear how each other is engaged in making sense of life.   That may seem too general to be interesting, but I can assure you it is not too general.   As a matter of fact, people bring their real life experiences to the group and we all prosper by hearing each other share what we know about life, as well, as listen to each other’s questions about life.   I think we all have assumptions about life.   One assumption I have about people is that all of us in our own way are trying to make sense of our lives.   When I say make sense of life, I mean we are trying to figure out our purpose in life.   Another way to put it is we are trying to find meaning.   I am confident that the core experience of living a life without meaning is despair.   Despair literally means to be without hope.   A second assumption ...

Recently I have been leading a group that is using the classic book, Gift from the Sea , by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.   Originally published in the mid-1950s, this book has stood well the test of time.   It is dated in some ways.   Reading it again makes me aware of how our American culture has changed.   The role of women, of marriage and other things have undergone significant change since the mid-20 th century.   And yet so much of the book is timely and, even, timeless.   There are still nuggets of wisdom and profundity that make me delighted to read it again.             At one point, the group focused on chapter IV, “Double-Sunrise.”   I really don’t know much about shells, except to know that I like them and like to pick up shells when I am at the beach.   But I have never been an “ocean person,” so am very much the novice.   Lindbergh describes the double-sunrise shell in this fa...

During the academic year, I offer some leadership to a weekly gathering that we affectionately call “Soul Work.”   It is a motley crew.   A variety of folks---professors, staff people, retirees and others---show up once a week to spend an hour sharing, listening, laughing and, sometimes, crying together.   There are some very committed Christians in the group.   There are Jews and some who are quite fond of Buddhist’s perspectives and practices.   There are some who clearly are agnostic---they are not quite sure what they believe.   And there is at least one avowed atheist. In a real sense, we represent the potpourri of American culture.   And lest I forget, we have one lovely young Muslim woman from abroad who graces our group each week.   It is a wonderful experiment in spiritual community.   It is an opportunity to hear people seriously think about life, meaning and purpose.   It requires openness to enable community to work....

I have a little river that flows right by my back deck at my house.   Even with my baseball days long gone, I could still easily sit in my chair and throw a baseball and hit the river.   It is that close.   I like having that little river.   In fact, most days I am not even sure it is a river.   Much of the time, it is hardly more than a creek. I am not even sure why I call it “my” little river.   I don’t own any deed to the river.   I don’t even think it is on my property.   More than likely, it marks the boundary of what is “mine.”   Even to use possessive language about land strikes me as a bit odd.   Of course, I know about laws, property rights, deeds, etc.   And of course, I really don’t want someone coming into ”my house” in the middle of the night to claim some space.   I understand why I have locks on my doors. And yet, a big part of me thinks all the property---all the land, creeks, rivers, mountains and ever...