Faith & Life Inspirational Message

Sometimes all it takes is one sentence.   Sometimes all it takes is one sentence to be sufficient focus for an entire inspirational reflection.   In fact, some sentences contain so much richness, it takes more than one meditative setting to begin to digest everything in a few words.   Some writers seem to be directly and intuitively connected to the Holy One.   The words that pour forth from their pen are, as if, immediate revelation.   It is almost like the Divine Being Itself has grabbed the pen.             One writer I find like this is Walker Percy.   I have not read as much of him as I wish, but when I do, I am spiritually floored.   For example, in his novel, The Second Coming , we find this single sentence, which is actually a question.   “Is it possible for people to miss their lives in the same way one misses a plane?”   This question arrests me.   It grabs me and won’t ...

I have long been fascinated by imagination.   We only have to spend a little time with kids to witness the power of imagination.   Even fairly young kids---toddlers---can imagine with the best of them.   Imagination is the formation of ideas and images, which are not present to us.   Imagination is, as the dictionary tells us, a creative ability.   Imagination is able to create worlds that don’t yet exist.   Imagination fosters alternative worlds.   Imagination is the key to the future. If memory is the key to the past, imagination is the key to the future.   Memory often is quite a treasure.   Memory is the way we capture mentally those times, which have passed.   Memory preserves.   I have fond memories of some of my own childhood days.   I have quite fond memories of the times my two little girls were growing up, learning things and beginning to make lives of their own.   I am very thankful for the gift of memory. ...

Anyone who has lived a few years knows that there are times when life is not good.   There are times when things don’t go very well.   We are assaulted by things that are not to our liking.   We can be sick, disappointed, or denied.   We can watch others get what we thought was rightfully ours.   We can try so hard, get so close and still lose.   Some days life is just not much fun.   I also think this is true for the spiritual life.   Anyone who has been involved in the spiritual journey for any length of time knows all days are not equal.   It is not unusual for the early days of the spiritual pilgrimage to be pretty good.   Often there is that initial burst of enthusiasm.   Not surprisingly, God can seem to be right there in your corner.   The spiritual tradition calls these graces of God “consolations.”   Consolations are good.   In fact, there are a bit like spiritual goodies.   The truth of the matter...

I like to read in monastic spirituality because the monks and nuns are so clearly focused on the spiritual life.   It is their central concern in life.   Monastics set aside the usual normal things that occupy most of us in order to be singularly occupied with the search and life with God.   That does not make them more than human or even more spiritual than any of the rest of us.   But it does give them a singular advantage.   One of the things I am most sure of is the fact that much of the spiritual life is actually simple.   I do not know any monk who would not confirm the fact that much spiritual life is simple.   Of course, there can be some complexity at times.   But by and large, the spiritual journey is simple.   We probably are too self-serving to say that spirituality has to be complex.   If that were true, then it takes us off the hook from even trying.      In addition to being simple, I also am confident...

A friend of mine sent me an interesting article on improvisation.   I know what improvisation means, but I admit I never thought too much about it.   Probably like you, when I do think of improvisation, I think of nightclubs and television.   Those are the usual venues where actors of some sort entertain people by “winging it.”   That is probably the street definition of improvisation: the ability to wing it.   That is a decent beginning understanding of improvisation, as I begin to think about it more.   The article that I read gives this street definition a little more clarity and development.   Kip Kelly, the author of the article, begins his definition in this fashion.   “In essence, improv, short for improvisation, is performing without a script; it is spontaneous invention…that is often needed to create something entirely new and unique.   Improvisation is often thought of as ‘off the cuff’ activity, with little or no preparation or ...

I enjoy finding pithy or great summary statements.   I just found one in my favorite Quaker book.   Thomas Kelly wrote the popular Quaker book, A Testament of Devotion , which actually is a series of lectures.   Some of these come out of his experience of WWII.   Kelly spent some time in Germany watching Hitler come to power.   He returned to this country.   One of the chapters is entitled, “The Eternal Now and Social Concern.”   The core ideas were originally a lecture delivered to a gathering of German Quakers.            The summary statement embodies so much of what I have been taught when growing up as a Quaker.   Kelly writes that the central Quaker message affirms “The possibility of this experience of Divine Presence, as a repeatedly realized and present fact, and its transforming and transfiguring effect upon all life…”   If I can unpack this amazing sentence and understand it, I w...

The title for this inspirational piece came with some words in a sentence I was reading somewhere.   They were not part of a quotation and I know for certain I am taking these words in a direction that was not intended by the author, whom I cannot remember.   All I can recall is the piece I was reading was not even about the spiritual life.   So I can be certain the author would be very surprised if he or she could see what I am about to do with this phrase: the value of the interior life.             I like this phrase because I believe it is true.   In fact, I think it is so true that I would claim no one can be happy or satisfied long-term without having some kind of interior life.   That would be its value.   Behind this claim lurks the initial question: just what is the interior life?             Doubtlessly, there are multiple answers to...

I really enjoy finding things when I was not looking for them!   This may be true in much of life, if we would but just learn to live more spiritually attentive.   That is one of the ways I would define contemplative spirituality.   Too often, I think, people assume that something like contemplative spirituality is some esoteric, mystical kind of religious experience that normal people would never be given.            To the contrary, contemplative spirituality is little more than living one’s daily life with a significant level of awareness and with an attentive spirit.   That way you can find things when we are not really looking for them.   That certainly adds a dash of serendipity to life.   And who is against serendipity?   At least my understanding of serendipity is something that is always a good deal.   Maybe that is a good definition of God: a serendipitous God.   God is the Being ...

Daily I read the newspaper.   It is a life-long habit.   I am one of the old-timers who actually like to hold the hard copy in my hand.   Most of the paper I read early in the morning with a cup of coffee.   Although too much of the news is stuff I may already know because I also check things on the internet or see them on television, nevertheless I like to read the paper.   Neither of my kids would read a newspaper, if you handed it to them.   I am confident the future of newspapers, as we know them, is in peril.                I often start with the sports page.   That probably is a holdover from when I was a kid.   Today I know sports is not the most important thing in the world.   In fact, much of sports are not worth much.   I especially don’t like professional sports.   But I read about sports of all sorts as if I were an addict.      ...

We live in it at all times.   It surrounds us, penetrates us and yet is probably separate from us.   It is independent and dependent at the same time.   It is mysterious and, yet, completely transparent and knowable.   It’s reality. Of course, there are different philosophical and theological perspectives on just what reality is.   I am sure there must be scientific versions, as well.   Psychologists might tell is reality is a matter of perspective.   I suppose some extremists are confident there is no such thing as reality.   Maybe I am in illusion, but it seems to me pretty clear there is such a thing a reality.   The good news is, I do not intend to explore its philosophical and scientific roots.   I am going to take reality for granted.   For me, it is.   Let’s think about the reality of reality. What prompted these beginning thoughts was a random sentence in an article I was reading.   The article was not very g...

In a recent reading for a class, I ran across a very interesting thought.   It caused me to step back and assess the work I do as well as how I go about doing the work.   The idea came toward the end of a book by Roger Walsh.   The book carries the title, Essential Spirituality .   In effect, it details how people can engage and practice the contemplative life.   The ideas that I really liked came in the section on service. Listen to these words by Walsh.   “Do you want to kill time or build a cathedral, to see what you are doing as drudgery or contribution?   The crucial point is that we have a choice.   The same action can be seen in quite different ways because it is we who decide on the meaning and significance of what we do.”   The first line really engaged me.   I love the question: do you want to kill time or build a cathedral?   The answer was easy for me: build a cathedral, of course.   And that takes effort, ta...