Faith & Life Inspirational Message

I have the pleasure throughout my day of engaging some very interesting people.   Many of those people are students.   And others are adults of various ages and stages.   I don’t do too much with the younger children, so I can’t speak to that level of human development.   I have read about the earlier developmental stages, but I don’t have a great deal of practical experience.   I have watched my two daughters grow through the various stages, but that probably is not sufficient evidence for stating truths about life.   As I have paid attention to the range of conversations over the years, I conclude there may be two fundamental human questions.   I am sure others could argue there are many other fundamental human questions.   Of course, many might agree with my two questions.   Right now I posit these two. The first fundamental human question asks, “who am I?”   Essentially, this is the human question of identity.   I can’...

I was caught by the title of an article in the recent Newsweek Magazine that came to our house.   The catchy title said, “Why Winners Win.”   I was hooked!   Then my eyes landed on the sub-title: “The new science of triumph in sports, business, and life.”   I played sports most of my life, so I know I am competitive.   I also know that I have become much less competitive, as I have grown older.   Perhaps that is compensation for the fact that it is more difficult to win when you get older.   It truly is the case that there usually is someone stronger, faster, and more able than you are.   I guess I am old enough to have come to terms with that.   But I am fascinated by the phenomenon of winning.   And I was doubly fascinated by the fact that this article again reverted to the world of neuroscience.   I seem to be frequently bumping into that multi-disciplinary arena of study.   But it is not surprising.   We human be...

I am not surprised to see a new study out which links spirituality and health.   For quite a while, people have thought there was a connection between spirituality and health.   In fact for quite a long time, I have assumed there are a variety of ways to talk about health.   Normally, I think people mean physical health.   That is a given.   If someone asks if you are healthy, they typically mean physical.   Or if I call in “sick,” the boss is going to assume I have a fever, a cold or some other physical malady.             But we all know there are ways we talk about mental health.   Everyone would assume health is not limited to one’s physical state of being.   I can be perfectly healthy and not feel “well.”   Ask anyone who has bouts of depression.   He or she may be ok physically, but not at all up to engaging life.   I can be physically in tip-top shape and not want to...

It all began with an evening dinner with a friend.   Dinner with a friend is always easy.   We don’t have to impress each other.   The conversation flows.   The interest is mutual and the verbal exchange is satisfying.   Reflecting on it gives me a chance to ponder the beginning and development of friendship.   Even though I teach a class on spiritual friendship, I don’t pause enough to value the gift that friendship is.   As I reflected on it, I realized there are some fundamentals of friendship.   I know we could list even more than I will list here, but these five surely are fundamental to any significant friendship.   I would name the five fundamentals of friendship to be connection, affection, attention, care and good will.   Let’s look at each one of these.   Surely connection is an essential ingredient of friendship.   In fact, we could begin a definition of friendship as the art of making a connection.   No p...

The real spiritual journey is a daily endeavor---day and night.   It is not a weekend thing.   It is not occasional or haphazard.   It is daily walk in the Spirit.   I know it is easy to say that.   It is just as easy to type it so that in print it looks convincing.   But I know it is not that easy in real life---at least not in my real life. On the surface it seems like it should be relatively easy for me.   I teach the stuff!   I can read in spirituality almost any day I choose.   Some days I have to read it in order to teach a particular class for the day.   However in all honesty, it is not any easier for me than any other person.   Just because I teach spirituality does not make me spiritual.   I could teach you about Buddhism, too, but that does not make me a Buddhist.   And teaching something is not the same thing as journeying in that reality.   I could teach you about prayer.   We could read a ...

In the classes I teach I try to engage with material that deals with real life.   I figure if spirituality does not connect with life as most of us live it, then it is probably not worth doing.   This is the reason I usually have a component of every class that asks the student to reflect on his or her experience.   It varies among the classes, but I do intend for every class to have this experiential aspect.   In other words, how does any particular reading or exercise have the potential to affect your real life?             I intend for the examinations and the papers also to hook into real life.   Again, I am not sure I can justify asking the students to learn things if it somehow does not apply to real life---their real life.   This is precisely what makes teaching fun for me.   And it is what makes reading the things they write so fascinating.   It is not hypothetical stuff.  ...

One of the things I have learned from my involvement in the world of innovation is to be open and attentive to what might come from unexpected places.   I don’t see myself as highly creative, but I do think I have been innovative.   Certainly, being innovative is one form of creativity.             One thing I have done for much of my life is to read papers, magazines and other resources.   Recently, I heard an innovator say that he spent a half hour each day just reading things that had little or nothing to do with his area of work.   In my case that would mean spending a half hour each day randomly reading things that had nothing to do with spirituality or religion.   I am not sure I spend a half hour doing it, but I do spend some time.            Another thing I have done is to expand the resources that I read.   Thanks to a younger friend o...