Faith & Life Inspirational Message

I will admit to being a little uneasy with the title of this inspirational reflection.  It sounds a bit like the tv evangelist’s easy advice.  And I know that says everything about me and, hopefully, does not say anything negative about those for whom that is always the answer…the answer from above.  If nothing else, it doubtlessly means I am unpracticed in getting answers from above.  But hey, I figure, I am not dead yet!  So I have a chance to learn and grow.  And that is what the spiritual journey is about…learning and growing.  After all, the term, disciple, simply means “student.”  And I think it is funny.  I am a professor.  Yet I am very much still a student of life.  I think my life’s prayer is “Lord, teach me well.”  And in this case, that means learning about those answers from above.  Not surprisingly, the focus comes out of some reading I am doing.  As I recently remarked, I am slowly working my way th...

I have often commented that the key to a discipline such as writing one of these daily inspirational reflections is to pay attention.  That sounds so simple---and it is---but it is not always easy.  I am always amazed by how easy it is for me to go through my life on autopilot.  Having a number of routines in my life makes autopilot very easy.  Like many people, I’m sure, my daily routine does not vary much.  Coffee and newspaper in the morning.  Meals are about the same time.  I tend to see the same people on a regular basis.  There is nothing wrong with any of this, but it does make living on autopilot very easy.  I like variation and variety.  And I do have some of that in my life.  And I know that it is much easier to pay attention to things when I am engaged in something different.  For example, when I drive the same route day after day, it does not call for much attentiveness to get from point A to B.  But if I am ...

Recently, I have read to the end of Krista Tippett’s wonderful book, Becoming Wise .  Because the nature of the book is a series of interviews and encounters with people of all walks of life, Tippett’s book is a great opportunity to read a little and ponder a lot.  I have worked very slowly through the entire book.  And I am tempted to turn around and begin reading it again.  It is one of those books I feel I could get even more by reading it a second time.      Her last chapter is on “Hope.”  Since I also have written a couple books that deal with the virtues, I have thought about and written about hope.  Reading her longish chapter makes me wish I had her book before I wrote my own chapters on hope.  Again part of the power of her work is the interview process, which elicits some amazing thoughts from her friends and contacts.  To these gems Tippett adds her own reflection based on her own interesting life.  And to that ...

For some personal nurture, I recently returned to a book given to me by a friend.  My friend gave me this little book out of gratitude for something I did for him.  I suppose he knows I would have done it for nothing.  In fact, I am always a little embarrassed when he gives me something in return for a job I would do gratis.  But not to accept the gift would be wrong on many levels.  In the first place, it somehow seems wrong to be ungrateful for someone’s gratitude!  How would that look if he says, “I want you to have this book,” and I say, “nah, I don’t want the lousy book!”  In the second place, I have known for a long time I am a better “giver” than I am a “receiver.”  In fact, many of the people I know are like me.  We need practice receiving!      So, I have the book.  The good news is it is a book I very much like and it is by one of my all-time favorite authors, Henri Nouwen.  Along with Thomas M...

While reading for an upcoming speech I have to give, I ran across a great quotation and some helpful reflection.  Although it was not inherently a spiritual message, it struck me that implicitly it was spiritual.  The one-liner comes from the well-known Peanut cartoonist, Charles Schulz.  He said, “Life is a ten-speed bike.  Most of us have gears we never use.”  Obviously Schulz is using an analogy here.  Life is more complex than a bicycle.  But if we understand something about the bike, then we can gain some insight to life.  This is a time-honored way of approaching not only life, but also spirituality.  Use what you know to learn about what you may know less about.  Of course, most of us have ridden bicycles in our lifetime.  And you have to be pretty old to remember bikes that only had one gear!  Since I can recall those kinds of bikes, that is one more sign that age is creeping up on me.  At some point, the bike ...

People in the major religious traditions of the world, with the possible exception of Buddhism, believe in and practice some form of prayer.  Christians pray to God---classically understood as God the Father.  In my own devotional life, I am just as content to pray to God the Mother.  In fact, I like having both parental images.  One gets different content with each image.  Most of us have had a father and a mother.  Even if we came from a single-parent family, many of our friends would have had both parents.  If you think about fathers, then you begin to get a sense of the “content” of the image of God the Father.  In my case, my father---Dad---was a hard-working farmer.  So that image is tinged with all sorts of agricultural images, too.  He cultivated the land; he took care of animals.  So the father image has connotations of someone who cares and is careful.  If your dad worked in a factory or taught school, likely your “...

Last night I turned to the last prayers of the day, which are focused around a couple readings from the Psalms and a Biblical passage.  The night prayer in the monastery is called Compline.  When I visit a monastery, I think it may be my favorite part of the day.  It “finishes” off the day of worship and work and the monks head to their rooms and a night’s sleep.  When I visit one of my favorite monasteries, Gethsemani in Kentucky, Compline comes at 7:30pm.  It is not a long service.  This is understandable when you realize the monks will be up again and in the sanctuary at 3:15am!  What’s interesting is that for much of the year, the monks begin in the darkness and conclude in the darkness.  I like Compline during those months when the sun has already gone down and the monks and the visitors gather in the soft lights for the last service.  As the service is ending, the lights are turned out and only one or two lights make the exit possible...