Faith & Life Inspirational Message

I have come to the conclusion there are multiple benefits from reading.  That is not a revolutionary thought and, certainly, not novel.  But that does not make it any less true.  In fact, it is always a relief to discover the truth of something that is true!  That may sound a bit weird, but think about how many people don’t know the truth of true things.  Indeed, I have even known folks who swore some true things were false.  So it is not as simple as we think! In my case reading often delivers a few different dividends.  In the first place much of what I read is what I want to learn about.  For example, I have been invited to do a keynote speech on Servant Leadership.  I know some things about this concept, but I also know there is a history to the concept that goes back to the 60s.  If I want to know this history, then I will read about it. However, in the process of reading, I hit upon ideas that are inherently interesting to me o...

I realize as I was typing the one word title, “Help,” it would be even better if I could add a voice tone to the word.  How we say the word communicates much more than simply seeing it in print.  I can utter the word, help, with a tone of desperation and have people scurrying to my aid.  This must happen often in the emergency rooms in hospitals.  Or we have heard kids---often our own kids---scream for help.  Even using that verb, scream, gives our word, help, a great deal of urgency.      On the other hand, I have often see signs in a window advertising, “help wanted.”  Or the sign might simply use a single word, help.  While this is an offer, there is no urgency.  I can read the sign with no particular urge to offer help. I don’t need a job or money, so there is little interest to help.  I shrug and hope they find someone who does want to help.      The third thing I thought about was the sign you...

If you pay attention to titles in these inspirational pieces, you might have some guesses who the “humble saint” might be.  Of course, I have made the attribution, so I obviously know whom I will name.  But if I saw it cold, the first guess I would make is St. Francis, the venerable saint of poverty, nature and the animals.  And that would have been so true.  But the person I have so named, “the humble saint,” in this piece is St. John the Baptist.  John the Baptist actually has two saint days in the Catholic calendar.  Both his birth and his death are celebrated on separate days in June and August.  Only the parents of Jesus receive comparable honor in the Christian calendar.  John the Baptist has intrigued me for a long time---almost as long as I have studied religion.  In many ways, he is much easier to relate to than Jesus.  Let’s look a bit closer at the man and his role within the faith tradition. The Gospel of Luke gives the m...

I have a picture on the desktop of my computer, which I see every time I open it.  I frequently change the picture on my computer, so I am not sure how long this one will stay there.  Normally, I will rotate pictures of my grandkids, so they are “with me” even when they are not around.  I am sure all parents and grandparents understand this. Almost never do I have a picture of myself on my computer screen.  And if I do, it is a picture of me with someone else whom I consider significant in my life.  Of course, every picture is “worth a thousand words.”  And every picture has its own story.      This picture currently on my screen is a group of students who were in a class I have just finished teaching.  Sometimes I think it is a misnomer to say I teach.  More often, I think it is better described as a group of us regularly got together and learned from each other and from some books.  I am not sure students often see that ...

One of the most influential men of our times has died.  James Cone, noted theologian and leader recently passed away.  James Cone was the founder of what came to be known as Black Liberation Theology.  I met Cone a few times and heard him speak throughout the decades I have known him.  I fondly remember a recent time when he was on my own campus and delivered a challenging message.  He was very good and, I thought, the current generation of students need to hear him.  I like to think of Cone as one of the key bridge people.  Let me elaborate.     Cone was born in Fordyce, Arkansas in 1936.  The means he lived fourscore years in an America that changed remarkably during his lifetime.  And it means he lived in a country that did not change as much as he might have wanted or, even, expected.  He grew up in the deep South of the 1940s and 50s with all the racial bigotry that we associate with those years.  When he would t...

I have no clue when I first heard about a legacy.  I doubt I knew anything about it until college days or even later.  It might have been one of those things I heard about, but it never registers.  I doubt very many young folks pay any attention to those kinds of things.  By the time I was teaching and, especially, doing some fund raising, I became very aware of the idea of legacy.  Only recently and only occasionally have I given any thought to my own legacy. The word, legacy, often is associated with wills that dead people leave and about which the survivors learn in a court session or with the lawyers.  Often, legacies have to do with money and property.  Of course, some people are quite wealthy and their legacies to their heirs are remarkable.  My parents did not fit that category!  They left me and my siblings almost no money or property.  I did not care.  I did not have them as parents to make me wealthy! It would be wrong...

I am sure one of the personal benefits I get by writing a daily inspirational piece is the benefit of paying attention.  That is not to suggest that folks who don’t do this kind of discipline don’t pay attention.  However, I know I pay more attention because of the discipline.  Paying attention builds on my assumption that ordinary, daily life provides much content for spiritual experience and reflection.  In fact, that links to a functional definition of spiritual that I have: experiencing the Presence in the ongoing present of our lives. This means there are lessons, challenges and assurances all over the place.  I get ideas in very predictable arenas, like the daily lectionary I use from the Benedictine monastic tradition.  The lectionary simply guides me through some daily spiritual readings.  It gives me a focus and framework for taking a bit of time to reflect, to pray and to wait.  I call it “waiting time,” rather than “wasting time.”...