Faith & Life Inspirational Message

This past Sunday was Epiphany.  At least, if one is aware of the way the early church celebrated it and still is the way the Eastern Church (or Orthodox Churches) still do.  In the Roman Catholic tradition Epiphany has to fall on a Sunday, so it is always the Sunday closest to the sixth of January.  But for today’s meditative purposes, let’s stay with tradition.     As so often is the case, as a Quaker lad, I had never heard the term, “epiphany.”  Those were pre-Vatican II days and little Quaker boys and little Catholic boys did not sit around discussing theology!  In Indiana it was basketball, not theology, which was the usual norm of discussion.  Again as usual, it was only in my college days when God continued to bless me with friends from the liturgical traditions, Catholics, Episcopalians, Greek Orthodox, and so on, that my theological exposure began to happen.  I became ecumenical!  I learned this new word to de...

As the Christmas season comes round, I am reminded of a one-liner I heard one day while listening to a lecture by Richard Rohr.  Rohr is one of my favorites.  He has a way of saying some very significant things, but often with a twist of humor.  No doubt, this is what endears him to so many people.  And it is also probably why some folks, particularly some Roman Catholics, find him troubling and wish he would quit speaking and writing.  The line I wrote down, as Rohr was speaking, went like this.  “The operative image of God is Santa Claus!”  Of course, this line is basically about God and not Santa Claus.  Rohr is offering a theological look into his own mind.  It is not a comment on Santa Claus.  In this instance Santa is an image or a symbol.  Let’s look more closely at Rohr’s theology to see if it makes sense in our own lives.  Clearly not everyone has the same idea with respect to Santa Claus.  Howeve...

It came innocently in the middle of a dinner conversation.  I had joined my daughter downtown for a quick dinner before we both headed to our respective homes.  Somehow the talk went back to her years in high school.  Oddly, it centered on math, which I think she secretly enjoys.  But then she said, I do have issues with infinity!  I am sure I blurted out laughing. I have never heard anyone put it that way: “issues with infinity.”  Of course, I could not resist asking what that meant and why did she have issues with infinity?  Of course, she was still talking about infinity in the mathematical realm.  Since I stopped just short of calculus, I don’t claim to know much about “higher math.”  So I both know what infinity means and I really don’t have a clue. She continued by explaining that she was told somehow one “can approach infinity” but one cannot “actually get to infinity.”  Ok, so I don’t know enough math to go further.  Ess...

I was just sitting there waiting for a friend.  I watched the kid walk by dressed ready for a workout in the gym.  He carried a ball against his side nestled into the bent arm around the ball.  He opened the door and walked on into the gym and began bouncing the ball. I have seen this a million times.  I played basketball since I was a little kid.  Every evening I would go to the barn to do the chores and in between drawing water for the calves, I would stop, pick up my ball and begin to dribble around and shoot.  But I never looked at it---or “saw” it---like I did today.  The thing that hit me as I watched the kid slowly walk onto the floor was the ball.  With a flick of the wrist the ball headed straight for the floor.  And the amazing thing was the ball rebounded off the floor in a perfect straight trajectory right back into the kid’s hand.  This action was repeated as he walked further onto the gym floor.  There was a rhythm...

I never claim to be an expert on emotions and the emotional life.  In fact, I am not sure I know that much.  But I do deal some with the issue of emotions in some of the classes I teach.  And I have read a fair amount.  I am not a therapist.  I have referred people to therapists because I did not feel competent to help them with emotional issues.  I know I have some significant growing up to do. I had an encounter recently which provoked the reflections I am sharing here in this inspirational piece.  I am calling it the “spirituality of maybe.”  That might make no sense, so let me begin to explain and develop.  My thinking was prompted by a question I asked someone.  It was clearly a yes or no question.  And the person responded, “Maybe.”  For example, I could ask if you wanted cream in your coffee and I expect an affirmative or negative response.  “Maybe” does not tell me anything.  Of course, I can make up things an...

People reading this inspirational piece may have no clue who Sallie McFague is. She was an important theologian in the late twentieth century and for some years in the twenty-first century.  She very recently died and I had not known this.  I did not really know her, although I met her a couple of times.  I was very helped by some of her books and other writings.  I especially liked a couple books called, Models of God and Metaphorical Theology .  I want to share some gratitude and to share some of the thoughts of Franciscan sister, Shannon Shrein, whose writing informed me that McFague had died. As the title of the above books would indicate, McFague did a great deal of work around the theme of metaphor.  In case you forgot, a metaphor is using one figure of speech that is familiar to talk about another thing that may not be familiar.  An example I often have seen used is the metaphor, “war is a chess game.”  In this case the chess game is the f...

From as young as I can remember, I was taught to say thank you.  I don’t know that it was important to me, but clearly it was important to my parents that I say thank you.  Eventually I learned that it was important to me, too.  And then when I became a parent, I was just as serious about teaching my two girls to say thank you.  My experience is not much different from most other people I know.  And of course, we all know those people who never say thank you or, if they do, it is half-hearted or begrudging.  We come away with the feeling they never really mean it. I still think it is a good idea and I do it as a matter of habit.  But I also realize that for many of us, it is effectively a social norm.  It is part of the normal social interaction among people---friends and strangers alike.  And it is a good thing.  I am glad I do it and I intend to continue doing it.  But I also realize it is rather matter of fact.  It is a habi...