Faith & Life Inspirational Message

Grace and love are two key concepts for Christianity and many other major religions as well.  I can say that I am for both concepts.  I want both to be involved in my living---indeed, my daily living.  I am sure I have experienced both.  I hope I have given both to people.  That certainly would be my desire.  I suspect that authentic life and meaning are impossible without both love and grace.  And yet, many folks probably would be hard-pressed to come up with good definitions of both words and an explanation of how they work together. That was my mindset as I was re-reading Gerald May’s book, The Awakened Heart .  I have read the book before and parts of it I have read many times.  It is one of those books I always know will give me help and challenge me, too.  I value all of May’s books and appreciate how much help he was to so many of us in the “spirituality business.”  May was a psychiatrist and long-time associated with Shalem...

In a recent class discussion, the topic of being busy came up and all heads seemed to nod.  At least on a college campus everyone I know would claim to be busy.  My fellow faculty colleagues certainly see themselves as very busy people.  And no doubt, the students are sure they are quite busy.  But it is not confined to these two groups.  Staff will let you know how busy they are.  And colleges are not alone.  I do some work for a large global company in my city and I am sure most of the folks there feel like they are very busy.  And so it was that I began to think about busyness. When I think about how I talk about being busy or ponder other people describing their busyness, two things seem to me to be at stake.  Mind you, this is not a scientific study, but it is my impression and my judgment of what is going on.  In this first place, I think the claim that “I am so busy” is often a claim rooted in my ego.  It is as if busyness is...

Occasionally, I read something and I just sit there thinking, that is absolutely the way it is.  It does not always happen when I am reading spiritual literature, but that is one predictable place for that experience.  Often I am taken by surprise.  I wanted to learn something, but I had not been looking for profundity!  And then, boom, it comes.  Thanks to God. It happened recently when I read a little paragraph by a writer about whom I know little.  Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj is a twentieth century Hindu.  He was born in Mumbai (Bombay) just before the turn of the twentieth century and died in 1981.  He lived what appears to be a relatively normal life before becoming famously a spiritual teacher and guru.  I want to share the paragraph I read and offer a few comments.  In passing I want to acknowledge how spiritual wisdom comes from many resources.  Somehow this seems appropriate in a wonderfully diverse world. The guru’s words beg...

I had occasion recently to turn again to David Whyte’s wonderful book, Consolations .  Whyte is a poet whose writing encourages and challenges me to think about life in a much deeper way.  In this book Whyte takes an ordinary word and begins to write about it in ways I never would have considered.  On this occasion I turned to the word, vulnerability.  Everyone knows what this word means.  Basically, to be vulnerable is to be in a situation where you might get hurt.  That is probably why so many of us shy away from these kinds of situations! Of course, the first thing Whyte tells me is vulnerability is unavoidable.  This is how it goes with Whyte.  Just when I think I am figuring out life, he turns my assumptions upside down.  For example, he says, “vulnerability is not a weakness, a passing indisposition, or something we can arrange to do without…” (233)  He continues to tell me “vulnerability is not a choice.”  “Vulnerability is t...

I know what the three words of the title means.  Seasons of creation is a rather simple idea, but without some context, it does not mean too much.  That is how I looked at it, until I read an article that explained a season of creation is specific and something I can imagine many of us wanting to participate in and support.  Brian Roewe writes in a way that informs me and challenges me at the same time. I quote him to give us a sense of what season of creation means.  “The Season of Creation is a monthlong prayerful observance that calls the planet's 2.2 billion Christians to pray and care for God's creation.”  The month begins on September 1, which is the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.  I did not know this special day existed, but I am not surprised.  It is an opportune time to ask earth’s 2.2 billion Christians to take some stand for this beautifully created world.  That is a lot of people!  Basically, one out of nearly every...

Today is the feast day for St. Augustine.  Augustine is one of the most fascinating figures in the history of the Christian Church.  One could make a good argument that Augustine is the most important figure in that history after Jesus and the Apostle Paul.  Augustine had a powerful impact on the developing theology of the church and many related aspects of how we understand church, baptism, etc.  There are some things I wish he had not said and taught.  But about his impact, there can be no doubt. I’m not sure when I first heard about Augustine.  Quaker boys in rural Indiana usually do not run into Catholic saints.  So it is likely, it was college.  I had a pretty good Christian history class in college and no doubt would have heard of the fourth-fifth century saint at that point.  I may even have identified him or used him in an essay on an examination, but I do not remember that.  It is funny that I can remember the book we used; it w...

 Behind my house is a little river named the Rocky River.  It is appropriately named, because during the summer months, especially, when it is low, there are many rocks in and alongside the river.  I like living by this little river.  When I go out on my deck, I could throw a rock into the river, so it is close.  My baseball arm is not very good anymore, so that tells you how close to the house it is.   In fact, when we thought about buying this place, we were a little concerned that it might flood us.  But we saw a hundred years study and plan and discovered there is almost no chance we could be flooded.  I am ok with that level of risk.  I did not grow up around water, so having it outside my back door was not a necessity.  Sometimes I think I would like to live right next to the ocean, but maybe I would get tired of it.  I do like my Rocky River. It is a charming river.  It is really not that big.  But when it rains har...