Faith & Life Inspirational Message

I have written about beauty before, but concepts like beauty are so profound, they can be considered from many different perspectives and out of different contexts.  For example, there is beauty in nature, in relationships and a variety of other things.  I recently had a chance to go back to Krista Tippett’s wonderful book, Becoming Wise.  I am doing some work on the theme of wisdom and so her book was an obvious resource.  As I read through it again, I happened on the idea of beauty.  I want to reconsider some of the aspects of beauty. She begins a section on beauty with this observation.  “The apprehension of beauty, at the life-giving seam between what is sensory and spiritual, is a virtue that clarifies.” (73)  I admit I have not considered beauty as a virtue.  This is a new idea and one I want to ponder.  I do like the idea of “apprehending” beauty.  And I am intrigued by her notion that it comes at the seam of the sensory and the s...

There are few things as important to being human than a sense of belonging.  I am sure psychologists have called it by various names and with various concepts, but I like the idea of belonging.  The opposite is just as clear: not belonging.  Not to belong means you have no part in the group, family or unit.  To belong means you are included.  You are part of the gang.  That truly is good news.  It may not be inherently a spiritual word, but at its core, it really is spiritual.   Belonging happens very early in life.  And its opposite, sadly, can happen just as early.  Erik Erikson, the famous psychoanalyst, said the first step in becoming human was learning to trust or mistrust.  Infants begin negotiating this developmental step long before they have language, etc.  Clearly, the mother is key to this process.  But father and other close family members play a big role, too.  I am just recently off the experience o...

Reading has many delights.  Reading can open up our worlds.  For example, I have had the privilege of traveling to quite a few countries.  But I am not going to go to all of them.  Doing that would likely take the rest of my life and I don’t want to do that at this juncture of life.  And quite frankly, some of the places I don’t want to see.  I think of North Korea in this vein.  As far as I can tell, North Korea is a tough, probably awful place for those folks living there.  No trips to Pyongyang are in my future! Another thing I appreciate about reading is the fact that I often find out something I had not intended to learn.  Often, I read something knowing that I want to learn something specific.  And I am not disappointed.  But there are also the times when I was looking for one thing and learned something else, too.  That is serendipity.  Surprise!  This happened recently. I am preparing an article for presentati...

Like myself, I am sure most of the people I know grew up knowing we were supposed to say, “thank you,” when someone gave us something or did something for us.  I can even remember some of those early lessons from my parents as they schooled me on the necessity of expressing thanks.  We probably learn it as a social nicety before we learn the real meaning of the expression.  So many times during my younger days, I recall my parents questioning me, “did you say thanks?” I am not complaining about that lesson in life.  I think it is a good one and, in turn, I tried to instill it in my two girls.  I am sure I sounded just like my own day when I would ask, “did you say thanks!”  Perhaps they found me as annoying as I found my dad with that ever-recurring question.  But that is ok.  I wanted them to learn to be grateful.   At some point in our lives, we begin to figure it out for ourselves.  When we are gifted, it is appropriate to expres...

I feel fortunate to spend much of my time with younger folks.  It is a privilege to work with college-age students.  They normally are full of hope and want the very best in their lives.  I agree this should be their perspective.  In the bigger global picture, they are actually pretty privileged---even though most of them don’t think so.  But if you look at all the young folks their age around the world, most of the ones who are my students have it made.  If I find any fault with them, it is how preoccupied they can be with their own issues and problems.  Again, I don’t find this surprising.  Most people are ruled by self-interest.  Even I have to admit that self-interest plays a big role in my life.  What I try to do is not let it be the dominant motif in life. That is why I espouse to be a servant-leader.  At least I can recognize that I want to be and act on behalf of others.  That’s the aim anyway.  Occasionally, we al...

Not many people in my world of connections have heard of Maximus the Confessor.  I am sure I never heard of him until I was in graduate school.  Since then, he has become an important resource.  He lived primarily in the seventh century.  He was born in Constantinople (modern Istanbul).  He became a luminary of the Orthodox Church, the counterpart to the Roman Catholic Church.  The thing I really like about the Orthodox Church---sometimes divided up among Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, etc.---is how grounded they are in the early church and the church fathers (and mothers) of that period.  Maximus is part of an anthology I am reading as a possible resource for a class I teach.  Bumping into him and reading his thoughts reminded me how much of a treasure he is.  I want to share one particular focus for both its insight and persuasiveness.  It comes in a section where he is dealing with two major issues: salvation and the eucharist (hol...

Maybe it is because I have grandkids and sometimes, I think they are cute.  Whatever, I smiled recently when I read a Tweet that told a very short story that illustrates for me what I characterize as misleading logic.  I had one logic class in college, billed as a philosophy class.  I barely passed it, as I recall.  And I remember nothing about it, except it was like being mired in a story question from arithmetic.  I always found those story problems difficult.  For some reason, I felt like I could work equations, but put it in story form and it became impossible.   The logic professor always felt like it was so simple as he tried to walk us from point A to point D or E.  By the time we left point B, I was lost---wandering down some back alley of logic.  “How did you get there,” he would ask?  I felt like that was a dumb question.  If I knew that, I wouldn’t be here!  And so is my background when I read this little story ...