Faith & Life Inspirational Message

                 My friend sent to me and many others an interesting article.   I think I may have seen this article in a periodical I read, but I had not given it any thought.   I know I did not read it.   However, if it is important to my friend, then I figure I ought to look at it.   It was a story about Bill Jacobs, a Long Island, NY resident and no one I know.   The first line of the article was engaging.   “If Bill Jacobs were a petty man, or a less religious one, he might look through the thicket of flowers, bushes and brambles that encircle his home an see enemies all around.”   That piqued my interest.   I could almost see the jungle-like area around Bill’s house.   But the next line was arresting.   “For to the North, and to the South, and to the West and East and all points in between, stretch acres and acres of lawns.”   I was had!    ...

                 Recently, I read an insightful essay focused on the relationship of Jews and Christians.   It comes as a response to a commentary Pope Francis offered in his talk on Galatians 4.   If you don’t know Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he is focused on the relationships of the Jews and Christians in his time.   One issue in that New Testament epistle is the nature and role of the Law for the Jew and for the Christian.   One of the lines the Jewish author, Yehiel Poupko, quotes from the Pope says, “The Law does not give life.   It does not offer the fulfillment of the promise because it is not capable of being able to fulfill it.”   To Christian ears, this does not seem like a big deal.   Many of us have heard some version of this all our lives.   But to Jewish ears, it sounds dismissive.             Many Christians would normally ...

                 Many times I am convinced that so much of the spiritual journey is simply plugging along.   There are no lightening bolts of revelation.   There are not thunderclaps of amazement.   So many days look and feel pretty much like the day before.   There is nothing spectacular and nothing awful either.   It is not a rut, but it is routine.             The question is how the spiritual is to be lived out in the midst of our routine.   For most of us routine is how life comes to us---for the most part.   I do not lament this.   But I do need to be alert and discern where and how the Spirit is present.   We have to guard against the idea that if there is nothing new, I conclude somehow I blew it.             In such a place, I am glad to run into some wor...

                 Recently, I had the occasion to travel back to the city where I used to live.   Ostensibly, the reason for the trip was to lead a memorial service for a long-time friend of mine.   Whenever I do a memorial service, or funeral as some call it, I am thrown into a “remembering mode.”   Probably everyone is.   Inevitably, when someone dies, we remember when we met them, what we did, what they said and the list goes on.   Even though I had known this guy for a long time and would claim to know him fairly well, we were not close in the way I am close to some folks in my life.               When I am asked to give some leadership to the memorial service, that adds a layer to the normal remembering process.   I begin to think thematically about the person’s life.   I like to talk with the family to see what they wan...

             As Americans, we enter the Thanksgiving season.   Already people are wishing me a “happy Thanksgiving.”   I am delighted with that greeting.   And I would be delighted if someone next week wishes me a “happy Monday.”   But I guess Mondays are supposed to be normal…not so happy, not so awful.          I am not sure I do major holidays very well.   I am not against them.   They celebrate important events in national, religious, and often personal lives.   Thanksgiving is an American deal.   In Turkey it is just another weekday!   As an American, I welcome it.   And I hope it is happy.          I am confident one of the reasons I am not sure about major holidays is the trickiness of expectations.   For example, Thanksgiving is supposed to be “happy.”   Christmas is supposed to ...

                 Most days I do not think too much about it.   But yesterday I became very aware of how many words I use.   That is not surprising, since I am still teaching.   And certainly we know that teaching entrails speaking, even though I never lecture to the students.   I could lecture, but that would prove nothing except that I could talk all the time.   If I am talking all the time, how could I know whether they are learning anything?             I do not spend every waking hour talking.   In fact I am essentially an introvert.   So I enjoy time by myself.   Solitude has never been a problem, especially since I have been an adult.   As a teenager, I am sure too much time by myself caused some anxiety.   But teenagers are anxious as a matter of course!   So I was probably no crazier than any other tee...

                 I recently read an interesting interview about a woman who has just written a book on the people who claim to be spiritual but not religious.   Clearly this is today a prevalent phenomenon in our world.   It often is associated with the young people, but I think it is a mistake to assume they are all this way and that older people are, by and large, still religious in the traditional sense.   Things are much more up for grabs these days.             The person being interviewed, Linda Mercadante, teaches in a Methodist seminary.   I found her interview both fascinating and insightful.   No doubt that is partly true because a significant number of the students who are in my classrooms consistently claim they are spiritual but not religious.   I have explored that theme, but not in the depth that Mercadante has.   ...