Running from Pain #2

Jan 21, 2018

There are layers and layers to grief, but the one thing we do not want to do is to deny the grief, stuff the tears, or in any way avoid the pain. It is only in thoroughly grieving all our pain and suffering that we free ourselves of the past. There are layers to our […]

Fear or Faith

Jan 08, 2018

As we begin a new year, we need to realize that the world in which we live today is filled with fear and anxiety, with Armageddon-like exaggerations, with the collapse of so much of what we thought was our democratic system. There is no feeling of peace in this world. This is the atmosphere that […]

Happy New Year!

Jan 01, 2018

Happy New Year! We get to begin again. Set new priories. Plan anew. Put the past behind us. Look to the future. Set ridiculous goals trying very hard to change who we are to become. All of these tendencies of thinking about the new year come from our minds which are steeped in worldly wisdom. […]

A Branch on the Vine

Dec 11, 2017

What is it like to be a branch on the vine? To have God prune the dead wood off of you? To encourage your growth? To have things happen to you that scar your branch and yet you are still a part of the vine? What is it like to be dependent on the vine […]

Being Present

Nov 13, 2017

    The last several weeks I’ve been focusing on what it means to love God with all of ourselves as Jesus commanded. This week I want to add one more way in which we can love God with all of ourselves. When we give our whole selves to God in love, we are giving […]

Setting Our Sights Too Low

Oct 02, 2017

If we cling to the relationship with God that we have… If we cling to our beliefs rather than building the relationship with God… If we settle for a small change, but forget that Jesus is a radical teacher even today… If we’re not willing to let God lead us and we still are in […]

Rethinking Suffering

Aug 07, 2017

Pain and suffering are greatly misunderstood in this world.  It is part of our existence, in both the plant and animal kingdoms, that things can happen that maim or hurt or try us, that can cause us great suffering, illness and even death. We choose to see the pain as unnecessary, as totally preventable; so […]

Prayer

Jul 24, 2017

The word prayer hardly describes all that communion with and in God means. Prayer is being in God’s presence, any time, any place with or without words. The words communion and togetherness best describe the state of living in and with God. Prayer is a state of being with, in communion with our deepest selves […]

Where am I blind and deaf to God?

Jun 26, 2017

Jesus’s message in the Gospels is a radical shift from our normal human interactions. We are used to living in partialities, like believing in God and then living our lives as we want. Or praying that God intervene in our lives, but only in the way we want it done.  Or we want to hold […]

The Ways of the Holy Spirit

Jun 05, 2017

The Holy Spirit calls us in many ways: through our thoughts to follow him, to address this issue or that, to allow him to heal us, through our dreams, a friend’s suggestion of a movie to see. An idea heard two or three times in as many days. An invitation to see or hear with […]