Life is lived on two levels in this world whether we are aware of the second one or not. Our lives are like the ocean in which all the waves, choppiness, white caps and agitation take place in the top fifteen feet; below this surface busyness flow long, slow currents, for us, the longer arcs […]
An article by Cindy Brandt[1] that I read a few weeks ago reminded me that when Jesus called his disciples, he said to them, “come and see.” He invited them to experience what he was offering. He held out a promise, a potential that they could taste and feel. And, obviously, when they did “come […]
You may have noticed in my writings that I seldom talk about beliefs, even though I am a Christian. What I write about is the relationship with God, about how do you, how do I, translate our beliefs into a life that echoes Jesus’ relationship with his Abba, the closeness of that relationship? I am […]
Our souls are the gold, pure and simple, of our selves and the pathway to the truest part of ourselves, the created self. Do you know that only about 20% of the gold on earth has been mined? Most of the rest lies in the earth’s core. [http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/03/09_gold.html 5/26/14] Like gold, our souls need […]
The essential skill for the Life of the Spirit is listening, an inner ear attuned to the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is an attunement to the voice of God within. Listening by itself, however, is not enough; we must then follow what God suggests. As we practice listening for God’s voice within, we […]
Each person has an inner lens through which s/he views the world. The lens can be clouded with prejudices, assumptions, preferences, self-serving attitudes or it can be clearer, able to see reality more truthfully. The source of these things that can cloud our vision of reality can be our religion, our culture and even the […]
A contemplative life is not as we might imagine it—dull with nothing to do but ponder and reflect. What the word contemplative usually conjures up for us is someone, probably a cloistered monk or nun—who has nothing to do all day long except think about God. There actually are contemplative orders of religious people that […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be in this world, but not of the world.[John 17:14-19] And I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding about what that would mean to you or me. First, let’s talk about what it doesn’t mean: 1. What it is not about is us being above […]
Recently I received an interfaith calendar of holy days for April from the hospital chaplaincy board I was apart of in Charlotte. It started me thinking that maybe everyday is a holy day in some religion. And then by extension, what if we considered everyday, a holy day? Not just the Sabbath. And every step […]
We are so steeped in the culture, we don’t even know where the culture ends and we begin. So much of the culture slipped in under the radar of our pre-cognitive brains when we were small children that we can’t see what in us belongs to the culture and what belongs to our self. This […]