Morning thoughts on your real ancestry… Your spiritual ancestry. Try this on for size. Your spiritual ancestry – your real ancestry is revealed in the tenth chapter of his Gospel. John says that the people were intent on killing Jesus because he was not content with merely breaking the Sabbath, He dared to speak of God […]
Tag Archives | Jesus
Wrestling with God: The Day God Lost a Wrestling Match
Wrestling with God. What does this mean? Wrestling with God This is a Biblical myth for which I have had much fascination and attraction over the years. It is that story of Jacob who wrestled all night long with a man, an angel, or, was it God? I suspect it doesn’t matter, though I am […]
Follow Jesus: Three Reasons to Do So
Why follow Jesus? Or, what does it mean to follow Jesus? This morning, I opened the Gospel of John to the sixth chapter, desiring to read and reflect on what has become my favorite Gospel account of the life of Jesus. I did not get very far in the text, however, before I stumbled over […]
Change: Making Real, Lasting Changes in Your Life
Change. Sooner or later, everyone wants to change something. We begin each new year resolving to make changes… In our relationships; In our priorities; In our health; In our personal fitness; In our eating habits; In our ambitions; In our careers; Even in our beliefs. Within weeks, however, many of the changes we set out […]
Better Life? 3 Ways to Live a Better Life in the New Year
Want to live a better life in the new year? I can think of many things our world needs. I can think of few things the world needs more, however, than this: better people living better lives in a world gone very wrong. “What is a better life?” you ask. 1. A Better Life is Life […]
Prayers: What’s Wrong with Our Prayers? Here’s What’s Wrong…
Prayers! What’s wrong with our prayers? Here’s what’s wrong…what we often call prayer isn’t prayer at all. Let me explain my prayers this way… I do not pray to be healthy; I pray for wisdom to make healthy choices. I do not pray for healing; my prayers are for strength to endure the suffering that […]
Stepping into the Eternal…into Authentic Faith
All structures…foundations…all pillars of faith….in other words, all beliefs are uncertain, temporary, and they are not…I repeat…they are not the source of authentic faith… …if authentic faith is what you seek. Faith is authentic…genuine…most real…when it has nothing upon which to stand. Which is why I’ve always liked the picture at the top of this page. It […]
You Are What You Seek…
Or, so said Saint Francis. Rumi, the Sufi poet put it slightly differently, “What you seek is seeking you.” And, Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom.” So, what is the Kingdom? It is not the Church. Not heaven either. Are you disappointed? Don’t be. What the Kingdom actually is…is better than both. One day, when I […]
What Is Salvation, Enlightenment, Awakening? Learning to Let Go…
Fr. Thomas Keating, the Trappist monk, said “Discernment is a process of letting go of what we are not.” “Discernment” is yet another word, similar in meaning to enlightenment, awakening, salvation. All of these words point to the process of “letting go,” as Keating puts it, “of what we are not.” What are we not? […]
A Tribute to My Father…
The Mind’s Greatest Disease: “For” and “Against”
I came across this saying and I’ve been thinking about it this afternoon. It was spoken by Sent-ts’an, Buddhist, around c. 700 C.E. “If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between ‘for’ and ‘against’ is the mind’s worst disease.” Political leaders are always seeking, are […]
Stepping through the Door…and Into Yourself
You cannot imagine – or, maybe you can – how many religious people, mostly religious leaders, say to me, “I agree with much of what you say…much of what you write…and, even much of what you believe, but do you know what would happen to me if I were to say in church the things […]
God-Talk about Faith…
It abounds everywhere, doesn’t it? Religious people use the word faith so much, you would think they actually knew something about it. Like a person who regularly drives a car, as I and perhaps you do as well or who steps on board an airplane as I do almost weekly. If an alien from another […]
Life’s Greatest Discovery…the Joy of Oneness
The Sufi poet, Ghalib, said, “For the raindrop, joy is entering the river.” When you and I first appear, this is how we arrive – in oneness with all there is. Which is why, when you look into the eyes of an infant, you get this feeling you’re looking at the face of God. You […]