A spirituality built on otherizing is not a mature spirituality. When I first wrote this line, I didn’t expect the amount of resonance it would find with people. It wasn’t exactly a throwaway phrase, but I hadn’t given it a ton of thought beyond recognizing its truth in my experience. Apparently others have similar experiences. Since it posted, quite a few people have mentioned it to me and it’s one of the main reasons Patheos offered me this online space.... Read more
I remember the first moment it all clicked for me. I was sitting in a small chapel, the lights down low, and the soft candlelight flickering against the walls. Along with about twenty friends and community members, we were engaged in meditation – whatever that word meant for each of us. For me, with no formal training at the time in Centering Prayer or any specific form of meditation, it simply meant witnessing my thoughts. I would bring my posture... Read more
At the end of my last post, I shared two commitments I’m making to carry the energy of Christmas – honoring and affirming the divinity within all things – into the new year. I realized after I finished writing, I had a couple more ideas I wanted to share (even though I’m not yet ready to fully commit to them!) Here are five more ways you can practice an embodied spirituality that celebrates the incarnation and the divine within every... Read more
As so many of us come down from the Christmas high this week, and no doubt look around to realize there is cleaning and grocery shopping to be done, there is a question festering within me of how we might carry the energy of Christmas with us forward into the new year. When we celebrate Christmas as only the birthday of Jesus, it can become tempting to treat the next day as any other day. Just like aunts and uncles,... Read more
Whether I knew it or not, this question has been bouncing around in my head for quite awhile: what are we celebrating at Christmas? When I was a child, the answer seemed so simple: presents! And if I were really pressed about it, I might mention something about the birth of Baby Jesus. But as I’ve grown up, neither of these answers work much for me anymore. Every year, receiving presents seems less and less a priority, giving them feels... Read more
If you’re anything like me, your deep longing to have an embodied spirituality has stirred within you an experience of disillusionment, one that makes it hard to remain within spaces of organized religion. Perhaps you’re still engaged with a church community, but feel like something is spiritually missing. Or perhaps you’ve left and you’re charting your own path, seeking to foster your spirituality beyond the walls of any institution. For me, one of the scariest, and most freeing, things about... Read more
The reason I left the Church was because the God I was handed simply wasn’t believable. Raised on rational and critical thought, I couldn’t understand the idea of an all-powerful being in the sky, just above the terrestrial plain but never in a specific location, who looks down and passes judgement upon us all. In search of some form of proof, I asked questions. I went to my parents and asked about why we used masculine language for this God.... Read more
I sat in the front row of my childhood church in what I knew to be my family’s final service with the community I had grown up with. Ordained in the United Methodist Church, my dad was subject to being reappointed on occasion, whenever the bishop decided a change was to be made. To my knowledge, it’s a process somewhat akin to that of a general manager’s office in the Major Leagues: a group of advisors (known as district superintendents)... Read more
Becoming Faithful Questioners and Social Poets
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