There are two major tasks in the human spiritual journey. The task of the first half of life is to create a proper container for one’s life and answer some central questions. “Who am I?” “What makes me significant?” “How can I support myself?” “Who will go with me?” The task of the second half of life is, quite simply, to find the actual contents that this container was meant to hold and deliver. In other words, the container is... Read more
There seems to be a moment in every story, where things have to change in order to move forward. We see moments in history in all movements and paradigms where new life needs to bloom and, in response to this need, fresh ingredients come together — to transform life and community into a new manifestation of what came before. This is why humanity and its lexicon created terms like “paradigm shift” and “new wave” in movements. Like the shifting of... Read more
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure. We are all meant to shine,... Read more
One of the marks of a truly holy and holistic faith is its propensity for sustained growth across sustained attempts to quash it. Though this is a dangerous indicator to take on its own, it cannot be denied that the propelling-forward motion of the gospel has throughout history aided oppressed peoples in their battles and empowered them to resist spiritual and physical domination. Jesus himself gives us a simple test to discern good teaching from false ones: the bearing of... Read more
Dreaming is surely a way of seeing, of seeing with the mind’s eye. More than that, it is the soul’s perception of the world, it is an exposure made by the imagination, an involuntary record, a spiritual index, if you will. Do you know, I have been dreaming of the river that runs below. YAHWEH to URSET (In the Bear’s House by N. Scott Momaday) In 2012, I stood before pictures of dead bodies, and walked through stories of... Read more
“Look for God, suggests my Guru. Look for God like a man with his head on fire looks for water.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat. Pray. Love. A friend of mine recently told me that he has decided to become a mystic. Yeah, just like that. Knowing him to be a deeply spiritual person, I was nevertheless surprised by this decisive announcement. One does not generally expect 24-year-old punk rockers from upper New York to embrace a life of austerity and... Read more
“It is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ. My hosanna is born of a furnace of doubt.” —Fyodor Dostoyevski Music has always played a huge part in expressing my faith and even questioning it. From my late teens where I discovered the underground Christian music culture to a song I just discovered recently. Here are a few songs that have meant something on my faith journey. Breathe Deep Lost Dogs Breath Deep by Lost Dogs... Read more
Marcus Borg was a rare and beautiful paradox in a time of great social, political and religious polarities. He was a theological mystic–and of these there are far too few. I came to awareness of his body of work and this quality of spirit very late in the game. I am not much of a theologian and only slightly more coordinated in my clumsy crooked mysticism. For me he was inspirational and aspirational in his... Read more
Religion is undergoing a massive shift in perspective. It is a shift at least as wrenching as the Copernican revolution, which required humanity to bid farewell to an Earth-centered understanding of our place in the cosmos. The religious revolution on the horizon today might well be called the “Evidential Reformation.” We humbly shift away from a human-centric, ethnocentric, and shortsighted view of what is important. At the same time, we expand our very identities to encompass the immense journey of... Read more
in our social media age slogans with punch spread fast. following the events in Paris earlier this month it is not surprising that ‘Je Suis Charlie’ has been much used in solidarity with the cartoonists at satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo gunned down by Islamic fighters on account of their portrayals of Mohammed. Many of my Christian friends still have as their Facebook image the sign for a Christian used by ISIS to identify houses lived in by Christians before they... Read more
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