Unlocking the Potential of a Spirit Led Life: A Journey of Faith What Does it Mean to Life a Spirit Led Life? As Christians, we are called to live a Holy Spirit-led life, but what does this mean? Let’s start with a well-known scripture verse: Galatians 5:16 (NIV) – “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” We may all know this, but what does it mean regarding living a spirit... Read more
The Spiritual Practice of Lament In a previous post, I offered these thoughts around grief and loss: To cry is to be human. When we come into the world, we often enter with a cry. I remember the first cries of my children. It was their declaration that they had arrived. In those first cries, they were exclaiming their discomfort with this new, bright, loud, and cold world. We can all agree that this type of crying is normal and... Read more
We live in a world of illusions. My daily world is filled constantly with people who live an illusory lie about perfection, control and normalcy. It is not just my clients who do this, it is society in general. We have made these phenomena MacGuffins as a goal for our existence. In 1882, Nietzsche wrote in the book, The Gay Science that “God is dead”. Here, Nietzsche is not exclaiming that atheism is true, as many people misinterpret. Rather... Read more
In September, the Benedictine teacher, Joan Chittester challenged us to think about discipleship through her Monastic Way newsletter. I found this edition to be incredibly intriguing as the other subject that I have studied more than contemplative thought is leadership. My first experience with leadership principles was in high school. For four years, I was part of the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corp or JROTC and later in college, I would attend two years of the Senior Reserve Officers... Read more
This week, Richard Rohr’s meditations are all about the monastic and contemplative life. He offers this on September 22nd, , “Parker Palmer writes, “The function of contemplation in all its forms is to penetrate illusion and help us to touch reality.” I almost became a religious monastic with the Catholic orders of St. Benedict or the Redemptorists. I was 17 when I had my first “call” experience. If you have never received a call to the ministry, it is... Read more
Autumn is Here Next week, we will be celebrating our youngest child’s 15th birthday. We have four kids, and each birth was different in its own special way, each pregnancy a season of transition. Having children requires a couple to go through a season of transition. For us, it was one child, then two, then three and finally four. On the other end of this, we have said goodbye to the childhood of two of our children and now are... Read more
Moderation as a practice is a practice of patience, maturity and time. It is a practice that when done intentionally, matures as we mature. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church once stated that “buying, selling, and drinking of liquor, unless absolutely necessary, were evils to be avoided.” This statement followed a period known as the “Gin Craze” in the early 18th century where the production and consumption of gin skyrocketed in England. Wesley would be one of the earliest... Read more
Shame As a clinician, I deal with a lot of emotions on a daily basis. No emotion is so insidious as is shame. My client last week brought up the idea of “landfill emotions” but he could not exactly explain what he meant by it or where he heard it. Upon some digging, I found this: “Shame is the landfill emotion. It’s not organic, like joy. It was dumped there by someone else” (Burroughs, 2012). I cannot agree more... Read more
Is the Seven Mountain Mandate Christian? A troubling theology or theory is plaguing our Christian landscape right now, potentially undermining the genuine efforts Christians have been making for thousands of years since Jesus left us. In this post, I want to explore the Seven Mountains theory, some of the theological history behind it and demonstrate how it undermines the Acts 2 mission and misleads our politics. Begun in 1975, The Seven Mountain Mandate, also Seven Mountains Mandate, 7M, or Seven Mountains Dominionism, is... Read more
The Spiritual Practice of You September is Self-Improvement Month YOU If you are reading this right now, pause and meditate on these words: “YOU are God’s Beloved.” “YOU are wanted.” “YOU are loved.” Now if you are in a place emotionally or mentally where this does not feel true, then change the word YOU to I and use this a trailing mantra: I am wanted, I am, I. When you come to the I, understand that that is you... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In