Practical Spirituality series My life seems like one continuous interruption. Normal times I look forward to are rare. Singer John Lennon made famous the quote, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” During preparing this post, people interrupted me a dozen times with others’ needs. Life doesn’t wait for me to not be busy, it just keeps happening. Even when the worst or best times are happening, life just continues with the usual interruptions. While... Read more
Do we ever learn? Practical Spirituality series. It was depressing. Why are people stuck in old attitudes and unwilling to change? For many decades, I painstakingly slogged through understanding and working with human behavior, from religion to attitude change psychology, to spirituality. I had some nice successes helping individuals and companies change things that were difficult to change. Last year I reached an impasse. I had it all figured out. Most people are simply hopeless. Well, not really. A fellow... Read more
Whatever shall we do? Practical Spirituality series Each year, we celebrate throughout the holiday season. We give thanks for what we’re given, celebrate God’s love for us in the Good News of goodwill and forgiveness, and give gifts to others. Sometimes we get a white elephant, a burden that we store in a closet, then regift the next year. Often, we have no clue what others need. But most of us want to be part of the celebration, and to... Read more
What have you done for me lately? Not you, me. A minor change is coming. I’ve never had much confidence in those who are required to write a certain number of columns weekly. You end up speaking out your …. The Internet and publishing are geared toward: “What have you done for me lately?” I get it. The more you get your product out there, the more featured you will be … or if not, buried in the forgotten past.... Read more
Practical spirituality series What do we believe, and how does this affect us? Every religion, spirituality, and philosophy has different beliefs within it. Some are counterproductive, while others are beneficial. The Apostle Paul said to focus on the positive “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have... Read more
Destroying each other serves no useful purpose. There is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is abundantly obvious to anyone familiar with the region’s history over the last 80 years. The only things being accomplished are the deaths of innocent people on both sides, amassing more grievances, and increasing separation. War is counterproductive. It backfires. Image: GrimReapers by Picsart. AI Generated Some of us remember blow by blow what has happened in the ongoing conflict since the 1940s.... Read more
Is AI better company than books, TV, and pets? Practical spirituality series Everything new brings with it dangers but also oversized fear and trembling. The less we know, the higher the hysteria. We should always carefully examine new technology’s impact. But we should always keep it in perspective. Is there a role for AI in being a companion to the lonely? “Adonai, God, said, “It isn’t good that the person should be alone….”” – Genesis 2:18, Complete Jewish Bible “To... Read more
Is Creativity and gain for a Few or the Many? Practical spirituality series We have reached the point where population grows but there are few opportunities for creators. This raises a spiritual question: should we provide more opportunities for creative people who are highly talented, or just let companies dominate the market and keep them out? We can make it work for many if we want to. Welcome to my Patheos and YouTube New Generations Explore Faith and Substack Our Times... Read more
Wait, wait! There’s another surgery in early October. One that will end a 30 year odyssey of spiking, nearly uncontrollable blood pressure. After that, God willing, this column will focus on what I call the “proximate spiritual.” That’s the spiritual that is close at hand and an expression in the world of our individual spirituality. We’ll delve up to 30% of the time on our spiritual influences. But mostly get into how we live our spiritual influences in the real... Read more
The Big Questions series Is there a detached (transcendent) spiritual? (See the videocast of this article on Youtube.) Welcome to a joint article-post and videocast of my Patheos New Generations Explore Faith article series, the Big Questions, and my Substack Our Times Today and Tomorrow series on spirituality. Spirituality, since the eleventh century, has been acknowledged as the proximate, or near at hand spirituality, mostly involving our relationships. But it also involves gaining insight from the detached (transcendent) spiritual through... Read more
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