The Pleasures of Spiritual Life We live in a world where spiritual life is often a challenge. It is hard work for us to explore and sustain spiritual life today. We may often feel we are struggling to push spiritual life uphill. Some of us believe spiritual life is threatened and under attack. Other people feel responsible to breathe new life into outdated spiritual practices. Many of us pay hardly any attention to spiritual life at all. There are people who... Read more
Everyone is Searching for Something Some of us are looking for respect, or happiness, or balance, or love. There are people seeking meaning, or awareness, or health, or everlasting life. It seems like everyone is looking for something in their lives. An essential step on our journeys seems to be appreciating there is something bigger than we are. It begins with the recognition there may be more. Life seems to offer us the potential of something larger, deeper, more significant.... Read more
Making Friends With Our Frustrations We become frustrated, particularly when we expect ourselves to do well or be perfect. For me, frustration is often linked to wanting things to work the first time I try them. It frustrates me when I am not able to understand or do something like “everyone else.” I feel I am falling behind and need to work harder to catch up to where I should be. Leaders can be frustrated by people who do not seem to do what... Read more
Breaking Through Our Boundaries We are taught to recognize and respect our own boundaries as well as those of other people. Boundaries are supposedly healthy, and staying within them is a sign of respect. There are political boundaries and personal boundaries to negotiate. We feel full of potential and possibilities when we cross a new boundary. There are boundaries between seasons in our lives. As we graduate from one focus to another there are boundaries to cross. Some boundaries are formal while... Read more
How and Why Do We Pray? The churches where I spent time as a child had some strong ideas about prayer. They may not have had rules about praying, but there were clear guidelines and expectations. I was taught, more than once, prayer was “talking to God.” Because God was, well, God, it was important to talk to God the right way. We talked to God with words, special words that sounded like the Bible or Shakespeare. The words we used to talk... Read more
Transcending the Rest of the World We may think people drawn to monastic life are trying to escape from the real world. People assume living in a monastic community is like going on a particularly long retreat. They believe becoming a monk requires being cut off from the rest of the world. In many ways it is the rest of us, with our distractions and entertainment, who try to escape real life. Spending time at a monastery feels so peaceful, so restful. Those of... Read more
How Healthy is Our Spiritual Life? There are people who see spiritual life pretty much the same way they do physical health. They sit nervously in their doctor’s waiting room hoping everything is basically OK. Some people know they need help from the doctor and worry about what they will learn. Others have a vague sense of discomfort but are not sure what might be wrong. A few people take their physical health very seriously. They are just here for a routine... Read more
Spiritual Life on the Freeway Driving on a freeway reminds me of how we live into spiritual life. This weekend I am driving back and forth to serve as a spiritual director at a conference. The conference is in Azusa, which is closer to the mountains than to the ocean. People in Southern California tend to refer to Azusa as “way out east somewhere.” California is not where I learned to drive, but it is where I learned about driving on freeways.... Read more
Monastic Life and Working Life Many of us think of monasteries as places where we can get away from work. A monastery is somewhere we go to find a few days of rest and quiet. Monastic communities are great locations to set aside all the distractions we usually need to juggle. We can take time to think and reflect at a monastery. It feels like the opposite of everyday working life. Some people retreat to a monastery to sink into the peace... Read more
There are days when it just feels like we are a long way from home. Exhausted Sometimes we get tired. Building and strengthening and growing spiritual life takes hard work. We have embarked on a long, challenging journey of exploration and discovery. It can take a lot out of us and we may need to rest. Our pilgrimage takes us far from the familiar comforts of home. We awaken each day to new facets of ourselves and of spiritual life. Some days... Read more
Strategic Monk
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