Are you the type of person who has trouble meditating because they can’t turn off their chattering brain? Well, I’ve got a meditation for you. It dates back over 2,000 years and it comes from the Stoic school of philosophy. And unlike most meditation practices, it actually involves thinking. The Stoics are an interesting bunch. Prominent before Jesus walked the earth, the Stoics followed a philosophy that centered on personal virtue. They believed the key to flourishing as a human... Read more
Why are there no stories about teenage or young adult Jesus in the Bible? If you look at the four gospels in the New Testament, you’ll notice there’s a big leap when it comes to telling the life story of Jesus. We learn about baby Jesus in the manger. Then, in Luke there’s a story about Jesus visiting a temple at age 12. The next thing you know Jesus is a 30-year-old man. So, what happened during the intervening years?... Read more
Suppose you found a wallet lying on the street. You pick it up and inside you find $200 in cash, along with a few credit cards and a driver’s license. You look around and there’s absolutely no one around. The street is deserted without a soul in sight. What would you do next? That’s the situation Russ Roberts put in front of about 100 students at an elite private high school. To my (and his) surprise, the vast majority said... Read more
Can the right state of mind cure your physical ailments? Can it take away the pain in your back, the ache in your hips or eliminate migraines? Can it help resolve emotional issues, like heartbreak and depression? According to Dr. and Master Zhi Gang Sha, yes. The author, known as Master Sha, has written several New York Times bestsellers on traditional Chinese methods of healing. Over the past decade, he has added a new method to these treatments: Tao calligraphy. In... Read more
Is it possible that our belief in God can help us in a time of crisis? When we call for God through petition or prayer, is it possible that God responds—leading us to the best possible outcome, for ourselves, our families, and possibly those around us? It may depend on our faith. Either you have or you don’t. The late author David Foster Wallace once gave a fabled commencement speech, This is Water, in which he told an illuminating story about faith. It... Read more
In the latest edition of The Saturday Evening Post, there’s a story titled “Sleepless in America” by Todd Pitock. It’s about the deeply conflicted way Americans feel about sleep. He asks the question, “Why do so many consider sleep a waste of time?” As Pitock points out, “sleep has become a minefield of moral judgement…with many people shamed for sleeping too long or taking naps.” It seems baked into our Western culture. We don’t believe people should sleep too long—the... Read more
I read a lot of religious books and it’s rare to come across one that changes the way you view Christianity. I now have two such books on my bookshelf: The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr and Finding God Beyond Religion from Tom Stella. By chance, both authors emerged from the world of Roman Catholicism. Rohr is a Franciscan friar, while Stella is a former Catholic priest. “Having grown up a Catholic, I put Jesus on a pedestal.” The quote above is from... Read more
Are you in a winter funk? I know I am. Once the Christmas decorations have been packed up, and the initial cheer of the New Year has dissipated, I’m ready for spring. And why not? Right now, where I live, it’s uncomfortably cold with “feels like” temperatures in the 20s. The trees are bare having dropped the last of their leaves. The skies are gray, with overcast days far outnumbering the sunny ones. And the winter blues are settling in.... Read more
In Almost Everything, Notes on Hope, Anne Lamott offers a funny take on a range of issues related to hope and the place it has in our lives. But hidden just beneath the humor can be found something else—pearls of wisdom. That’s why I’m adding Anne to my semi-regular series of writers who have, sometimes unknowingly, provided us with rules to live by. I think of LaMott as a blue-collar philosopher, earthy and salty, but whose advice and wise counsel... Read more
In Jesus, What He Really Said and Did, the author Stephen Mitchell tries to clear up a few misconceptions about Jesus, including a very big one—why did Jesus have to die? And what he has to say may surprise you, as he pokes holes in notions that many Christians take as fact. Mitchell is an expert in his field, having translated some of the world’s great religious texts. His version of the classic Chinese book the Tao Te Ching has sold... Read more
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