Hurting strangers
The image that came to mind for me is this: at the time of Jesus greatest suffering, he was surrounded by strangers. Jesus’ cry from the cross comes out of a heart that feels abandoned by the God he loves.
Amid strangers, suffering at the highest level, Jesus expresses what we know deep in our bones:
When we are suffering, it is all too easy to believe we have been abandoned.
Photo by Deva Darshan on Unsplash
Bless it And Leave it
However we talk about it, the point is that our spiritual growth and maturity will always require us to leave behind our previous ways of thinking about God, self, and others. Then, we’ll move on to different forms that will take shape in us through a process of trial and error. Much like a teenager moving into young adulthood, when we operate with the default settings there will always be hiccups and abrasions.
At The Edge
Edges are the places where we are pushed to either recognize that we are out of our depth and our strength is dismantled or they are places where we stare into an unknown with little understanding of how to go forward.
What I have come to learn, however, is that no matter how I grit my teeth against the edges I experience in life the edges are necessary. Why?
A Book is Just A Beginning
I feel so strongly that life with the Divine is about starting something…the Divine is beginning something today in each of us. There are, of course, our “works in progress” – our life story as it is up to this point – and yet within each large overarching story there are little beginnings as well.
to return
What I have learned over the years is that there are places that help us return to our life with the Divine, with ourselves, and with others.
They might be beaches on islands far away. But they don’t have to be.
It might be a humble hermitage where we go for a day. But maybe not.
A specific chair in our home, during a specific time of the day when all is still, and a cup of coffee may be all we need.
The point isn’t where the “return” happens, but that it happens.
The Cross, A Space
Holy week is about a great many things, but most importantly it is about the hope within a hospitality of suffering. It is the place where we bring the ache of flesh and share that experience with a crucified Christ.
Regardless of whether we caused the suffering or it was inflicted on us, there is a table set for us to share these death rattles with One who is “well acquainted with grief.”
The Committee
Is it possible that a simple phrase from a podcast, a transitioning faith, and a transitioning ministry, could teach us something about what it means to listen to and follow the Spirit? What if we are the committee?
Lost in manhattan
The word “lost” in Christian circles is often used as a descriptor of a group or a type of person, particularly an irreligious person. But if we’re honest, both religious and irreligious people get good and lost all the time.
I do appreciate the sentiment of the words “lost people matter to God” but the sentiment makes little sense when we realize we all get lost sometimes.
A Thought About Words
The journey of spiritual transformation is one that is built on words. Words that create worlds. Specifically, one Word that created and sustained and redeemed the world.
That’s why when John says “the Word became flesh and dwelled among us” he could have added a second layer that was “and that scrambled our vocabulary forever.” Why?
a Sweat shirt
When we have a daily threshold moment, however it may look for us, it teaches us the humility of our own edges. We learn the limits of our competency and capacity. Rest becomes not an enemy or a weakness but the natural result of a life lived honestly and courageously with the Divine.
Photo by Daniel Cañibano on Unsplash
Wonder and An Irish Public Restroom
The world is wider than we could imagine, in ways we can’t imagine. If we are brave enough to wonder at the difference, rather than condemn it, something opens in our souls.
We find greater wonder within us when we see that our familiar spaces do not contain the whole of the world.
Photo by Paul Costello on Unsplash
The Only Way Through is Through
What the wisdom of ancient Scriptures, later sages and saints, as well as present day storytelling remind us is that great suffering is often the midwife of great goodness. A keyhole in our life that only a rough-edged key can fit.
Photo by Victoria Strukovskaya on Unsplash
The Comeback
For all of history we have found ways to live outside of our true nature when we’re trying to cope with adverse circumstances. We learn to retreat, to hoard, and ultimately subject our souls to strain that over time causes them to crumble. This is not who we are or who we were meant to be. But there is always room for a comeback.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
The Way Has Been Made
If you are looking for a way into life today, a way to work with grace and love others with courage and perseverance, the lever that you’re looking for is this simple phrase: the way has already been made.
The Space Between
What is clear to me is that avoiding the present is to give up on the energy that transforms us.
What is also clear is that God’s favorite meeting place for the human adventure is right here, right now.
(Photo by Clay LeConey on Unsplash)
To Love a Coyote
My enemy, whomever and wherever they are, bear just as much likeness to the Divine as I do.
The Truth About Healing
The truth about healing is that it is not a return to what was.
Lawn Care and the Smell of Memories
Memories, in fact, make us who we are. We have no idea who God is, who we are, and what life can and should be without the woven stories of our recollection.
As I smell motor oil, I remember my uncle. I remember the things I learned since being a child around all the carcasses of cars yet to start again. The hurts, the disorientation that came as I lived longer in the Midwest than in my native South, I remember them.
The parting of my parents.
I remember my and Holley’s wedding.
When our daughter came crashing into the world after a brief and petrifying medical intervention.
It is all part of me, it makes me who I am.
Spirituality With A Dog In Your Lap
There will always be excuses for us to dig beneath the crust of our carefully crafted selves. Some well-reasoned, some anxious, but all of them fear the same thing – reality. What might we find if we began turning over the stones in our souls?
Why We Will Fail in 2021 (And Why That's Hopeful)
As I stand in the kitchen and look at the 2021 jar, I realize that by the end of this year it will be filled with the things that we call “good” or “joyful.” Rightly so. These moments always bring a laugh or smile when we read through them. They make us. They form us.
But so do the failures.