Lord, teach me. . . .

In order to experience everyday spirituality, we need to remember that we are spiritual beings spending some time in a physical body. –Barbara de Angelis Years ago, Friedrich Nietzsche made the news with this statement: God is dead . Now, today, polls from Gallup, Pew and others are making a similar pronouncement: The Church is dying . In the past, when asked, people identified their faith with the church they attended: Baptist, Catholic, Methodist. But recent polls have shown declines, nearly across the board, among “traditional” religious groups, and a steady rise among members of a previously unnamed group, the SBNRs. Spiritual. But Not Religious . The definition of SBNR is a bit nebulous, but generally refers to folks who hunger for “something more ,” but don’t look for (or find) it in church. Many SBNRs will tell you they experience God (by whatever name they call him/ her) in nature, away from the busyness of the world and everyday life. And—they feel that’s r...

Life could be a dream If I could take you up in paradise up above, If you would tell me I’m the only one you love— Life could be a dream, sweetheart. (Hello! Hello again!) –The Overtones Tennis, anyone? Life is many things, depending on whom you ask. Life is short (then you die). Life is unfair. Life is a journey. Life—is a game to be played? Which game, you might ask. Again, it depends whom you ask. For many, Life is like Monopoly : keep moving, draw that salary, pay your taxes if you must and accumulate as much of the best stuff as you can possibly afford/ Take what you want from the other “players,” until you are the Last Man (or Woman) Standing. Or maybe Life is more like Sorry! Take your turn, knock your opponent out of play, cry, “Sorry!” and keep on keepin’ on. The goal is to finish first and finish strong. But I think, if Life is a game, maybe it’s best played more like a tennis match. Oh, sure, there are days when I feel like cowering in t...

No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. –Max Lucado When I was in seminary, on the first day of one of my classes, the professor gave each of us a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. I still have mine; it’s green like grass, I think—or maybe sky blue. It’s been in my coin purse so long, the colors are scratched and faded. The layers have begun to pull apart, and the edges are wearing smooth. (Life can do that to you sometimes.) Dr. K gave us the puzzle piece for a reason, of course. It’s to remind us that we are each part of a much bigger picture, a picture that is incomplete without me . And even if my piece seems to look a lot like every other piece of sky or grass, in the Bigger Picture, each piece has its own unique place, its own special purpose. In God’s Kingdom, no one is more (or less) important than I am. We all fit together. Perfectly. But there’s another reminder there, too: I don’t need to be big or flashy, or try to do everything in a big way, to mak...

We wish we had an omniscient, maybe even omnipotent umpire who would resolve everything so that everyone would just know the truth. (There’s God, of course, but whose opinion of God shall we take as authoritative?) –David Gushee There are regular conversations (read: debates) among Christians about what marks a true disciple, and how one finds one’s way to heaven. There tend to be two camps: the “faithers” and the “worksers.” The faith group believe the only way to heaven and eternal bliss is to correctly profess one’s faith in Jesus, repent of one’s sins—and you’re in ! That’s it! For this group, faith and belief are focused on the next life; it’s all about being saved from eternal hellfire. What happens in this temporary life isn’t all that important. (I am being simplistic and a wee bit cynical here.) The works group, on the other hand, believes Christians will be known by their love for one another, and that is what matters most. Knowing Jesus personally is less ...

Fifty-three percent of Americans say they believe God and the nation have a special relationship, a concept stretching back to Pilgrim days.  Even a third of atheists, agnostics and those with no religious preference believe America has a special relationship with God. –Lifeway Research poll Last week, we celebrated America’s 239 th birthday. July 4 is always an exciting day, with parades and picnics, softball games and fireworks. Folks dress up in red, white and blue. Kids attach flag spinners to their tricycles and bicycles as they ride through the neighborhood. Strains of America the Beautiful and God Bless America fill the air. And the food! Fire up the grill! Bring on the ribs and hotdogs, potato salad and corn-on-the-cob! (Diet? What diet??) It is America’s birthday, after all! time to celebrate! God bless America! Meanwhile . . . the week before, my church opened its doors to the neighborhood, prepared a hot, nutritious meal with love, for those who don’t...

I’m late! I’m late for a very important date! No time to say hello! Goodbye! I’m late! I’m late! I’m late! –White Rabbit Has your life become one long To-Do List with more tasks than there are hours in a day? How often do you begin the day with a smack to the forehead, remembering something you meant to get done yesterday—but didn’t? (True confessions: I just stopped in mid-sentence here to go complete one such task.) I mean, seriously. How did our ancestors ever get anything done without all these “labor-saving” devices we have to tell us how far, how long, how soon—even when we have been sitting too long and need to move around, she asked sarcastically. Whoa, Nellie! Stop for a minute. How many of these “absolutely necessary” things really have to be done now ? How many could “keep” until next week? Or next month? Or even longer (like forever)? I’d like to challenge you this week to take time to disconnect and allow your spirit to recharge. Take off your watch. Sh...

If you haven’t all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don’t have, that you wouldn’t want. –Unknown Some days (weeks?) are like that. It seems as if nothing is going the way we would like it to go, in big ways and small. Everyone has those days; yet, somehow, we take little consolation in that fact. Misery may love company, but right now—just leave me alone and let me stew. . . . One of my favorite children’s books is called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day , by Judith Viorst (New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1987). The unfortunate protagonist’s day begins with gum in his hair, and it goes downhill from there: he drops his favorite sweater in the toilet, and at breakfast, when everyone else finds a super duper decoder ring or some other fancy schmancy toy in their breakfast cereal, all Alexander finds—is cereal. And it doesn’t get much better. Everything, it seems, goes wrong. The entire universe seems to be consp...