we are nearing the end of the first fifth of the twenty-first century. And I think we can all admit we have hard choices to make too. Sometimes as we face those choices, we are akin to Judas.
Why can’t we admit: all of these things make us sick? The vivid constellation of our violence, crippling imbalance, dominance we carve out and serve. Here, let me make it clear: we can choose to do better. We can choose to do better starting today.
focusing on the missteps misses the point, keeping us fixated on achievement (the ego’s M.O.), participating in pointless purity contests—when instead we have been invited to a Love Fest.
Our most important spiritual work is inviting in awareness and creating the silence and space in our lives that allows us to see a little more clearly.
Encountering the stunning landscape that is scripture, engaging with the timeless insights and sometimes breathtaking details, is worth braving the tripping hazards. It could even change your life.
…first-century readers would have been so struck by the scandalous-ness of the gospels and by their confrontation with the power claims of the Empire, that the gospels would have been banned books of the highest order. It should not be surprising that so many first-century Christians were killed by the Romans.
Even if we intellectually know that violence creates more violence, even if we worry that violence is destroying much that is good in our world, our bodies feel the satisfaction on a deep level as we see violence, once again, save the day.
“We have to have more than textbooks. We need text-people” (Abraham Joshua Heschel). Both are necessary and nourishing. Both shape our beliefs and views of the world.
…at those moments of connecting with nature, feeling a sense of communion with the “dirt clod” natural world around us, the ego sometimes falls away, and we get a taste of the freedom Paul experienced and Jesus exemplified.
…to resist hatred with hatred is not to pose a counter narrative. Resisting hatred with hatred simply perpetuates the same sad, feckless story of domination.