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Way down on the South Sea island of Borneo, the natives go about catching monkeys in a very unusual way. Most of the monkeys are sold to zoos, so the hunters avoid using ordinary traps which can cause disfiguring injuries…. Continue Reading →
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” – SOREN KEIRKEGAARD So often I live “unconsciously” and just go through my “plan and ordinary” days facing and dealing with problems and getting so caught… Continue Reading →
Despair (by Billy Collins) So much gloom and doubt in our poetry – flowers wilting on the table, the self regarding itself in a watery mirror. Dead leaves cover the ground, the wind moans in the chimney, and the tendrils… Continue Reading →
Additional viewing option: Youtube.
"The good news that Jesus proclaimed is not an evacuation plan for heaven but a transformation plan for humanity on earth." Brian McLaren
I heard Brian McLaren speak yesterday and he summarized in a sentence what I have often felt in my heart and thought about. In my tradition of evangelical christianity there is so much emphasis ...
Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to receive his daily medical treatment. His bed was next to the room’s only window…. Continue Reading →
“It is not the length of life, but depth of life.” – RALPH WALDO EMMERSON Live deeply! Yes, yes, yes! To live deeply for as long as I can! Thank you Ralph! And God,, may it be so.
I Know the Way You Can Get (by Hafiz) I know the way you can get When you have not had a drink of Love: Your face hardens, Your sweet muscles cramp. Children become concerned About a strange look that… Continue Reading →
“Jesus never asked anyone to form a church, ordain priests, develop elaborate rituals and institutional cultures, and splinter into denominations. His two great requests were that we “love one another as I have loved you” and that we share bread and wine together as an open channel of that interabiding love.” Cynthia Bourgeault
It's pretty simple isn't it?! How did church get so complicated? So many are hungering to get back to the basics without all the church bureaucracy. Consider joining my FB group Church Anonymous...
“One afternoon, before anything was made, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost sat around in the unity of their Godhead discussing one of the Father’s fixations. From all eternity, it seems he had had this… Continue Reading →
“You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.” – JOSEPH CAMPBELL I don’t know exactly where my life is headed right now or even for the past couple of… Continue Reading →
For a New Beginning (by John O’Donohue) In out of the way places of the heart Where your thoughts never think to wander This beginning has been quietly forming Waiting until you were ready to emerge. For a long time… Continue Reading →
A Parody of Modern Church Services. It’s important to laugh at ourselves from time to time isn’t it? To not take ourselves too seriously? Sometimes to even laugh at our own most sacred traditions in order to keep them fresh,… Continue Reading →
Why do people in church seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? … Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us to where we can never return.” Annie Dillard
Many Christians are leaving the church not to abandon their faith but in order to save their faith and to have an adventure with "the waking God who is drawing them to where they can never return."...
Akido with love – The train clanked and rattled through the suburbs of Tokyo on a drowsy spring afternoon. Our car was comparatively empty – a few housewives with their kids, some old folks going shopping. I gazed absently at… Continue Reading →
"I do not believe that such groups as these (AA) are perfect any more than anything is perfect, but I believe that the church has an enormous amount to learn from them. I also believe that what goes on in them is far closer to what Christ meant his church to be, and what it originally was, than much of what goes on in most churches I know. These groups have no buildings or official leadership or money. They have no rummage sales, no altar guilds, no every-member canvases. They have no preachers, no choirs, no liturgy, no real estate. They have no creeds. They have no programs. They make you wonder if the best thing that could happen to many a church might not be to have its buildings burn down and to lose all its money. Then all that the people would have left would be God and each other." Frederick Buechner
Snow Geese (by Mary Oliver) Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last! What a task to ask of anything, or anyone, yet it is ours, and not by the century or the year, but by the hours…. Continue Reading →