One of my favorite people in the world is my daughter. This quote is a part of her e-mail signature:

“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”
Abraham Maslow

Wise words. Somedays I’d much rather cocoon.

“The the Lord God said, “it is not good that the man should be alone” Genesis 2:18

This quote is from the second version of the creation story found in the first two chapters of Genesis. This silliness in the US of attempting to require the teaching of Creationism in our public schools seems to me to entirely miss the point. Since there are two different stories right from the very beginning of the Bible, it seems to me that a literal interpretation of scripture distracts one from the deeper truths. The Bible is not a book of science but a window to the living Word of God.

Continue Reading…

I hadn’t attended church for three weeks. Our church is about 45 minutes away. A chronic illness keeps me grounded: some days my physical well-being is dis-ordered by this and I am reminded that I can’t always choose what to do. Other days, I’m just plain too tired or perhaps it’s just an excuse to stay in bed. Regardless, today we gathered with our community of faith to begin the Advent season.

I didn’t want to go. Exhausted after the Thanksgiving celebration (in which I reveled in the presence of my two children), sleeping in sounded good to me. No could do. I was the guest preacher for the day while our pastor was away on a cruise with his wife.

I’m still exhausted but I’m glad I was there. The hour set aside to gather and sing and pray and just be in God’s presence was certainly worth the drive! Our church is far from perfect. I didn’t even like the hymns we sang (and I had picked them out!). We messed up the call to worship reading. Babies were crying and people were coughing. But it was church and it was a joy to me. Why church?

It’s the people for me. The people are beautiful in all their variety and neuroses. I feel like I belong with them because I can be myself, with all my neuroses and imperfections. Although there may not even be one person there who might understand what it means to practice a mystical christiainity, I’m welcome and appreciated. These are people with whom I can laugh and cry, remember and dream. With all the problems that come with any group of human beings trying to be organized together, with all the times there are misunderstandings and immature acting out, these are still people with whom I belong. I’m thankful for that. It’s worth the trip. It’s worth the effort. It’s worthy of my respect.

It was my first visit to yet another health care professional. If I counted up the miles, money and minutes spent trying to pull out of this strangle hold of the weird symptoms call Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) , I.d probably be depressed. But I.m not. I.m actually pretty happy most of the time.
Continue Reading…

.In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came into being through him and without him not one thing came into being …and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father.s only son, full of grace and truth. John 1:1,3a, 14)

.Swisch-dub, swisch-dub, swisch-dub. the beautiful sound of my baby’s heartbeat resounded in the little cubicle as the Doppler instrument broadcast the miracle of love deep within my body. I longed for each of my children. Many women long for a lifetime and never get to hear this sound. It had taken eighteen months to get pregnant and I sang the song of Hannah, sure that I was infertile, begging God to give me a child. Tears were in my eyes as I listened to that beautiful sound. I can still hear it and it.s been over two decades!
Did you know that everything in our bodies makes a sound? Sonograms of various body parts create pictures of these sounds. When an organ is dis-eased, it makes sounds that are not in harmony with the rest of the organ. These sounds help physicians diagnose the presence of disease if not the cause. Actually, everything in the universe emits a sound.
Continue Reading…

Disturbing times we are in. No doubt about that. Parts of the earth have been washed into our oceans on several continents in the past year. Natural disasters which Pat Robertson calls acts of God have decimated the poorest men, women and children on our planet. Riots in the suburbs of Paris, suicide bombings in the midst of weddings in Jordan, another school shooting. These horrors bring out the worst and the best in our human nature.

I had a doctor’s appointment today for an infection in my eyes. I also have a chronic health problem that I deal with daily, in part through the use of self-hypnosis and in part by listening to what my body is trying to tell me. So, as my eyes have caused me pain, I’ve been asking myself – what is it that I don’t want to see? I think I know the answer – I do not want to see the fear. Nor do I want to see the power of evil.
Continue Reading…

I have often been asked: “How do you pray for someone else?” and likewise, “What difference does it make?” For many years, I only prayed for others out of obedience rather than conviction. This only changed when I was the one being prayed for! Then, I knew the difference it made to me.

How to pray for another: This is called intercessory prayer and literally means we pray as if we were the other person. We stand in their place before God and pray on their behalf. The simplest form is to pray: “Lord Jesus, the other’s name” followed by silence. Then repeat for the time you have set aside to pray. As you do this, you may find images or words coming to you. Simply say (silently or out loud) “Lord bless.”
Continue Reading…

Turning ourselves over to God is in reality returning to our original self. As the Christian faith moved across the globe toward the East and toward the West, there developed a theological division in understanding of our true nature in the 11th century. The church to the West, under the authority of the Roman papacy, took the path of emphasizing “original sin” . The church in the east, which we now know as the Orthodox Churches, knew none of this. This church considered the doctrine of original nature, known also as Imago Dei as foundational to understanding our relationship to God.
Continue Reading…

The religion of Christianity is based on these words of Jesus as his summation of all scripture:

.You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

(from the Gospel of Matthew, New Revised Standard Version)

Although simple words at first glance, it takes a life time to understand and truly live these words. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote Four Degress of Love way back in the 12th Century. I have not yet found a better understanding of how to live these two commandments of Jesus Christ.
Continue Reading…

I cannot remember a time when I did not know the presence of God. In fact, it was quite a shock to me to realize that many people seem to have no awareness of the reality of God’s presence. My desire to share the experience turned me into an evangelist – I remember baptizing my little brother Dale in our backyard pool when I was 9 years old. Dale just couldn.t seem to get the whole God thing. He still doesn.t! My evangelistic efforts seem to have come to naught but at least he didn.t drown.

This joy I know .in my bones. I have come to understand is a form of mysticism. I understand this to simply mean living in the light of God’s presence. For a more complete definition see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_mysticism