For the Joy of the Journey

So Much To Think About

George April 28, 2023 Notes Anthology 0 Comments

God’s Presence

God is already present. God’s Spirit is dwelling within us. We cannot search for what we already have. We cannot talk God into coming “to” us by longer and more urgent prayers. All we can do is become quieter, smaller, and less filled with our own self and our constant flurry of ideas and feelings. Then God will be obvious in the very now of things, and in the simplicity of things. To sum it all up, we can never get there, we can only be there.

Richard Rohr

Don’t make much of it.

James Finley offers wisdom he learned from Thomas Merton (1915–1968), who was his novice master when Finley was a young monk:

Often, when I’d go in to see Thomas Merton for spiritual direction, he’d say, “How’s it going?”

And he’d say, “Don’t make much of it; it’ll get worse.”

And I’d say, “I’m doing well!”

And other times I would go in really down about something. And he’d say, “Don’t make much of it; it’ll get better.”

It ebbs and flows, it ebbs and flows.

Deconstruction

…what is the point, goal, or aim of “deconstruction”? Well, the goal is purportedly to update an inherited faith to make it more strong and vibrant. Sometimes that means leaving outdated or dysfunctional beliefs behind. Sometimes that means breaking down walls and old taboos. Sometimes that means becoming more open, hospitable, and inclusive. Sometimes that means questioning tired dogmas.

…many deconstructing evangelicals deconstruct themselves right out of any recognizably Christian faith, or just leave the faith altogether.

…is the point of “deconstruction” to question until you no longer are a Christian? Or should it be a healthy process where you update, mature, and grow in your faith? Shouldn’t you be a stronger, more committed and passionate Christian after deconstruction, rather than a weaker one?

The issue here is if deconstruction should go hand in hand with reconstruction. And if so, where are all the “reconstructing” narratives out here? Or is deconstruction just a one-way street, from faith to apostasy? Because if deconstruction is mainly functioning as a one-way street, deconstruction has become destructive, rather than a vital and necessary journey to mature and deepen your faith.

Richard Beck

http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2023/04/deconstruction-versus-destruction.html

Healthy Church

“If you want a healthy church, you are going to need to imagine a cure that doesn’t depend on the secular age.”

Because the secular age separates the secular and the sacred, making belief private and the immanent the agreed-upon public reality, the church has a hard time imagining what a public faith that witnesses to the transcendent looks like. Our imaginations are secular, so when we try to imagine the sacred, try to see God at work in our lives and in the world, we can do so only in secular terms. … It is as if we have looked at the world with a secular lens for so long that when something sacred appears, we can’t see it for what it is, nor do we even have the language to describe it.

Resonance is an experience of fullness, of being In Sync, of being so present to someone or something else that we feel like we have discovered ourselves again. We can resonate with something whether we are moving fast or slow. Often resonance is timeless. … Or the moment is so full, so powerful, that something that takes seconds feels much longer period resonance is all about connecting with the world, with the people in our lives, and finding a meaning that is greater than what we can see and explain. Resonance is about the sacred, the public, and the transcendent.

Andrew Root and Blair D. Bertrand

https://scotmcknight.substack.com/p/our-secular-lens

Reducing Gun Violence

To achieve the social and cultural changes necessary to reduce gun violence, we need individuals and communities of faith — not just progressive people of faith, but all people of faith — to stand against the idolatry of guns in America.

I know of churches that would never hire a pastor who smoked but have shooting events at their yearly men’s retreats. I know Christian parents who warn their kids about the dangers of marijuana use but don’t hesitate to buy them firearms. I know conservative people of faith who affirm the need for legal and systemic change when it comes to limiting abortion but only look to personal choice and endlessly invoke the language of individual rights when it comes to gun violence. This is hypocrisy

Trish Harrison Warren

Following Jesus

following Jesus is less like math and more like white water rafting. It’s less like writing down the right answers to a test and more like trusting yourself into the hands of a doctor. It’s less like standing on concrete and more like bungee jumping.
Imonk

Spirituality

All great spirituality is about letting go. Instead, we have made it to be about taking in, attaining, performing, winning, and succeeding. True spirituality echoes the paradox of life itself. It trains us in both detachment and attachment: detachment from the passing so we can attach to the substantial. But if we do not acquire good training in detachment, we may attach to the wrong things, especially our own self-image and its desire for security.

Richard Rohr

View from the front porch
Thinking about the world around us. All the confusion, chaos, hatred and violence; overwhelming at times.
Then I watch endless ads for medications on TV and there is a glimmer of hope — cure, happiness. Except for one thing, their names, who decides these names?

VABYSMO
INGREZZA
VRAYLAR
DUPIXENT
RYBELSUS
TRINTELLIX
GEMTESA
NUCALA
VERZENIO
VABYSMO
SKYRIZI
ENTYVIO

Maybe someone will develop and market a drug named SHALOM.

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

Conversations Matter – Death & Dying

George April 26, 2023 Conversations Matter 2 Comments

“All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.”
Ecclesiastes 3:20

The most obvious and ubiquitous reality of human experience is death; ironically, in western culture, it is seldom discussed. This post begins a series on death and dying —a conversation that matters.

It is important to establish the context in which these posts are being written. When the author is eighty years old, it is easy to assume that his death might be immanent. That is not the case (as far as I know). However, considering my age and pre-existing conditions, I am acutely aware of my mortality—definitely making the subject of death and dying relevant. Since all of us are mortal and subject to life’s uncertainty, I hope you will join the conversation. Several recent resources stimulated thoughts about death and dying. I recommend “The Lost Art of Dying” by L.S. Dugdale. This podcast is a good introduction to the book. Good Faith.

At this point, I have come to two conclusions, first, conversations about death and dying rarely happen; second, failure to acknowledge our mortality has profound implications to how life is lived and how we die.

The balance of this post is a stream of thoughts and ideas that establish a framework for conversations that follow.

Why it’s important talk about death and dying?

Why are evangelical Christians mostly silent about death and dying .

What does it mean to die well?

Developing a plan to die well.

ars moriendi – art of dying

Community’s role in death and dying

Medicalized death

Euthanasia

A Theology of Death

This list is a first draft and a work in progress, it will be amended and modified as necessary as in the coming months. I would very much appreciate your feedback, questions or concerns.

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

Conversations Matter – Basic Skills

George April 23, 2023 Conversations Matter 1 Comment

It has been well over two decades, but I remember it clearly. My father, in the closing days of his life, was in a shabby nursing home in North Alabama. Traveling from Kentucky to make what might be a final visit, I was hopeful we could have “the conversation” . You know what I mean, that conversation where you talk about all the “stuff” left unsaid; or, at a minimum, say final goodbyes. I did not have the forethought to prepare for that conversation, but as he lay there, bed-ridden, disfigured by age and ravaged by disease, I knew that there might never be another opportunity. When we had finished our usual small talk, and the room was quiet, I said “Dad, Is there anything you would like to talk about?”
Laying on his back, looking at the ceiling, I could tell he was thinking. Absent his dentures he was chewing on his gums, unsupported lips flapping. As I looked at him he avoided eye contact. Tears began to well up and slowly roll down his cheeks. Chewing vigorously, he looked at me and said, “Could you hand me a cookie out of that drawer?”

Some observations after reflecting on that scene:

I was deeply disappointed we did not have “the conversation”. In retrospect, my expectation was naive. If we had not been able or willing to have such conversation in the previous 40 years, the likelihood of having it in the waning moments of his life was not reasonable. Meaningful, beautiful conversations may happen when death is immanent, but, it is too late to deepen and enrich the relationship. The lesson is obvious, the time for “the conversation” is always now (a suitable moment) before “last rites”, while there is still margin to enjoy life together.
As shared earlier, I was not prepared for the conversation. Having “the conversation” requires intentionality and conversational skills, neither of which preceded that day; which brings us to the subject of this post, basic skills.
In chapter 6, Holleman hones in on four basic conversation skills:
Letting others speak
Listening
Limiting distractions
Loving through your face

Understanding and practicing those skills are essential to being a great conversation partner. Had I possessed those skills, the conversation might have gone much differently.

Chapter 6 – Revisiting the Basics

…the basics of how to serve as a great conversation partner. It’s a lifelong skill we might continue to hone—no matter how old we are, smart we are, or extroverted we feel. Everyone needs help when it comes to loving others better in conversations.
Holleman, Heather. The Six Conversations (p. 93).

Letting others speak —What is my goal in having a conversation?

“When you enter a new conversation, think first about the goal of letting others speak.” …that is not the way I usually approach conversation. More often, I aim to talk rather than considering the two-way goal of a better conversation, Needing to share my opinions, I am, as Holleman confesses, a “monologue-giver and interrupter”
— “someone who loves to spout all my opinions and talk and talk and talk. And if you are talking, believe me, I’d interrupt you with my own feelings or personal stories to turn the conversation back to me. Nobody wants or needs a friend like this.” —

Avoid interrupting others. Loving conversationalists limit interrupting. They wait. They’re patient. They let others talk. Conversation is a warm connection. It’s not therapy or a one-sided monologue. It’s connection. Instead of interrupting, they become better listeners.

Listening — growing in the area of listening well.

“supportive listening,”

I learned what a profound act of love it is to truly listen to someone with our full attention. When we listen to others, we offer not only our time but also our psychological presence, our cognitive attention, and our emotional responsiveness, all of which are finite and thus valuable interpersonal resources. Extending the effort to listen to someone may therefore be conceptualized as an expression of affection for that person, at least in situations when listening is not otherwise expected or compensated.
The Six Conversations (p. 99)

Supportive listening involves listening for a whole narrative and interpreting the information someone gives you to make a larger story about their lives.

Learning what to listen for …
became a life-changing moment of transformation for me when I realized how to listen.

LISTEN FOR TRANSFORMATION.
LISTEN FOR THE STORY OF CHANGE
LISTEN FOR WHAT SURPRISES YOU, UNSETTLES YOU, OR DISTURBS YOU.
LISTEN TO SUPPORT.

People love to feel understood and really seen. In research on the core principles of close relationships, psychologists note that how close we feel in a relationship depends on whether we feel someone understands what we value—the “extent to which they are cognizant of, sensitive to, and behaviorally supportive of each other’s core needs and values.”

…we need to bring “a kind of presence to other beings in which one is receptive and open to being influenced by them.”

Limiting distractions

Holleman’s advice for limiting distractions can be summarized succinctly with do not have a cellphone present (I would add do not bring your dog 🙂 ). She suggests having a notebook and taking notes that can be referenced. I thought that to be awkward, but thinking about how easily I forget, it has merit and I will try it.

While this may sound clinical and too robotic to you, I can assure you that taking notes—like you’re a student of your new friend—will serve you well in conversation and immediately form a special bond. As you limit distractions, take notes on your friends like you’re a student of them. What are you learning about them? What upcoming events, anniversaries, or difficult days lie ahead for them?

Loving through your face

For years, people would ask me what was wrong, why I was so annoyed, or what made me so mad. I would say, “What? I’m just thinking deeply about what you’re saying.”

Consider how to express love, curiosity, and investment through your face as you listen to others.

The story below shows how much I identify with her experience.

A significant part of my career at Ford Motor Company included working as an internal consultant for organizational change, specifically training and development in participative management. Effective communication skills were a critical factor to any success. Accordingly, I had the opportunity for my communication skills to be assessed and improved. I must admit that, at that time, my opinion of my communication skills was very high. In fact, I felt the assessments were unnecessary. A part of the assessment was to participate in a role play exercise which involved conflict and required skillful communication for resolution. The exercise was video taped.

After completing the exercise, I was pleased with my performance and was looking forward to reviewing the video.

The video was shocking. In my mind I had been polished and convincing, skillfully controlling the situation and reaching a satisfactory resolution. What the video revealed was angry, intimidating facial expressions and body language. My demeanor was controlling and arrogant.

For the first time, I recognized what others had known all a long. I was not the person I believed I was. With that realization, I began to understand why many prior difficult interpersonal circumstances had puzzled and frustrated me and defied resolution. That occasion of truthful self-awareness was a turning point which changed me profoundly.

In a recent casual conversation with Ann, she remarked, “Why are you angry?” What???

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

So Much To Think About

George April 16, 2023 Notes Anthology 0 Comments

Remembering

God never called us to Make Yesterday Great Again. But he does call us to remember.

The word “remember” is used in Scripture more than 150 times. When the Bible speaks about remembering, the kind of memory to which it most frequently refers is akin to muscle memory. When you jump on a bike after not riding for years, and your mind and body instantly recall how to balance and pedal as if you’d just done so yesterday, you’re tapping into the way in which we are invited to remember.

The active, present, and all-encompassing nature of remembering in the Bible is captured in the core realities that God remembers his covenant with his people and God expects his people to remember and do what God has commanded. Remembering is a function of a relationship. When we remember Jesus through wine and bread shared together at the table, we are invited to experience it as though we are sitting with him at the final meal he shared with his friends. The Bible doesn’t invite us to recall a set of data points about Jesus when we come to the communion table but to participate with him who is Immanuel, God with us here and now.

https://www.fathommag.com/stories/noxious-nostalgia

Briar patch?

In the most famous Uncle Remus story—one that appears in countless versions in cultures around the world, including one from the Apache involving their trickster hero, Coyote—the malicious Br’er Fox makes a doll out of tar (the “tar baby”) and places it in Br’er Rabbit’s path. Br’er Rabbit becomes offended when the creature doesn’t respond to his friendly greeting and lashes out at it, only to find himself stuck to it—and the more he struggles the more firmly stuck he becomes. Then, entangled and exhausted, he is at Br’er Fox’s mercy. And this is when he makes one final plea to his tormentor: Do anything to me, he says, but don’t throw me in that briar patch. Anything but that. Naturally, Br’er Fox, mean creature that he is and nemesis to the rabbit, tosses him right into the briar patch—which is just what enables the victim to detach himself from the tar baby. So Br’er Rabbit taunts Br’er Fox: This might be a place of pain to other animals, but I was born and bred in the briar patch!

An affirmative disposition toward all obstacles—this is the blues idiom in a phrase. Resistance and affliction as the necessary engines of creativity.

Here is where Cosmos Murray comes to our aid. What it contributes is the idea of “an affirmative disposition towards all obstacles,” specifically because obstacles are occasions for improvisation—occasions for living with style, making artful living from the unpromising materials of pain. You can think yourself mistreated, think yourself the object of scorn, and become “the lamenting, protesting, perpetually pissed-off rebel”—the course taken by so many white Christians online—or you can strive to cultivate a “resilience that is geared to spontaneous exploration, experimentation, inventiveness, and perpetual readjustment.” If you take the latter course, then the world can become your briar patch too: Every way that you are thwarted, every obstacle that prevents you continuing in your old familiar habits, can become an occasion for “spontaneous exploration,” for doing old things in a new way—for, in short, living by faith rather than by your own sense of entitled comfort. And if you do that, then even in dark days you have a pretty fair chance of letting the good times roll.
https://comment.org/the-blues-idiom-at-church/

Sunbelt Nation

The Brookings Institution demographer William Frey has noted that in 1920, the Northeast and the Midwest accounted for 60 percent of America’s population. A century later, the Sunbelt accounts for 62 percent of the nation’s population. These days we are mostly a Sunbelt nation.

David Brooks

Evangelical Moderates

“the evangelical moderate” and the moderate was not an activist on the racial divide. Here are his words to sum up the moderate: “although earlier fundamentalists might have been more explicitly and unashamedly open with their racism, the evangelical moderate remained content to denounce only the most overt and blatant kinds of racial prejudice, to equivocate on the inevitability or necessity of segregation, to vehemently oppose “forced integration,” and to ignore, critique, or explicitly condemn the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement and its leaders.” There was no room “for systemic analyses or governmental interventions.”

Isaac B. Sharp -The ~~Other~~ Evangelicals

Baby Names

Recently we enjoyed the privilege of learning the name chosen for our next great grandchild. Ellison Dean .
Very thoughtful and reflective of his heritage, I appreciated their choice even more when I read about Elon Musk’s children’s names.

On May 4, 2020, Musk announced the birth of their son, who he and Grimes named “X Æ A-Xii Musk,” seemingly pronounced “X Ash A-12.” “Mom & baby all good,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
But the pair continued to co-parent, and in March 2022, Grimes revealed in a Vanity Fair interview that the couple had secretly had a baby girl via surrogate named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk.
Grimes said “Exa” is a reference to the supercomputing term exaflops, “Dark” is about the unknown, and “Sideræl” is an “elven” spelling of sidereal, meaning “the true time of the universe,” pronounced “sigh-deer-ee-el.” Grimes and Musk call her Y for short.

Rule of Life

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time…it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.
Annie Dillard

As Dillard says, how we spend our days will be, in the end, how we spend our lives. Intentionality, practiced through a rule of life, defends from chaos and whim, creating a net that catches our days and a lifeboat on which we find ourselves, decades later, still living.

If you’re wondering about what a rule of life might look like, beyond fixed hour prayer practices, you might check out The Common Rule or Crafting a Rule of Life.

Richard Beck

The Life of J D Green

“Why was I born black? It would have been better had I not been born at all. Only yesterday, my mother was sold to go to, not one of us knows where, and I am left alone, and I have no hope of seeing her again. At this moment a raven alighted on a tree over my head, and I cried, ‘Oh, Raven! if I had wings like you. I would soon find my mother and be happy again.’ Before parting she [i.e. Mother] advised me to be a good boy and she would pray for me, and I must pray for her, and hoped we might meet again in heaven, and I at once commenced to pray, to the best of my knowledge, ‘Our Father art in heaven, be Thy name, kingdom come. – Amen.’ But, at this time, words of my master obtruded into my mind that God did not care for black folks, as he did not make them, but the devil did. Then I though of the old saying amongst us, as stated by our master, that, when God was making man, He made white man out of the best clay, as potters make china, and the devil was watching, and he immediately took some black mud and made a black man, and called him a N****R.” [I have partially omitted the last offensive term].

Dying Young

How long a person can expect to live is one of the most fundamentally revealing facts about a country, and here, in the richest country in the world, the answer is not just bleak but increasingly so. Americans are now dying younger on average than they used to, breaking from all global and historical patterns of predictable improvement. They are dying younger than in any peer countries, even accounting for the larger impact of the pandemic here. They are dying younger than in China, Cuba, the Czech Republic or Lebanon.

You may think this problem is a matter of 70-year-olds who won’t live to see 80 or perhaps about the so-called deaths of despair among white middle-aged men. These were the predominant explanations five years ago, after the country’s longevity statistics first flatlined and then took a turn for the worse — alone among wealthy nations in the modern history of the world.

But increasingly the American mortality anomaly, which is still growing, is explained not by the middle-aged or elderly but by the deaths of children and teenagers. One in 25 American 5-year-olds now won’t live to see 40, a death rate about four times as high as in other wealthy nations. And although the spike in death rates among the young has been dramatic since the beginning of the pandemic, little of the impact is from Covid-19. Over three pandemic years, Covid-19 was responsible for just 2 percent of American pediatric and juvenile deaths.

View from the front porch

Gen Z religion

Generation Z is the least religious generation in American history. And, they are becoming less religiously identified as each year passes. Every day in the United States, thousands of members of the Silent and Boomer generation are dying off. Every day in the United States, thousands of members of Generation Z are celebrating their 18th birthday and becoming official adults. That simple fact is changing American religion and society in ways that we can only begin to understand now.

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

So Much To Think About

George April 6, 2023 Notes Anthology 0 Comments

Front Porches
Jane Jacobs who, in her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities, argued that it was the mark of healthy urban life to have “eyes on the street.” Porches were crucial half-way places between the insides of the homes and the street, where residents of the homes could watch the street and where people from the street could fraternize with residents. Blocks in which no one sat out on porches to talk to passers-by and to watch what was happening were desolate and often dangerous. Blocks with lots of porch-sitters were friendly. If you were on a porch and saw someone you knew, you could call them up onto the steps or the porch and talk and even offer them a glass of lemonade or sweet tea on a hot day before they went on their way. Porches were the key to a vibrant neighborhood.
Timothy Keller

“I Will Spit You Out of My Mouth”: The Real Lukewarm Christians

Posted on 4.05.2023

When I was growing up, Revelation 3.15-16 was a frequently used text for hellfire and brimstone sermons:

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

This text was used to challenge our spiritual commitment. “Lukewarm” Christians weren’t invested, weren’t 100% bought in. “Lukewarm” Christians weren’t rebels or hostile to God, they weren’t cold, but they were slackers. They skipped church. They didn’t give. Etc. Etc. Consequently, Revelation 3.15-16 would be regularly pulled out to whip these lazy, uncommitted Christians into shape.

And yet, that’s not what Revelation 3.15-16 is talking about. Whenever this text was preached, no one ever read past Verse 16. Because if you do, the vision of the “lukewarm” Christian becomes clear, and it’s not the vision I grew up hearing about. I was told the issue was a lack of spiritual effort, that I needed to try harder. But according to the text, a lack of effort is not what make a believer “lukewarm”:

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.”

What makes a “lukewarm” Christian isn’t a lack of effort or investment. What makes a “lukewarm” Christians is a lack of humility. The issue isn’t laziness. The issue is a failure to recognize and embrace our need and dependency. The issue is saying “I need nothing.”

What makes you a “hot” Christian, therefore, isn’t more work, strain, and effort. What makes you “hot” is recognizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. What makes you “hot” is the realization that you need medicine for your eyes and for someone to cover your shame. The Christians who step into this neediness, as broken people in need of grace, are the ones who are truly “on fire” for the Lord. By contrast, those who stand before the Lord declaring “I need nothing,” as prideful and self-righteous, will be the ones he will spit out of his mouth.
Richard Beck

Questions we need to be asking

How do you convict a person of sin if they strongly believe that morality is socially constructed and that we get to define for ourselves what is right or wrong?
How do you motivate a person to care about the Christian message if they believe that there is no afterlife at all and that the only happiness that can be grasped is material, this-world pleasure and comfort?
How do you speak to someone about salvation if they do not believe in a personal God, but only in a spiritual life force permeating everything?
How do you respond to the listeners who are alarmed that you are not allowing people to express and define themselves and that therefore your message is spiritually abusive and exploitative?
Timothy Keller

Nashville

Scripture would call me to lament. I don’t do it well. Lament seems far too passive, but it doesn’t need to be. Lament recognizes powerlessness, but it also marshalls what few reserves we actually have. The paradox of lament is that only God can repair the savage brokenness of our society. And God has given us his Spirit to be the change we want to see. I am simultaneously powerless and empowered when I declare, “The world is a broken place.”

Scot McKnight

At the Table

At the Table we are bound to the past, the Exodus generation. At the Table we have communion with Jesus in the struggle for faith. At the Table we are escorted into the very presence of God. The book of Revelation ends with that promise. We are seated at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, our tears are washed away by the God who hears our cries, and God makes his home with us.

What “happens” at the Table is a microcosm of the entire Story of God. Those who feast at this Table share with those in the past, share in the present, and share in the future.

We are in God’s Time at the table.

Bobby Valentine

Old graveyards

If you ever tour an old graveyard, one of the things that might surprise you is the number of children who are buried next to their parents. We’ve come a long way in protecting our children. We protect them from disease and unclean water, but we can’t protect them from everything.
(unknown)

Patriotism

you probably saw the Wall Street Journal/NORC poll that came out this week. It found that the share of Americans who say patriotism is very important to them has dropped to 38 percent from 70 percent since 1998. The share who say religion is very important has dropped to 39 percent from 62 percent. The share who say community involvement is very important has dropped to 27 percent from 47 percent. The share who say having children is very important has dropped to 30 percent from 59 percent.

These trends are partly driven by you, young adults under 30. Only 23 percent of you said that patriotism is very important or that having children is very important.

David Brooks

Church Attendance

During the pandemic, a shift happened among Americans in general and particularly among Americans with evangelical beliefs in reference to attending church, according to the State of Theology study. In early 2020, 58% of Americans said worshiping alone or with one’s family is a valid replacement for regularly attending church. By 2022, that number jumped to 66%. Among Americans with evangelical beliefs, the percentage increased from 39% in 2020 to 54% in 2022.

Julie Roys Report

Telling the Truth

My belief is that when you’re telling the truth, you’re close to God. If you say to God, “I am exhausted and depressed beyond words, and I don’t like You at all right now, and I recoil from most people who believe in You,” that might be the most honest thing you’ve ever said. If you told me you had said to God, “It is all hopeless, and I don’t have a clue if You exist, but I could use a hand,” it would almost bring tears to my eyes, tears of pride in you, for the courage it takes to get real—really real. It would make me want to sit next to you at the dinner table.

So prayer is our sometimes real selves trying to communicate with the Real, with Truth, with the Light.

Anne Lamott

It is NOT what it is

I am always trying to find ways to explain how I think and see the world differently than I did years ago. As I sat waiting for an orientation class at to begin, the television was tuned to an educational channel and the program was a GED preparation math class. The teacher was trying to explain math concepts. He explained that a number, for example the number 5, is more than just a 5. You could say that 5 is 5 and that what it is. But in reality 5 is infinitely more than just 5. Five is not only 5 it is 2.5×2 = 15/5 = 37-32 = 6-1 = 7.4389 – 2.4389 = ad infinitum . Yes, they are all 5 but 5 is more than just 5. I can’t explain all the math concepts in the illustration but for me it was a great way to illustrate how my thinking and ultimately my view of the world have changed. My former way of thinking was when I saw 5, it was 5 and that was what it was. Somewhere along the line I realized that not only is 5 … 5, it is 2.5×2 and 15/5 and much more. Things I viewed so narrowly, I now realize have endless possibilities in how they are seen and understood. Creation reflects the infinite nature of the Creator.

Posted in 2008