Tag Archives: christianity

Did I really write that?

Posted on February 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

It makes sense to me, I suppose. The first half of life is about self. The second half, giveaway. But, I wonder where those words came from, back in 2006, 2007… at the beginning of the shadowland. It was the beginning of the wilderness, the beginning of the darkness. I had just come out of seminary, three vigorous years of work that went far faster than I ever could have imagined. I was trying to figure out what spirit wanted for my life… never thought I would be here, doing this. I had space, time, mystery. A good cocktail for a mystic.

Yesterday, I was going through my documents on the computer, organizing arranging slimming down and I found writings that have left me puzzled and thrown for a loop really. Have I gotten dumber since then? Probably not, as I never would have imagined I would be giving and doing what I am now.

So I want to post a few things back in the day. A short one for this morning… more for later.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Anne Lamott writes in her book, Traveling Mercies, about a man in her church who was dying of aids and is taken up during a hymn by an elderly black lady. They hold each other and cry together… a moment of beautiful reconciliation. She concludes:

I can’t imagine anything but music that could have brought about this alchemy. Maybe it’s because music is about as physical as it gets: your essential rhythm is your heartbeat; your essential sound, the breath. We’re walking temples of noise, and when you add tender hearts to this mix, it somehow lets us meet in places we couldn’t get to any other way.

This music, this living, is what we begin to experience as we pay attention to the world around us. It is what makes us created beings, not “gods” who control our own existence. See how the birds sing, listen to how the wind whispers. It is us. We are a part of this. We always have been, from the moment that God put us here to be with his other creation. That’s really what it comes down to I think. Being with…

I am with the birds, I am with the wind, I am with the grass and the trees and the sun. I am with you, and you are with me. And in and through it all, God himself is with… His with-ness, though, is deeper and more profound. His with-ness is what gives life its existence. He is what makes things real.

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Posted in personal stuff, spirituality

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A aching for our ancestors

Posted on December 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

It is amazing that so much of the personal spiritual journey gets played out in the community and the cultural stage as well. There has for a number of years been such a struggle with many people to find a spiritual path that feels authentic and not littered or burdened with the baggage of the hierarchical and patriarchal system. So many dear friends have found a deep connection with the divine in Native American, Buddhist, yogic, Hindu, or new age spirituality. It is the time we live in and I am not about to spend time telling them they are wrong. They are, after all, experiencing God and growing in love in their own ways. Yet there is still an unsettledness that I sense.

Maybe it is in the need to make a cut from their Christian roots, the church that they experienced growing up. This is important for people to do, to be sure. I don’t blame them as there was, and still is, a lot of hurt happening in the 20th/21st century church. Maybe some of this unsettledness is expressed in a unresting search. Searching is good. Perhaps it is skepticism. This serves us for a time. It is all different yet not too far from the other side of Christian brothers and sisters who have “found the truth” and are resting in their assurance.

There is a great hearth for us to gather at within Christianity, as we experience it in the historical mystical tradition. We are Westerners, most of us, and our ancestors came out of the Christian church, in all it’s splendor and even it’s darkness. We don’t have to accept it all, or even most, but I dare say we may find our resting place within it. The Christian mystics had so much to offer us, even within our tradition. Union, nondualism, connection, acceptance, love, cosmology, an acceptance of science, an embracing of the arts, and a love and honor for the feminine, in humanity and in the divine.

Don’t expect me to “evangelize” or apologetic my way though to people, but I will dig my well here and know that some places along the way others will join me. May we hve confidence our ancestors will be with us on this journey as well.

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My heart and calling to spiritual direction

Posted on September 13, 2011 | 2 Comments

Spiritual direction has a bit of a negative connotation in our independent and “don’t-step-on-my-toes-or-tell-me-what-to-do” culture. It has, however, been an accepted and necessary component to the spiritual journey within every historical faith and spiritual tradition for thousands of years. How is it that now, we think we do not need it?

From the moment I head-first dove into my spiritual pursuit of connection with God, I have felt a deep, deep calling to support my community on their own spiritual journeys. For me, this looks very much like spiritual direction. As I am finally engaged in my formal education of this very important offering, I welcome insight, but also those who would engage me in this process. You can go to the page on Spiritual Companioning for more information on what I am offering.  I very much encourage you to read what I have written there.

At the heart of my passion is the need for those who will ask us the right questions. MaryKate Morse writes in Presence journal:

[Spiritual direction] is an art because listening to a person speak while also seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit requires a creative attentiveness to the process. Spiritual directors impose no expectations on time with our spiritual directees beyond believing that God is present and loves. The questions themselves are spiritual because we are not doing therapy or disciplining individuals toward a church’s or faith’s particular understanding of the spiritual life. We are not trying to teach doctrine or resolve a crisis. We ask questions to discover where God is moving in someone’s life.

This art of asking the right questions is one I have been interested in and focusing on for many years now. There is a need for focusing on it and at the same time, letting go. I will reflect more on this in the next post.

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Posted in personal stuff, spirituality

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When we suck again

Posted on June 1, 2011 | 7 Comments

I may be the master of self-deception and not even know it. See, we can be wise, we can value all the right things, we can study and pray and serve and meditate… And then all of a sudden we realize we are just a big Shit. There is always something… Always something. And it builds up and builds up and BAM!! We suck again. I guess this is why grace is so important. This is what all the saints keep telling us… Without God we are nothing. We need him. It’s why so many of the mystics in one breath talk about union with God and in the next are saying, ”God save me” or “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

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Posted in personal stuff, spiritual formation

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Why isn’t spirituality taught in Christian churches?!?

Posted on May 22, 2011 | 15 Comments

I am in the middle of an article by Sandra Schneider, entitled Spirituality in the Academy, found in the book Exploring Christian Spirituality, edited by Kenneth Collins, and am completely blown away at the massive implications and conclusions that I’m coming to in response to what Schneiders is writing about.

She makes note that until about 20 years ago, spirituality as a term and specific form of study was not used at all outside of Catholicism… including other religions, but especially within Protestantism. Part of my own (and many that I know who are not in the church) frustration with the churches I have been a part of is that there is no real teaching on processing and/or growing in direct spiritual experience of God.

So if spirituality was not even an issue when most of all current and past leaders of our Protestant churches went through seminary, then it is no wonder that they do not know how to teach it in their churches. Schneiders mentions also that spirituality involves an approach that is cross-disciplined… including other religions, psychology, anthropology, history, experience… and the FEMININE and the BODY (I would add our mother earth as well). I would be suprised if any of us cannot think of at least one specific example of church leaders who have openly rejected or neglected the importance of these aspects of Christian experience. If Protestantism has grown more than Catholicism in the last 20 years, what does this say about the state of the church in the world?!?

So the gift that we are being given is absolutely critical to the future of Christian community and our global community. It is no wonder that people are leaving the church and joining the yoga studio. We don’t give them the tools. Kat said this morning that maybe it would be important for us to do a workshop on Christianity and yoga… I can’t think of a better idea. Maybe this could happen in the church, too!

Anyway, I will leave it at that… thoughts anyone?

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Posted in Community, spirituality

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