Today’s meditation comes from a reflection offered by Hill Charmichael about a conversation with a seminary professor that changed his understanding of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. He tells the story this way… A few years ago, a seminary professor of mine decided to use the parable of the Good Samaritan to make a point about how fear influences the decisions we make. He turned to Luke 10 and began to read. I zoned out for a few minutes…. After my professor finished reading, he looked up and said,… Read More
Blog
Breaking Out of Indifference
In eulogizing Secretary of State Colin Powell, commentators and staff members spoke of him as the quintessential statesman, a true centrist who put country over party and people over profit. They spoke of him as representing the last of an era in global politics. Could that be true? I suspect Powell would remind each of us that we have the same freedom of choice he did. We may feel forced into polarities and party lines, but we can lead from a deeper source of integrity within ourselves. The cost might… Read More
What a Great Day!
In the third grade I had the good fortune to befriend a guy named Jesse. Our friendship was accidental; our teacher just happened to assign the two of us to sit next to each other in class. As it turns out, she put two troublemakers next to each other, and we hit it off beautifully. Jesse was a kind and playful soul who had the misfortune of ending up in a foster care system that had him move dozens of times throughout his childhood. If I had had that experience, I… Read More
The Gift of Coming Clean
In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the Czech novelist Milan Kundera talks about a moral challenge to the modern age by using the word “kitsch.” Generally understood, “kitsch” is a way of talking about poor taste or something that is overly sentimental and garish. In his use, however, Kundera has a broader, more memorable description. He talks about kitsch as “the absolute denial of sh*t.” It’s a pretend world where nothing unwholesome or indecent is allowed to come into view. His language is colorful, but his point is powerful. Our… Read More
Inclusion Wasn’t Popular
In 1942, Clarence Jordan and his wife decided to start Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia. Clarence grew up in Americus but went off to college at UGA and got a degree in agriculture. Then he went on to earn a Ph.D. in Greek New Testament in Louisville but came back to Georgia to be a farmer, giving his farm a Greek name, Koinonia Farm. Clarence Jordan decided to take the New Testament seriously and turned his farm into an interracial intentional Christian community. Black and white people lived together in harmony… Read More
Pivot Points
“I wish I had more control of my life,” my friend said. “I feel so anxious. I make decisions constantly in my life, but I have no idea how they will turn out. I wish I could see the future. Life feels so…risky.” My friend was facing a “pivot point” in life. She was just offered her dream job. She would need to move to a new city. But on the same day, she got a call from her mother telling her she had been diagnosed with a challenging health… Read More
In Pursuit of Aliveness
What is the future of spirituality? I’ve thought a great deal about this question over many years. I’ve watched institutional religion decline over my 20 years of being a pastor. I’ve interviewed hundreds of people about their relationship to those institutions and how they have shifted. Ultimately, here is what I can say with conviction about the future of spirituality: It will be in service to the pursuit of aliveness. Scholar and teacher Joseph Campbell reflected in The Power of Myth, “People say that what we’re all seeking is… Read More
Say What You Mean
Have you ever wondered why we created the world we have and if there is a better way to develop social structures that serve the common good? I’m discovering that part of the challenge is our language. We speak – and therefore think – in binaries: immigrant or citizen, black or white, good or bad, rich or poor, male or female. When we think in this way, we create an artificial sense that we must choose to be one or the other. Ultimately, we must value one over the other…. Read More
The Lost Art of “Visiting”
This past week I traveled to Florida to spend time with my aunt and uncle at their lovely beach home in Carillon Beach. I haven’t seen them much in the past two years because of COVID, so being together was a particular treat. For four days, we practiced the lost art of “visiting.” We would get up in the morning, fix coffee, and sit on their back porch in comfortable chairs with magazines in our lap (a book in mine). We would talk for a little while, sit in silence… Read More
Everything Falls Away
Everything Falls Away There’s a thread you follow. It goes amongthings that change. But it doesn’t change. – William Stafford Sooner or later, everything falls away.You, the work you’ve done, your successes,large and small, your failures, too. Thosemoments when you were light, along-side the times you became one with thenight. The friends, the people you lovedwho loved you, those who might havewished you ill, none of this is forever. Allof it is soon to go, or going, or long gone. Everything falls away, except the threadyou’ve followed, unknowing, all along.The… Read More