These are not easy movements, decisions, and paths to take. For me, it has come at great cost: not in all areas and in all ways, but areas and ways that mattered to me and caused deep pain and a deep sadness. It caused loneliness, despair, anger, depression, bewilderment, distress, crisis; and above all else: grief.
Read MoreNo matter what the occasion is, we are faced with fundamental realities and glaring mysteries that give us pause and a time of self-reflection.
The mystery and wonder that is God is one of the most supremely asked and wondered questions we can pose as human beings trying to make sense of our own selves and the world around us.
Read MoreChristianity, at least in America, has a narrow and many times even singular expression or representation to the general public about its own identity.
Read MoreI feel that I am just beginning this transition into the “second half” of life earlier than I expected. Yet, in finding that I have shed much of my identity that I developed in the “first half”, I’ve gone from the crisis phase to an embracing phase which is much more comforting.
Read MoreWhat I am going to criticize is how we have managed to share the Good News over the years and how we have a large problem with how the faith is being viewed and how people receive the Christian faith message today.
Read MoreI grew up believing that my former faith was rock solid. That faith can be certain. That faith was black and white. That faith knew all the answers to all of the questions. That faith was consistent. Yet, the more I read. The more I studied. The more I sought wisdom. The more I lived and the more I reasoned... I realized that faith isn’t any of those things. True religion isn’t any of those things.
Read MoreMost are comfortable in the religion of their youth or their spiritual beginning and never consider or examine their own beliefs and look outside of that to see if what they actually believe is true. It doesn’t matter if you are intelligent or “unintelligent”, most people are satisfied with never growing or maturing in their faith. Most are never curious about their beliefs. Most are never open to other ways of viewing religion.
Read MoreNow, I had never done spiritual direction at this point and didn’t know much about it. But I was willing to take any kind of support at this moment, knowing that the possibility of it doing something beneficial and good in my life was pretty high.
Read MoreI realized that for 10 years of my life... and possibly longer in my younger years... I believed, internalized, and preached a dangerous, destructive message. A message that has oppressed people. A message that has caused people to take their lives. A message that as subjected people to violence. A message that has tried to change people when they can’t and shouldn’t be changed.
Read MoreUnfortunately, this is a horrible time for the church. Let me make it clear, it is the church alone to blame for its maladies, not those who have been victimized by the church. Megachurches and their “celebrity pastors” are falling left and right. Denominations are splitting over how to love their LGBTQ neighbors. Other denominations and churches are caught up in sex abuse scandals. At this rate, why do we as Christians blame those who are not Christian with their resentments and their skepticism about the church? Furthermore, why as Christians do we blame other Christians for why they leave the church?
Read MoreWhenever something happens that disrupts these things we desire, we are faced with how to react to the change... the disruption in our lives.
Most of us go through a short time of panic and anger because things were comfortable and nice and neat, but now things are not so and we must figure out how to get things back to the way they were... or more accurately, the way things should be.
Read MoreYou didn’t ask for these things to happen and, hell, you probably fought the windmill called “free will” to determine that your life would not face these obstacles.
And you fight, and fight, and fight some more: hellbound and blastedly determined that you will control your destiny/fate/future... and yet the struggle still happens. The death still occurs. The loss is still palatable.
Read MoreYes, another year has rolled into the annuals of history and a new one has arrived after much anticipation.
We always look forward to a new year because we see it as a new opportunity to make wrong, right. To make suffering, victory. To make resentment and bitterness, freedom and blissfulness.
Basically, a new year means change can happen. It’s the hope that things don’t have to stay the way they are but that things can get better. A new year means new opportunities, new movements, new moments.
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