When I first started doing ministry and chaplaincy work, I was faced with my own mortality. It didn’t take long for me to learn that death was real. My first funeral I officiated was my baptism into this new reality. I didn’t realize that the person we were honoring that day–that even their death–they were […]
Read More The Art of Dying6.16.2020 Morning Meditation Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents…For they come weeping to me…I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at […]
Read More Weeping as a Spiritual DisciplineCan you and I just confess that we need instruction and direction? That we get stuck in life, need direction, or just some plain encouragement to keep doing good? My morning times are a means for me to pull myself together and “get into” God’s presence. Sometimes there is a sense of God’s nearness and […]
Read More Morning Meditation: 6.12.2020Yoke of slavery. I don’t like using that S word for obvious reasons. Maybe a truer expression is to be controlled, oppressed. A yoke of being controlled, manipulated, or made to do something out of threat. In all four passages for today’s liturgical readings, there is a whiff of being controlled or manipulated to be […]
Read More Morning Meditation 6.10.2020There are numerous instances in my life where things (an event, musical piece, relationship, school paper, work situation, a basketball game) seem to be spinning of out control. Chalk it up to things like unknown variables, high emotions and tempers, fears or concerns, or multiple voices. Whatever it is, I feel like I’m spinning. Usually, […]
Read More Our God ReignsSince the pain and hurt we feel as a nation is caused by un-wielded power, empower others. How? Here’s an example. A wealthy, white business man took a chance to empower me for a new service at his company. I provide corporate chaplaincy services to a dealer group because someone believed in me and gave […]
Read More Mutual Empowerment“Evasion is directly related to both the closeness of God’s approach to us and to our instinctive withdrawal from God‘s presence. Experiences of God as mystery evoke awe, even fear, in the face of the numinous and uncontrollable otherness of God….T.S. Elliot [says]… ‘if you’ve never run away from God, I wonder who your God […]
Read More Spiritual Formation: on EvasionThroughout the last few weeks, I’ve been trying my best to listen to each word, inflection, and ways employees are communicating. I’m convinced that it’s in these words and communion that something holy is happening. Yes, there is pain and loss. But there is also marks of God’s presence nearby. Just gotta look underneath the […]
Read More Words I Hear as a ChaplainDuring my training as a spiritual director, I was fascinated with how much Ignatian spirituality was focused on exploring desires. It’s one of Jesus’ primary questions: “What do you want?” This was life changing for me because we are basically a big mess of desires! And who doesn’t care deeply about their desires, their wants! […]
Read More Progression of DesiresI’ve wondered how and why so many rumors are believed, shared, and talked about. We are “story” natured so we tend to make meaning through storytelling. These “stories” serve to express feelings and maybe even repressed anxieties we’ve had along the way. Rumors work in much the same way. We’re trying to make sense of […]
Read More Rumors During a Crisis Repost