The Tao that can be told of is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; the Named is the mother of all things. – Lao Tzu[i] One day, while shepherding sheep somewhere in the Sinai desert, Moses saw... Continue Reading →
Random Tragedy
In one of the churches I served, I got to know a young man who suffered brain damage from a motorcycle accident. At night, on a dark rural road, Jordan ran into a cow, who, for no obvious reason, was standing in the middle. The after-effects of the collision were a small shuffle when he... Continue Reading →
Love Is A Verb
Love, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal of the patient from the influences under which he/she incurred the disorder. -Ambrose Bierce In his book, The Devil’s Dictionary, Mr. Bierce classifies love as a noun, since it identifies a type of mental disorder. People in love have an illness typified by transitory... Continue Reading →
Relatively Important Stuff
I thought about all that I achieved, and all the work put into its achievement. What vanity it all was, what chasing after the wind! There is nothing to be gained under the sun. - Ecclesiastes 2:11 Lesson: In the large scheme of things, nothing we do matters very much. Importance is a matter of... Continue Reading →
Unexplainables
“The greatest of all illusions is the illusion of familiarity.” G.K. Chesterton[i] When I was in the ministry, I got to know a retired Methodist pastor named Edgar who was a spiritual healer. I’d visit with him at his house, from time to time, to talk about prayer and his understanding of healing. Edgar had... Continue Reading →
The Physics Of Miraculousness
God doesn’t play dice with the universe. – Albert Einstein In the rough and tumble world of theoretical physics, there are two opposing parties. On the right, as represented by Albert Einstein, is the law and order crowd. Their platform states that certain rules must be followed, by dictate of the universe, and that nothing... Continue Reading →
Be Like Buddha
It is good to reflect about whatever forces us to come out of ourselves. - Simone Weil[i] We all have our motivations. Even irrational acts have reasons. We may not understand some of the things we do, but that’s because we don’t understand ourselves. The nature of self-awareness makes us complicated creatures. Perhaps, as some... Continue Reading →
What’s A Person To Do?
My first experience with God occurred when I was fourteen-years old. My mother, after finding racy pictures and lingerie pages from the Sears catalogue hidden under my bed, confronted me about them in the middle of family dinner. The trauma has largely erased all specific memories, but lasting guilt about masturbation was one of them. ... Continue Reading →
Being Born
He not busy being born is busy dying. - Bob Dylan[i] Have you ever wondered why birth is viewed as something over and done once we emerge from our mothers? We may struggle with everything that comes after, but that part of things is out of the way. The gauntlet has been endured. It’s as... Continue Reading →
My Unsuspecting Prayer
God, Reveal to me what is true. Remove all falsehood from me. And make me wise. When I think back on that prayer now, I’m a little embarrassed. It was a prayer I devised during my freshman year at college. That’s what accounts for the mixture of earnestness and insecurity, flavored with a need to... Continue Reading →