Saturday Mornings

Instagram:  nakedpastor

Critique too often comes from a position of power , rather than vulnerability . From infancy to adulthood, identity and personal sense of m...

Most people you meet in everyday life — at work, in the neighborhood — are decent and normal. Even nice. But hit Twitter or watch the news, ...

In spite of all complain we about, there are so many things that we have that help us feel more comfortable and have more convenient lives....

These are the times in life — when nothing happens — but in quietness the soul expands . -- Rockwell Kent

Ever noticed ...how many things are true, before you've had a chance to confirm them with your own experience ? Take a statement like, ...

The whole of Jesus’ ministry was to establish a community so convinced of their Belovedness to God that they proclaim the Belovedness of ot...

At the moment, the closest (succinct) definition of spirituality that I can come up with is… awareness . There may be kernels of truth embe...

Deep down, you know the truth: You're hopelessly addicted to the phone or iPad or computer you’re reading this newsletter on. It's l...

' Poem for the week' -- "How could I have known I would need to remember your laughter?": How could I have known I would ...

Maybe satisfaction is only possible, not by getting exactly everything I imagine would bring me satisfaction , but by first accepting the pa...

Another lingering reflection , this time on a recent post on  prayer : There are dynamics involved with prayer. It often takes a while to le...

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow . -- Alice Walker

I'm wondering ...if prayer  is more about moving something in me, than it is moving something in God?

Prayer  is not primarily something we are doing to God, something we are giving to God, but what God is doing for us. And what God is doing ...

It’s not good when our pleasures become isolated to just a few things. What I see is a function of what I have experienced . Knowing is o...

Here's an encouraging dispatch from Normal America: Neighbors from across Highland Park, Ill., sprang into action to help save lives aft...

James Webb Space Telescope Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk...

Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. -- Emily Dickinson

Usually when someone uses the word deviant, or the notion of deviance, there is often some kind of (or a version of) morality embedded in th...

The world is full of  leaders  with strong opinions and weak values. -- Adam  Grant

I’ve noticed ...I can’t handle your disappointment , especially if it is with me. While not really true, sometimes I wonder if that’s what i...

Compassion   requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable , and powerless with the powerless .  Compassion means ful...

From one perspective, there is no future — only the next NOW . You shouldn't get to the point where you never question yourself — nor...

AXIOS AXIOS

 We are more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. -- Bryan Stevenson You can’t demonize people you know.  -- Father Gregory  Boyle

To have become a deeper man is the privilege of those who have suffered . -- Oscar Wilde

Earlier this week , I posed the question — what is independence? Our US history would answer the question rather quickly (even though the an...

Experts are the ones who think they know everything. Geniuses are the ones who know they don't. -- Simon  Sinek

I’m wondering about…independence, probably for obvious reasons on  Independence Day  here in the good ‘ole USA. The term begs the question —...

Prayer is more a way of being than an isolated act of doing. Prayer is aimed at our deepest problem: our tendency to forget our liberating ...

Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world. -- Eckhart  Tolle Pay attention to what you pay at...

On the Lighter Side : Opinion: Smoking Gun

The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest , truthful , and virtuous. -- Frederick Douglass

AXIOS Not a treatise, but I do have a few questions. On the subject of abortion, neither side claiming to represent critical views really ...

How we walk with the broken speaks louder than how we sit with the great. -- Bill Bennot

Ever noticed …how we, as people, become convinced of something? And, how often the dynamic involved is rooted in mere repetition of an idea...

When Jesus of Nazareth prefaced his enigmatic sayings with the words, “let those with eyes to see, see, let those with ears to hear, hear,” ...

Thank God for scientists — for what they help us understand about the nature of things, how they help us observe the world, and understand w...

Visual  - "Presiding": ' Poem  for the week' -- "The Dark Night (XVIII)": Our love is woven Of a thousand stran...

Only love can heal the wounds of the past. -- Bell Hooks

It doesn’t seem hard to observe that one thing about environments is that the participants in any given environment are pretty adaptable to ...

I'm wondering ...do all living things have not only a gift (a kind of beauty) to offer the world, but also a unique defense mechanism to...

What it is like to be oppressed? I don't really know; do you? And, so, I don't understand what the exhilaration of something like em...

Humility is a signature virtue of the Christian faith . Joy is its signature emotion. -- Miroslav Volf Though most certainly not intended...

There is often a problem, if the value of what is observed about life is determined by its popularity. When a society ends up viewing crisis...

2022 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition

Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage , it can be delightful. -- George Bernard Shaw

Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. -- George Eliot Without integrity, we have nothing to build on...or with. And, I’m not lying. But...

Learning never exhausts the mind. -- Leonardo da Vinci

I’ve noticed …that the defects I think I see in other people often times seem unapparent to them.  Accordingly, some of mine must not be app...

Healthy religion is always humble about its own holiness and knowledge . It knows that it does not know. The true biblical notion of faith...

In the Bible’s Book of Luke, there’s a parable about a religious person, who has all the right opinions , and a tax collector, who is cultu...