Blog
Walking in beauty of heaven and earth
January 21, 2017
Walking in beauty integrates person and community with land, cosmos, and Deity. The heavenly pattern of that integration is truth that we can taste, “on earth as it is in heaven.” The goodness of beauty assures us that we can share this taste with others. Trusting the promise of our personal and planetary destiny, we relax and enjoy the unfolding. Not that life is easy, but the meaning and value of our struggles make the yoke light.
Mercy as love’s attitude to imperfect beings
January 11, 2017
. . . two transformative discoveries catalyzed by Margaret Benefiel’s book The Soul of a Leader: first the realization of myself together with a future congregation as a living organism, and second, a new level of self-realization—of myself as soul. The next day . . . a great revelation of mercy as divine love applied to . . . imperfections . . . .
The inclusive brotherhood of man?
January 7, 2017
A soldier who had seen enemy soldiers kill her friends could not accept the idea that all humankind are the children of God. Are the teachings of Jesus really applicable in this world?
Divine positive attitudes
December 31, 2016
Problems are more likely to be overwhelming when multiple kinds of problem are tangled together: uncertainty, disappointment, apparent defeat, the sheer difficulty of what is to be done, the immensity of the task, and the inexplicable in a situation. How do you learn the matching positive attitudes?
A day in the life of a happy person
December 16, 2016
How do divine truth, beauty, and goodness show up in ordinary life?
Truth and the Wrayco workers
December 16, 2016
This morning around four, I found myself caught up in the jet stream of gospel energy, re-connecting with that feeling that I knew from decades ago when I began going forth to proclaim. Choosing to act on that surge of loving truth, I went back to Wrayco (see the previous blog post) to meet workers coming in at six. It was much colder, so I went inside to greet them: “I heard about your… Read More
Visiting a plant after its closing was announced
December 12, 2016
Jake was in his car, smoking a cigarette, waiting to go into Wrayco to begin work at 7:00. I had expected to encounter shock and anger about the closing of this large and impressive plant, which at its peak had employed 281 people, now only 79.
The creation of the soul
December 5, 2016
What does it mean that we are divinely created? God creates us through a three-fold process: first, through cosmic evolution leading to the body and mind; second, by acting directly to bestow a unique personality upon that body-mind system and to send his spirit to dwell within us; and third, by creating the soul. But what is the soul? How can we recognize it in our experience? And what part do we play in its growth?
Two phases of creation, two ways of relating
November 25, 2016
Learning to love another person is so much easier when we conceive of our creation in two phases. On the one hand, the Creator God has designed an awesome, long drawn-out, gradual process of evolution. Our body and mind are products of this evolution. On the other hand, the Universal Father acts directly, bestowing on each mind-body system a unique personality with a spirit nucleus (“the spirit poured out upon all flesh,” “the kingdom of God within you”).