Spirit Gives Birth To Spirit

      This is not a story about a man being vomited out of a fish. That wasn't central to the original story when it was passed from generation to generation in fireside chats. This is the story of a prophet named Jonah. But it is actually the story of a nation.       There was a young man named Jonah. He was probably a little off his rocker. Pay no attention to if he existed or not: it doesn’t matter. It is likely, however, that he was an actual person because the book of Jonah begins that he was the son of Amittai.  Whenever the Hebrew scribes included a genealogy, they were trying to establish that this was a real person in history.  But that doesn't mean we have to believe the events in the story were literal.  I've seen many debates over how it is possible Jonah was swallowed by a whale and survived.  They miss the point of the story. Instead, this is a story of an average guy who was later called a prop...

    In the Old Testament scriptures, God visited the unlikely ragamuffin and  refugee,  Abraham, in his tent. He established a covenant with him in a common ceremony in that part of the ancient world. The parties would cut a sacrificial animal in half and walk between the two halves to make their agreement concrete. Abraham cut the sacrificial animals in half.  As the sun set, God passed between the halves as a "burning fire pot," which was just a way to visualize God. This all sounds like a gruesome practice.  But in the ancient world, there were no police or lawyers to come after you if you did not keep your word.  To make an agreement was a serious affair, because your word was the currency you exchanged.  Halved sacrifice and all.  God put his word and reputation on the line with Abraham making a covenant by telling him he would be the father of a great nation and that He would be with them always - and they would have a home.  God ...

    There is an Imago concept that we repeat our relationships until we learn from them.  This is true of unhealthy relationships: it is the dynamic that we repeat.  It reminds me somewhat of the Hindu concept of reincarnation: we repeat our lives, sometimes in the form of other living things, until we learn to do something different.  I think it is true in families as well.  In my family, there is a long history of divorce.  My father and mother were divorced.  It affected me deeply as my father left when I was 5.  I don't want to do the same to my daughter or my wife.  But there are some things about the dynamics with my wife that are hard on both of us. If unchecked, if we don't learn from them, they could eventually  lead to divorce. My dad smoked his whole life, I think, to deal with interpersonal dynamics that repeated with my mother and his mother: much like the ones my wife and I deal with. There is a saying that men ...

    What is the church?  I can tell you what it has been for me.  I attended a non-denominational Vineyard church for about 15 years.  Now I attend a First United Methodist church.  I've found these churches to be very accepting places where I could experience community.  Community is in short supply in our society these days.  A good church is a place where you become known and loved - really loved despite all your flaws and failures. But it is more than that.  It is the body of Jesus on Earth.  As such, it is made up of its members, each with their own unique calling.  The bible paints the picture like this. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, " Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body,   so it is with Christ.   For we were all baptized   by  one Spirit   so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ...

    There is an interpretation of scripture I want to address.  There is a passage in Matthew 5 that says "you are the light of the world."  Many believe, I think reading this incorrectly, that only  the church is the light of the world.  And many jump to the conclusion that others outside the church are therefore in darkness.  The darkness part I think actually comes from taking an incomplete snippet from something Jesus says, "[many will come from far and wide] to recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven and while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out in the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  See the irony?  The sons of the Kingdom who don't follow God's will and take on his ways will be thrown out in the darkness.  In Jesus's parable, i t is the insiders, NOT THE OUTSIDERS, who will be thrown out into darkness. The outsiders, the bible says will storm the gates of the...

The spark that lights your eyes So blue and sharp and bright From deep within your little soul It speaks of daddy's love But I cringe at the violence That will be done to your heart. When your friend shuns you, Or the careless boy makes fun. The innocent eyes Will grow older And time will whither the vine But wisdom will be born. I will do my best to guide you To cheer you from the bleachers To hold you when you're hurting And help you find your gifts. But now you are just walking Exploring the world in wonderment Sinking deep into my arms You look to me for comfort. You come to me, across the room, To fell secure and safe To drop the fear and settle in Without the distance between us How I wish it should always be But I know you must too soon  Grow strong and wise and passionate too, And grow away from me.

     Spiritual writing, for me, is a process of spiritual formation. I present myself a little dirtier than I think I am. But really what gets communicated is my best self. It is a place I would like to be. I think it was Thomas Merton that said that people who write spiritually are not yet the people they are in their writing. But, he said, let them write! He knew, as I believe, that this is a path for growth. And as I write these things I will grow into them. It is just how I am wired. My wife, and other people who are close to me sometimes get frustrated with me because  I fall so short of the person behind the pen. But as I told my wife the other day, the story is not yet over.       In some ways, I think I am the opposite of what my readers might expect. People close to me know that I can be moody and irritable, as a lot of creative people are. People closer than that know I struggle deeply with this. And people even closer than that love me in...