The point of religious practice or a belief system is to set you free. If it is not doing that, it has become a hindrance to you that you should examine and maybe abandon. Remember, whatever your practice – Yoga, prayer, being part of a church, or reading sacred Scripture – was there originally to lead you to God and to liberation. Any time your practice becomes an end in itself, it fails to fully achieve its purpose, which is to set you free, even from itself. If that happens, you should ...Keep reading
I was gonna give you all of my time More time More time I was gonna go and get you more time More time More time I was gonna give you more and more time I ain’t lying I was gonna give you loads of more time My time It’s my time ...Keep reading
So the rain comes back now
After I asked it to
You could not come back now
Even if I asked you to
So light comes from a time already gone
If I could see the future I would lay down
Eat a tangerine and make a cup of tea
Watch it all happen the same way
Watch it all happen slowly
I could have the reasons why
But it wouldn’t make anything right
Do you really want to know the thing
You spend your life trying to find
Go back to what you love the most
There’s dark inside the stars, that’s where I go
And the spirit realm that calls me in
Whisper water from the shadow bloom
I don’t have the reasons why
But it wouldn’t make anything right
Do you even want to know the thing
You spend your life trying to find
Secrets from the last time you felt alright
Loneliness is only the last flower to be picked
It’s the dark part of me now
The part that knows what can be felt
It’s what our eyes see when we dream
Beautiful things where the light comes from
Oh, what a special time
I can’t believe it happened at all
The spirit days to make hell of
Your words inside my head
Oh, today is the only day
How to feel all the earthy things
If you do it right, you will suffer many deaths in your lifetime. And if you do it right, each one will bring you closer to your real self. Believe it or not, everything that is happening in your life is working to bring about these little deaths, which will peel back the layers of your false self and allow the truest form of your being to emerge. Really your “false self” is just all the forms of you that existed before this and which must be shed, like a snake repeatedly sloughing off its ...Keep reading
Do not be mistaken: God is not contained within the church – inside its walls or any of the structures the church has put forth to try and capture God’s essence. God may be there at the church building if you carry God there with you inside yourself. Or God may be noticeably (or not so noticeably) absent. God comes and goes as God pleases, so there are many places you might find God.
God is also not contained by any words written about God, or that will or could be written ...Keep reading
Part of the problem with this transactional view of the gospel – that Jesus just came to offer forgiveness of sins and get you into heaven where everything is perfect – is that it doesn’t help us deal with the darkness we are still presently in. You get forgiven and punch your ticket, but you still do and think bad stuff and the world is still full of brokenness and tragedy.
This transactional gospel focuses on sin and sin management. It’s like this: God can’t put up with sin ...Keep reading
Every once in a while, I am employed to help someone “deconstruct their faith.” I consider it a high honor since it helps me fulfill one of my life commitments – to “undo things.” It is #3 on my list I like to call “My Life Plan.” The text in My Life Plan reads this way: “Undo things – like Jesus, defy expectations and convention.” This is also one of the reasons I find myself floating away from what we call Christianity, but then also finding profound truth in ...Keep reading
One more thing this pandemic and the resultant changes in our lives have achieved is to help us loosen our grip on many things we have held tightly. Many are shaken at the fragility of our existence and how quickly our lives can change. Many of our modern conveniences have been taken from us or have been significantly restricted. We cannot gather together or freely walk into a store. We are being forced to practice surrender in that we cannot just compulsively attain comfort and convenience – ...Keep reading
