A Pilgrim’s Odyssey

Grab The Mike, Speak The Truth

We are approaching a time where you must make a stand. If you try hard, you will make someone mad. That's actually the best way to know you are making a difference.

Examine yourself, remove the log from your eye, and then speak boldly. The times demand it.

Today, I remember a Marine Captain who implored me to never forget, "when you have the mic, say what needs said."

Don't Give Up

Don't give up.

Sometimes people reach a point in their lives where they have invested their time and energy in the wrong things and the result is loneliness and regret. If you feel like too much time has gone by and starting over seems insurmountable, there is hope.

You find it in unexpected places. You find it by realizing you have nothing to lose by making the time you have left matter. I found my entire career path volunteering in a maximum security prison. When you move forward, hope can be found in the most surprising places.

 

Baby Isaac, Seagulls On A Beach, & Why I Believe

My faith is drawn from many waters, but one is a small miracle when our son, Isaac, was baptized in the Pacific Ocean south of San Francisco. It was a small miracle, but one I'll never forget, and one that always paints a picture of hope in my soul when dark clouds swirl around me.

Father Roman, Crushed Skulls, and Practical Faith

I met Father Roman at the Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God, Rives Junction, Michigan.

He taught me that faith is what we do every moment of every day. It is the seemingly mundane things, praying before meals, reading your bible. He knew that ultimately that is what sustains us whether we are living in America in 2020 or struggling to survive in a communist prison in the 1950s.

A Polish Priest and Creating Ripples

Every day matters. A chance conversation with a young Polish priest taught me that opportunities to make a difference in someone's life are never far away.

When we enter into deep, transparent conversation with another, we almost always encounter something sacred. These moments can be the ripples that turn into the waves that change a life.

The Three Spheres of Relation

Today, we go even deeper into relationship. Relationship is where we meet spirit. Relationship is where we meet grace.

Three are the spheres in which the world of relation is built.

The first: life with nature, where the relation sticks to the threshold of language.

The second: life with men, where it enters language.

The third: life with spiritual beings, where it lacks but creates language.

Returning To The Grace of Relationship

Last week we ended with "Consecrating Your Life". I promised this week we would go deeper. Today we start.

If you find yourself caught up in the muddle of life. How do you return to a life of Spirit?

Consecrating Your Life

This week we’ve talked about building relationships and community in order to fully live in the spirit.

Martin Buber in “I and Thou” says, “when you consecrate life, you encounter the living God.”

What does he mean by this? He means everything.

5 Ways To Find Spirit In The "It" World

I want to begin today, with a quote I introduced yesterday from Martin Buber in his book, written in 1937, “I and Thou”. He warned of the following:

“don’t we find that modern developments have expunged almost every trace of life in which human beings confront each other and have meaningful relationships?”

We cannot fully escape the "It" world we live in. How then do we fight back for our spirit and relationships?

Here are 5 things you can do......

Chips In Pigs, Mystery, and Community

Elon Musk wants to put computer chips in pigs, then humans. Fascinating times. Yet, a neuroscientist pointed out a danger in this. Our brains do not work like computers. We do not remember things exactly.

In my estimation, we were not created to be exact, we were created to be a mystery. And community is integral to living in this mystery and overcoming the times of the "It".