Spirituality blog I wrote
It’s an old Eastern European custom. I’m not sure if it’s still practiced in Slavic countries today, but it’s something we did when I was young. On the day after Easter, Bright Monday, men and boys would splash, sprinkle, or squirt water on unsuspecting women while announcing, “Christ is risen!” … Read More »Fifty Days: To Life!
The ancient story is retold each year throughout the world. On the first day of the week, the women went before dawn to the place where they laid his body. Arriving at the tomb, they found the stone rolled away. His body was gone. Scholars tell us that the first… Read More »Making Sense of the Resurrection
Crucifixion: truly a brutal, violent way to kill another human being. A person hangs naked on a cross with lungs filling with fluid, struggling to breathe, and then succumbing after hours of struggle to the inevitable last gasp and death. All the while, one’s suffering is a public spectacle. Such… Read More »Make Sense of the Crucifixion of Jesus
I have several friends who no longer call themselves “Christian.” It’s not that they’ve lost their faith or given up on God or something like that. Instead, they don’t want to be associated with the narrow-minded, judgmental folks who present themselves as the “true Christians” of today. (You know the… Read More »The Christianity of Jesus
The Bible is filled with stories that convey important lessons about how to live. I think we often miss the best lessons in Biblical stories and have gravitated toward convenient conclusions from these stories. An outstanding example of this is a story I learned in my childhood from the Hebrew… Read More »Ancient Wisdom
People started asking me the question the day before Ash Wednesday: what are you giving up for Lent? It seems that the time before Easter known as Lent has become synonymous with giving up or fasting from day to day pleasures, like candy, the use of social media, or… Read More »Giving for Lent
The advice comes in different forms. It’s very pronounced in the Christian tradition. The New Testament letter to the ancient church in Philippi (chapter 2, verse 3) says it this way: “Think of others as better than yourself.” Throughout the letter to the ancient church in Rome, Paul writes repeatedly… Read More »The Problem of Ego in Spiritual Growth
There’s something truly remarkable about it. I find myself watching for a few minutes each morning. I open the blinds to the window in my study and look out to the yard and find six or eight squirrels scurry about as a sun comes over the horizon. It’s not that… Read More »The Wonder of Being
