I’m responsible for what I say, not for what you understand.
Lord Willing
…people often get triggered when the phrase “Lord willing” gets offered up as a petition. For example, we make travel plans and then append “Lord willing.” We say, “We’ll see you tomorrow. Lord willing.” As I’ve shared, a lot of ex-evangelical types get triggered by such expressions. The complaint is that if God “wills” for us to make the trip safely does that imply that God “wills” for others to die in car accidents? Is God providentially picking and choosing who dies in a car crash today?
In response to these complaints I’ve shared how “Lord willing” isn’t a theological argument about predestination but is, rather, a simple expression of humility. My life is not ultimately in my hands. I cannot control the future. I do not know what today holds for me. Expressions such as “Lord willing” bring my finitude into view, and keep me grounded in the moment I possess here and now. “Lord willing” isn’t a theological argument, it’s good mental and spiritual hygiene.
Richard Beck
Contemplation
A phrase I used a lot back when I first started teaching contemplation was the idea associated with Albert Einstein that no problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it. It is so brilliant! It makes the case for contemplation almost better than anything.?
I don’t believe I’m overstating it when I say that only the contemplative mind can help bring forward the new consciousness needed to awaken a more loving, just, and sustainable world. We need a practice that touches our unconscious conditioning where all our wounds and defense mechanisms lie. That’s the only way we can be changed at any significant or lasting level.
Because we’ve got to be honest — the dualistic, calculating, and judging mind is almost exclusively the way most of us Western people think. This gives us false superiority, false security, and false righteousness. Is it any wonder why our culture, politics, and religion are in the state that they are in??
Nevertheless, I still have hope. I always will. More and more people are discovering contemplation as a way of being, reconciling, and bridge-building guided by their inner experience of God. We’re not throwing out our rational mind, but rather we’re adding nondual, contemplative consciousness. When we have both, we’re able to see more deeply, wisely, and justly.?This creates humble people, loving people, and patient people.
Richard Rohr
Senior Citizens
The number of senior citizens is growing rapidly; individuals aged 65 and older increased from 39.6 million in 2009 to 54.1 million in 2019 (a 36% increase) and is projected to reach 94.7 million by 2060. This has come about as a result of advances in modern medicine and improved living conditions.
…over the last few years, reports not only in the U.S., but from around the world, have brought to light a major new pandemic that may reach deeply into the fabric and soul of our society: The usual respect and care of our aging population is decaying into a growing incidence of neglect and abuse. Increasing reports of horrific events that affect our aging population detailing prolonged suffering and premature death are now commonplace.
Aging is already abusive enough, both physically and mentally. We lose control of our bodies, our minds start to fade in and out, and when we’re walking at a pace our bodies can manage, we’re treated like inconvenient speed bumps slowing down youthful traffic. We’re stereotyped as angry, impatient, technologically challenged, and sexless. Pretty much every TV show and movie shows the thought of seniors enjoying sex makes non-seniors cringe. Our only revenge is knowing that someday if they’re lucky, youth will have to endure the same demeaning attitudes.
The Growing Epidemic of Elderly Abuse
Scientific method
The scientific method is not foolproof. Mistakes can be made. That’s why scientists don’t accept studies until they can be consistently replicated. But the key is to base opinions on evidence, not desire. When a person holds an opinion and rejects all evidence that disputes it and can’t find legitimate proof to support it, that is not someone who should be a political leader. Or even a voter.
Kareem Abdul Jabbar
For Benedictine monk Augustin Belisle, simplicity provides a necessary self-emptying so we can dwell more fully in the presence of God.
To live simply, simply to listen, to be simple in our response to persons and events, to speak with simplicity, to simplify our surroundings—simplicity helps to clear our vision. It dissipates the cloudiness which tends to fog our daily responses to God’s Word. Simplicity helps clear the confusion which can easily bombard us from so many directions…. It corrects the myopia we experience when we hold on to the possessive drive. This shortsighted obsession … adds to the burdens of others around us.… Simplicity works against our proclivities toward obsession—with self, guilt, weakness, and things. If we are not obsessed, we can be possessed by the sacred. If we know the emptiness which yearns to be filled—if we recognize the potential spiritual energy which lies within the heart—then we can feel at home with this emptiness. Our souls will be vibrated by it. To live the present in the presence of God is our aim.
don’t let the old man in.
Remember, the Old Man or Old Woman starts knocking around 50, encouraging you to be less patient, more sedentary, and more belligerent about your opinions being right. You start sentences with, “Kids today are too…” You can’t get rid of him—he’s camped out in your yard. But you can at least keep him out of your house.
There’s a lyric in Toby Keith’s song that makes me laugh: “Ask yourself how old you would be/If you didn’t know the day you were born.” Nice sentiment, but I would know my age without a calendar because my prostate would tell me. My joints would tell me. My wobbly memory would tell me. But that’s all part of the adventure, facing down the slings and arrows of aging and still finding joy in getting out of bed because you have things to look forward to. Keep the Old Man out, but don’t lock yourself in.
Kareem Abdul Jabbar
Fake Quote
In 2016, I discovered that this famous quote could not be found in any of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s works:
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
It is a popular quote and many people still attribute it to Bonhoeffer but there it can’t be found in any of his writings nor is there a record of it in his sermons or speeches.
Warren Throckmorton
Small church
A church must be small to be effective…because a real church is comprised of people who have met Jesus and in meeting Him have come to know who they really are…and have chosen to stop pretending they’re something else. In a small church we can see Jesus working in others and it gives us hope that we can be real and safe at the same time…
Phoenix Preacher
Infinitely Valuable
One Rabbi of the 19th Century said, “woe to the person who is unaware of their shortcomings, because they will not know what to work on. But even greater woe to a person who is unaware of their virtues, because they don’t even know what they have to work with.”
So, Held’s orientation for spiritual formation looks like this: “by virtue of the fact that we are created in the image of God, we are infinitely valuable, and we are loved. We do not need to earn our worth, and we do not need to earn God’s love. The spiritual life is a response to the fact that God loves us and we matter.”
Scot McKnight
View from the Front Porch
It is graduation season for the Crockett family. Ann and I are traveling this week to Tennessee and Mississippi and back to Lexington to attend graduations.
Grayson graduated with a Bachelors degree from Lipscomb University on 5/4. Meredith graduates with a her JD Law Degree from Ole Miss on 5/9. Jerod graduates with an MD from UK on 5/11. (Blake graduated from UK last year)
May concludes with grandson Tyler Gabehart’s marriage to Olivia Smith on 5/18.
We are proud grandparents.