So many of life’s deepest hardships are too intimate and unique to fully understand unless we commit to learning about one another’s innermost stories. This Sunday, we explore the power of literature as a tool towards understanding. We will explore morals through wisdom tales, examine poverty and addiction through a work of fiction, and delve into hardships of racism through the lens…
What if there is no afterlife, what if our brief time in this realm is all we have? Well, perhaps we live on through the memories of our beloveds, through our legacy, through our descendants. What if humanity ultimately meets its own demise? Well, we are held in the interdependent web of life that weaves throughout millennia, shifting and changing, each life…
And yet what this story clearly articulates is a tale of generosity. All they needed was a simple reminder, an invitation, and this community steeped in love and gratitude came together in acts of generosity that sustained the whole – one humble offering at a time, they created something nourishing and life-giving.[1] I wonder, in exchange for offering cabbage, as the villagers…
Beauty surrounds us – and in noticing, we enter a sacred act of what I call prayer – connecting what we hold within to all of that which is beyond. We pray to pebbles, to dandelions, to the irises simply by pausing in appreciation, by offering an intentional moment of gratitude, by allowing a space for the love and the wonder and…
And yet, sometimes, listening to others can be a conduit to listening within. In fact, isn’t that a
big part of why we come to church on Sunday morning? Why would we sit for an hour through a
worship service listening to a sermon if we didn’t find some benefit in it? And I believe that there
can also be value in listening to other people. Come to think of it, the potential value of listening
to others shouldn’t come as a big surprise: interdependent web and all!
I think it comes down to what we are listening to:
● Universal truths versus petty criticisms.
● Personal stories versus external advice.
● A shared human experience versus an individual personality preference.