A Daily Lent

The Stillpoint Within Tuesday after the Resurrection – April 14, 2020 We are challenged, currently, to be creative, to find different ways to love people. Often, since we have been distanced from one another by the coronavirus threat, we have been told that for right now, we best love people by staying away from them. (And all the introverts say, “I’ve been telling you this for years!”) We make phone calls . . . we use FaceTime . . . try to serve, while maintaining proper distancing. And we pray. We pray for people, if only by whispering the names of those we know who are in need . . . speaking aloud the names of hospitals . . . saying the names of cities and towns that are overwhelmed . . . We meditate . . . we find some contemplative practice to keep us centered and anchored . . . we quietly write poetry . . . we take out a sketchpad and draw or use pastels to doodle or splash some watercolors on a page . . . we regularly drop anchor through a meditative prayer practice (...

The Really Real Is Deeper Than Your Thoughts Wednesday of Holy Week -- April 8, 2020 In 1637, French philosopher Rene Descartes wrote, “ je pense, donc je suis ,” which has been translated, “I think, therefore I am.” Later, in another philosophical work, he translated the phrase into Latin: cogito, ergo sum . In my limited studies through the years, I’ve learned that the phrase provided guidance for the Enlightenment. The phrase not only elevated the human capacity to think and formulate ideas, it advocated that thinking is the core aspect of our humanity. This is our essence, so to speak, the core of what it means to be human. Our being is determined by our capacity to think. So in the centuries since Descartes, we have been enamored with our thoughts, with our capacity to think and reason. These are not unimportant realities, by the way, but are crucial to our progress as humans, crucial to our ongoing becoming. Ideas and thoughts lead us to understand better how to respond t...

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent Daily Reading: Matthew 6:7 – 15 Focus Passage: And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matt. 6:7 – 8) How have we turned prayer sideways? Depending on the translation you read, Jesus says do not babble, don’t use vain repetition, or don’t heap up empty phrases when you pray. The picture is almost comical, as if someone learning to pray observed someone else praying, then merely repeated that person’s language, rhythm, posture, and voice inflection. As a pastor, I learned years ago how to use vocabulary, tone, and volume to make my public prayers sound like they were connecting with God. That they were generally hollow mattered less to me than that people thought I was offering a meaningful prayer. I hope God laughs about those days more than weeps. While prayer is more caught than ...