Category: Faith

Let's keep walking the high road together

11/2/2022

We’ve celebrated the saints and now it is time for all the souls. The souls—people we know, strangers and, yes, we must include ourselves. So much suffering out there, but never let that smother the hope.
All the lying, meanness, and evil that has enveloped our country continues to be met with truth telling, kindness, and love. Souls, including me, are struggling to keep on the high road, to speak our truth with love, to help all people, not just those with whom we’d love to journey with. During these tough times, those of us who still hold onto hope, must speak out and act on the good things, the good possibilities.
My faith tells me to love my enemies. I’m working on that one. It sure is a challenge but I don’t want to give up, which is one reason I keep this blog going. So, thank you, you silent, solitary, and simple souls, for listening and walking the high road of hope with me.

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Comity in the Senate

9/29/2018

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One of my takeaways from the Supreme Court hearings this week has been the relationship between Senators and Coons and Flake. Here are two men from opposite sides of the aisle and with differing political views coming together because of their faith, demonstrating that their faith guides what they say and do. Each has a deep moral compass.
     Embedded in his public comments before the committee vote yesterday, Coons shared that the evening before he specifically prayed for both Cavanaugh and Ford, and for the country, and that he would do so again this evening. In admitting this publicly, it is clear that prayer isn’t a throw away for him. Rather, it is central to how he leads his life, both personally and as a senator. His comments were palpable.
     In the past week Senator Flake’s words and actions indicated that his faith guides what he does and says. His speech September 26th on the Senate floor offered compassion and civility for everyone involved and for our country. Yesterday, standing in the private elevator for senators, he listened to the impassioned women who caught his attention; he looked them in the eye; he didn’t shut the door on them.
     The comity between these two men gives me hope. Comity, a new word entering public discourse: 1. an association of nations for their mutual benefits; 2. courtesy and considerate behavior toward others (Google search). I believe that comity happens when we give up acting out of ego, out of believing we have all the answers, out of thinking we are God.

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Spiritual, religious, faithful

6/8/2018

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     There’s a line I draw when writing this blog, a line between spiritual and religious. I believe that we’re all spiritual, and that certainly applies to anyone wanting silence solitude and simplicity and who sometimes likes to be alone.
     Then there are those who are religious, a term that implies attachment to an organized church, ritual, and beliefs. Although those are part of my life, what is essential to me is faith,. Faith embraces belief in something beyond human imagination or understanding; it gives me peace and hope; and it brings out the good in me. Faith is a indescribable, a mystery; it stands alone.
     What I just wrote is the prelude to an invitation to pour yourself a cup of coffee tomorrow morning at 9 and enjoy Soul Talk with Kirk Jones, my professor at Andover Newton, and who continues to be a friend twenty years later. Join us on Face Book Live.I don’t know how to put the link on here but just go to Face Book and write in Kirk Byron Jones and find Saturday Morning Soul Talk.
    Maybe I'll see you there.

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Honesty among old friends.

5/18/2018

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     The other day I had lunch with a group of long-time friends. The six of us get together every three of four months, and lately we’ve developed the ritual of checking-in. Around the table we go, one by one telling what’s going on in our lives. Although we keep in touch individually, this communal forum offers a venue for a more public, on the-record-account, thus making our group time together sacred.
     Knowing there would be a formal check-in, I found myself planning ahead what I wanted to say. I gave an update on the doings of my family, and then albeit awkwardly, I talked about how important my faith is to me, not just as a way to do nice things for others, but as the only way I know to be humble. I mentioned that I grapple with my white privilege; that being a good person on my own isn’t enough; and that my faith leads me to confront judgments, critiques, pride, impatience, and arrogance that keep me from being humble. In other words, I can’t be humble all by myself on my own doing. AND, I desperately need humility because it the only way of being that leads me to peace.
     To my surprise I ended by saying, “I believe that right now in my life I am supposed to pray for people.”
     Honesty among old friends.

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A baby born for all faith traditions~

12/27/2017

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Regardless of one’s faith tradition, the story of the birth of Jesus touches us all. For me it is about starting again, especially since my birthday is five days after Christmas. New ideas, ways of being, routines, rituals, attitudes can be born in me, which means I have to let go of some of the old ones that are useful anymore.
A baby is born with nothing, so a place to begin is to pare down possessions. Jesus wore bands of cloth; I have a closet full of things to wrap myself in. Baby Jesus was taken care of, and as he go older he took care of others by thought, word and deed. That is what we are born and reborn to do, regardless of faith tradition.

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Let's keep walking the high road together

Comity in the Senate

Spiritual, religious, faithful

Honesty among old friends.

A baby born for all faith traditions~

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