God Is Not An Idea

February 20, 2026

Sometimes people cross my path who discourage me. So many seem to think that God is an idea. Or a proposition to agree with and/or argue. Certainly many people get their kicks thinking about God. Playing with ideas applying rationality to deduce who or what God is. I even remember the “God is dead” movement, members who looked at culture and deduced if people no longer believe in God, perhaps God no longer exists.

Carl Jung, the pioneering psychologist, was asked toward the end of his life if he believed in God. “Believe?” he pondered. “No, I don’t believe; I know.”

I’m with him. If you have experienced God even in the briefest of encounters, you know that God exists. Perhaps there are things you still need to believe (or not), such as healing an individual or creating the universe.

Jesus said (recorded in John) that God is Spirit and must be worshipped in Spirit. When you feel the experience of the spirit and employ discernment to assure that wasn’t just gas (or some false feeling), then you know.

The reason to develop spiritual practices is to cultivate the embracing of the spirit. Just like when I sit down to write and haven’t an idea, just the sitting with my pad or computer forces my thinking. Sitting in mediation or study (reading, listening, writing) starts me on the path of experience.

A children’t song, quoted by the theologian Karl Barth, goes, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Actually, people knew that for 360 years before there was a Bible. And many people know it in all the centuries since even unto today because of the experience of the Spirit.

It’s open to you. Just open yourself to it.

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you.

Posted in discernment, Disciplines, Faith, spirit | Leave a Comment »

Unplugged

February 19, 2026

When a company I worked for closed in the mid-80s, I did some PC support. Answers to two questions solved 90% of the problems. Is it plugged in? (i.e. do you have power?) Turn it off, pause 20 seconds, turn it back on.

Later working with industrial automation, the same two questions when a customer called.

This week spanning four decades of experience, the same problem/solution arose.

I was reminded of these experiences upon reading this thought from Ann Lamott, “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”

Feeling a bit stressed? Perhaps somewhat despondent? Can’t get started on that project?

Take a few minutes to unplug. Shut the laptop. Set the mobile phone to mute and dock it far away. Turn off the TV. Just sit. Unplugged. Five minutes can do it. Ten is great. Twenty—a miracle.

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you.

Posted in Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

Change and Grow

February 18, 2026

You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago. Alan Watts

Matthew, the apostle and author of a Gospel, tells us about the beginning of Jesus’s ministry:

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

That word “repent” carries emotional baggage to many of us. The word simply means change. We were living one way, then we change and live another. When Jesus said it, the strong implication was that we would change for the better. And better being defined as living according to his teachings (following this proclamation, Matthews tells us Jesus assembled some disciples and began teaching crowds of people; the subject matter of the teaching he records as the “Sermon on the Mount”).

Not only are we under no obligation to be the same person we were five minutes ago, we are encouraged to evaluate where we are and change direction for the better.

I have read a contemporary philosopher whose concern rises from a observation that all the gurus and influencers promoting continuous improvement programs lead to a culture of narcissism. Too much “all about me.”

Following Jesus’s way actually means change isn’t about ending with us. It’s what comes next. We must change our ways (and some of more often than once!) so that we can better serve others.

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you.

Posted in Growth, Service | Leave a Comment »

Make Your Choice

February 17, 2026

Mahatma Gandhi wrote decades ago, “Formerly men were made slaves under physical compulsion; now they are enslaved by the temptation of money and of the luxuries that money can buy.”

Today, Gary (and many others) look at the culture noting beyond the temptations of money and power, there reside the insidious temptations of social media and deep conspiracy theories.

Jesus taught millennia ago, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Where your attention focuses, so focuses your heart. Where is your focus? What is your master?

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you.

Posted in Attention, focus | Leave a Comment »

Curiosity Killed the Cat–Not

February 16, 2026

What did school teach you?

Memorize the text and remember long enough to repeat on a test?

Granted, It is useful to our lives to have memorized many things. Sure, you can look them up in seconds on your smart phone. But, what if you’ve made the intelligent decision not to always have the smart phone?

To this day, I still have qualms about chemistry. A year of high school and a further year in college did not help. I kept asking why. They kept responding, just memorize the balance equation and repeat it on the test.

But I was curious about how it all worked.

What is your religion teaching you?

Memorize these verses in order to recall them to win an argument?

Jesus often responded with a question when approached by someone with a question. Maybe that means questions are good. He also complimented people for asking a question.

Some people are afraid of questions. Perhaps a question might shake their faith. I’ve recently come across an interesting thought—The opposite of faith is not doubt; it is certainty.

I don’t have faith in gravity. I’m certain that if I jump up then I will come down. 

When Jesus says that he offers peace to us, I have faith I can receive that peace. But then I look around and question—there certainly doesn’t appear to be a lot of peace out there. What’s up, Jesus?

I’m curious. What did he mean? How do we receive it? What will it mean to us to ingest that peace?

It’s OK to question. It’s OK to seek that peace (or other things) Jesus offered with faith even though I may not be certain. That’s called life. Practices exist to help me find that peace. But circumstances exist that lead me to wonder if peace is possible.

I’m with the guy who was the most honest person in the New Testament, “I believe; help me in my unbelief!”

I will read, and question. I’ll continue to be curious. I don’t think curiosity really killed the cat. I don’t think it’ll kill be. I think we’re both stronger for it.

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you.

Posted in Attitude, Faith | Leave a Comment »

Who Is Your Master?

February 13, 2026

That question may have brought to mind Jesus’s observation about deciding between money/possessions and God.

I another decision. This from Epictetus. “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master.”

When I realize someone is great at pulling my chain, I avoid them if at all possible. Perhaps that person (or anonymous social media poster) is that person. Another reason to avoid social media.

Realize what holds mastery over you. Focus on what’s important.

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you.

Posted in Awareness, discernment, emotions | Leave a Comment »

My Advice–Humility

February 12, 2026

A student approached Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, asking for advice. Augustine gave three words of advice.

“The first part is humility; the second, humility; the third, humility; and this I would continue to repeat as often as you might ask direction.”

How about we all try a dose of humility. Probably more than once a day!

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you.

Posted in Humility | Leave a Comment »

Christ Living In Us

February 11, 2026

Thomas Merton offered this observation for living in his New Seeds of Contemplation.

“For Christianity is not merely a doctrine or system of beliefs, it is Christ living in us and uniting men to one another in his own life and unity.”

That’s why I sit in quiet once or more every day to try to keep in touch with the inner life in the Spirit.

I recommend the same for you. It helps focus the day on service.

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you.

Posted in Meditation, spirit | Leave a Comment »

It’s All for Show

February 10, 2026

Many have observed that politics today is all about the show. Who does the best and fastest posting of a viral video on social media?

Rather than rational thought or governing quietly and well, politicians all seem to gravitate to the new toy—viral video. And not only politicians. Grifters looking for easy wealth also flock to the camera.

Believe it or not, Jesus had something to say about doing things for show. This is found in the Gospel according to Luke.

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

God appreciates the many who quietly go about His business of loving others (feeding the hungry, visiting the prisoner, and the other things Jesus advised). No viral video needed.

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you.

Posted in Intention, Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

Distraction v Daydreaming

February 9, 2026

Yesterday I wrote about distraction arguing for the need to focus on what’s important. Mary, for example, was focused on Jesus’s teaching. Martha was distracted by many things to do. Perhaps Martha would have felt more at ease in serving or whatever through focus. I don’t want to carry that metaphor too far.

When we are learning or teaching or driving, we need focus. Distraction is our enemy.

However, there are times when the opposite is true.

Sometimes we may be working out a problem or working out a theme for something we are writing. 

At these times, a walk in nature with no music or podcasts or audiobooks contains the medicine. We sit on a bench by the pond or walk through the woods. We allow our minds to drift. Daydreaming, it’s called. 

Ideas come. Unforced. Seemingly from nowhere. Maybe the spirit is talking to us. Maybe a jumble of ideas and thoughts coalesce into something firm.

Yesterday found me in such a state. Out of nowhere the lyrics to a song perhaps called The Ballad of Minneapolis formed clearly.

Unfortunately, that is only the beginning. The hard work of writing the thoughts making sense of the thoughts now begins. I’ll let you know if I finish and post to YouTube.

I’ve worked out many problems over the past 45 years that way.

Go take a walk. Not in the dismissive way of someone telling you to get lost. Really, go take a walk.

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you.

Posted in Thinking | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries