An affirming source: Inter-mission

[See Parts 1, 2, 3, & 4] If people destroy something irreplaceable made by mankind, they are called vandals;if they destroy something irreplaceable make by God they are called developers.Joseph Wood Krutch (quoted in David R Loy, Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis, p. 16) You may be wondering why I am banging on … Continue reading An affirming source: Inter-mission

An affirming source (4): Presence

[See Parts 1, 2, & 3] When God is “an alien will” I may feel the pressure to make amends for the mistakes of the past and to work towards an improved self in the future. When God is an alien will there is a to-do list. I do not advocate that we abrogate responsibility … Continue reading An affirming source (4): Presence

An affirming source (3): Yielding

[See Part 1 & Part 2] … yielding … When we are freed from the idea of God as “an alien will” we can fall back into an utterly relaxing Presence that is our “affirming source”. The alien will is jealous and requires attention and conformity to an arbitrary set of standards. The affirming source … Continue reading An affirming source (3): Yielding

An affirming source (2): Emancipation

[See Part 1] … yielding not to an alien will but an affirming source … The trouble with an alien will is that it is … alien, other. How can I know, respond to, and, in time, love something that is so far from and other than me? I will look outside myself, beyond this … Continue reading An affirming source (2): Emancipation

An affirming source (1): an alien will

Christians are adopted into a dependent relationship to that which Jesus called ‘Abba, Father’. Our human identity therefore becomes one in which we both acknowledge in prayer this dependence and respond to the gift that sets up not only our being but our renewed being in Christ; and in acknowledging that dependence we are empowered … Continue reading An affirming source (1): an alien will

To care and not to care

I was given a lesson the other night. I woke up after a few hours of sleep. I went to the toilet, and then lay in bed worried that I would not be able to go back to sleep, fearful of being awake in the empty dark. I don’t usually notice this feeling. I listen … Continue reading To care and not to care