Working on a new book over the holidays brought this Thomas Merton quote to life for me: “The poet enters into himself in order to create. The contemplative enters into God in order to be created…If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men—you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while. If you write only for yourself you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted you will wish that you were dead.” It parallels nicely with this story of greed and the result it brings: Abbot Anastasius had a book written on very fine parchment which was worth eighteen pence, and had in it both the Old and New Testaments in full. Once…

We live in a world that is increasingly being driven by “groupthink”. “Groupthink” is adopting the opinion of a predetermined group, regardless of what we may truly believe if we were to think it through for ourselves. It is defined as “the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.” We fall prey to this each time we adopt a majority opinion that we may or may not truly believe but we want to go along with everyone else. For the most part, we do this because we want to get along with the majority of people at any cost, or because we are just too lazy to think it through for ourselves. It doesn’t require time to process, the chance to be rejected by the “group”, or responsibility to own the consequences of those opinions. It is prevalent in…

It can be difficult to fully follow Jesus in our world. Some would say it’s impossible. I tend to agree with them, and so did Paul. The early disciples depended on something much more powerful, supernatural, and mysterious than simply reciting their Lord’s words and holding each other accountable. They lived and breathed by the Holy Spirit. It was so vitally important, that we have an interesting encounter with Paul and some new disciples in Ephesus… Acts 19:1–2 (ESV) 19 And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” “Did you receive?” That is a significant question for any of us today. There was an experience with…

Advent is on of the few liturgical traditions that our church participates in throughout the year. We also take communion and perform baptisms, but for the most part, we don’t follow the traditional liturgical calendar. Advent is important to me and I hope to you because of what it symbolizes and the power it has to rescue our conscience from the distraction of a consumer driven time of year. The word “advent” literally means “coming”. It comes from the Greek word parousia and has come to mean anything from the coming of an important person but, more specifically, the coming of the birth of Christ. That wasn’t then intention of early believers, though. They had a much bigger picture in mind. The coming that they were celebrating was not just a historical event, but a future one. The birth of Jesus was an incredibly important event. It marked God’s presence…

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:31–32 (ESV) When things don’t seem to be going your way, it can be easy to wonder if God is paying attention to your suffering. As your suffering grows, you will be tempted to pull into yourself and away from the very things that have the power to give us faith in our future and our God, again. The belief that God is no longer in your corner is not only debilitating, it is absolutely not true. God loves you! God’s love for you is not dependent on your ability to be “lovely”. It’s not about your ability to be “good” or to check…