What are we striving for?
We live in a world that constantly measures worth through productivity, income, appearance, and even attention. What, then, is the “right” thing to pursue in this life, if such a thing can be clearly named?
Minister’s Blog
We live in a world that constantly measures worth through productivity, income, appearance, and even attention. What, then, is the “right” thing to pursue in this life, if such a thing can be clearly named?
Sometimes it feels selfish to pursue one’s inner peace while the whole world is struggling and suffering. Yet, the Bible teaches strongly about peace from God, and Buddha teaches about the importance of obtaining inner peace.
The inspiration from the story of Easter is that we tend to look for growth within our comfort zones only to find that the stone has been rolled away by a force greater than ourselves, inviting and guiding us to look elsewhere.
When the crowds greeted Jesus, they held the “leaves of truth” in their hands and shouted “Hosanna!” Yet, their perception was clouded. They were looking for a political liberator, not a spiritual Savior.
An infant has no curated self-image to protect and no ego to stroke. Our challenge as adults is to return to that state—not by accident of birth, but through the intentional, voluntary work of spiritual practice.
Perhaps Abram wasn’t the only one God called. Perhaps he wasn’t even the only one to hear the voice. But he may have been the only one willing to act on that call without hesitation.
“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.” Genesis … Read more
The story of the flood is not about a God who kills and destroys, rather about a God who loves, saves, and protects despite the fact that humans were continually and persistently walking away from the path taught by God.
A good way to read and understand the stories in the Bible is to always remember that the stories were written by people to reflect on their existential reality, which was often hard and cruel, and considered the possible causes of such hardships.
Jesus points out is that there is something within us that has an unavoidable connection to cause and effect. Good trees and bad trees symbolize the state of our mind that is directly related to the quality of our actions.