The spiritual life is easy and strenuous. By spiritual life, I mean one infused with the recognition and reality of God pervading every sphere. Too often, the inherently Western segregation of the entirety of our lives into compartments (i.e. spiritual, physical, public, private,etc.) has left us feeling only half, or part, human. The attempt, albeit unconscious, to live in this fractured reality has in some way removed God from the ‘everydayness’ of life, relegating Him to exceptional encounters and highly iconic ceremonies.

In my last post, Atheists/Rationalists: Don’t Too Readily Dismiss the Believer, I made the point that religion gives the believer at least one life tool that’s universally valued and necessarily unavailable to the atheist/rationalist.

But (life being what it is), there’s another side to ye oldye Religion vs. Atheism coin.

It’s certainly no challenge for a rationalist/atheist to dismiss out of hand those who believe in God.

The Christian, scoffs the rationalist, is weak-willed: superstitious, deaf to logic, incapable of independent thought, intellectually and even morally lazy.

Okay. We believers can take that sort of criticism. We can (or certainly should) even acknowledge the ways in which we too often facilitate non-believers reaching such conclusions about us.

I didn’t plan on becoming a user. It just sort of happened. As a seedling tree reaches for the sky to fight for spots of daylight amongst a field full of mature trees, my small experimental participation didn’t seem significant when compared to the thousands of other users in the world. I would hardly be noticed….

What would life be like without the presence of those most dear to us?

In Pastors and Other Christian Leaders: Loosen Up, Before It's Too Late!, I talked about the obnoxiousness of using exclamation points in titles.

Wait. No I didn't. I talked about the advisability of Christian leaders loosening up and being themselves.

It seems to me that the Church (that’s big ‘C’) needs something like the emerging church / fresh expressions conversation in order to remain true to the Missio Dei and relevant to culture-at-large. There are three specific areas where this could play out nicely if the relationship is embraced by both arenas, creating a truly symbiotic relationship: Identity and Ownership, Institution vs. Community and Investment at Home. The collective identity of the Church seems to be largely skewed in the minds of many Christians.

It was twelve days ago that my wife and I packed our bags to depart on a much needed vacation to the southland. We were to spend 10 days with family right on the beach in Mazatlan Mexico. I knew nothing about Mazatlan other than that it was in Mexico and that I was pretty sure they spoke Spanish down there. Actually that fact alone should have inspired me to brush up on my espanol a little, but in typical gringo style I figured I would just wing it. “Donde esta el bano, senior?”

I hate criticizing people. Actually, I like criticizing people, but over the years have found that it tends to move whomever I'm criticizing to criticize me back, which is much less fun. The best solution I've found is to talk about people behind their backs. I think that's really a win-win for all.

But now I must speak out directly! I must! Not doing so will make my eyeballs hurt! And then I'll have to put iodine in them! And then my screaming will disturb the neighbors! So that's out.

It is common practice for the Anam Cara to suggest portions of Scripture for reflection that may prove conducive to a deeper engagement between the directee and God. On occasion, other practices may be introduced as well in order to help the directee create space to more fruitfully connect with their Creator. These practices may be rooted in Christian tradition, such as silence, solitude (two foundational starting points) and fasting or they may be from common experience such as journaling, walks and the use of various creative ventures in the arts.