Hopeful Thinking

My daughter’s favorite expression is “thoughts become things.” It’s a quippy, simplified way of saying that thought precedes all action, but in ways which hint that more is occurring than the typical cause-and-effect scenario as we understand it. It has a bit of mysticism to it. In the most basic and understandable way, first we think of something before we can do it. We mull it over in our heads, we contemplate. We envision. Typically, this envisioning process helps us work out a few kinks before we more fully invest in our ideas. A lot of times we think about things first so that we can get used to the idea of them. Something I often find myself both talking and writing about is the physics of prayer. I’m always careful when using words like “prayer” because people have very strong feelings about the word. People feel conclusively that they know what it means to pray. Depending on your faith, or lack of it, you yourself already have a preconceived idea about the nature, practicalit...

It’s a points system really. Sometimes we are carrying around a lot of points against us. Sometimes we arrive into stressful situations carrying the baggage of one or more already stressful situations in our lives. How many points are you carrying around right now?  We love to worry like it’s our job. We feel we’re being productive with our downtime if we are gnashing our brains over something. How many things are you worrying about right now? We justify that we are giving our concerns ample consideration and prayer if we maintain sufficient angst over them.  I have news for you. That’s a lie our biology is telling us in order to preserve itself. Not that preserving our biology is a bad thing, of course. Our biology is essential to life. But, its base instincts do have their shortcomings in the modern world.  Our brains are wired for immediate gratification, not future planning. It’s the difference between what’s called an immediate-return environment and a de...

Tomorrow is Easter. A time for recognizing the phenomenon of resurrection. For not all that appears to be dead, truly is. Unless, of course, the particular kind of death of which we speak is less about the cessation of life than it is a death of the old self. The death of our former way of doing things. Is that life new? Ultimately, rebirth is a word we use to describe something or someone that was once something else, but then, suddenly and forever, changed. Oftentimes, the choice to make a change in our lives comes as a result of having experienced great hardship. They say there are no atheists in foxholes. We often turn to a hope in the existence of a higher power in times of extreme stress. But is that the only way to start over? Must we experience trauma in order to be reborn? Ot rebooted? And what does being “reborn” even mean? At this time on the wheel of the year we witness the rebirth and resurrection of the land. Since every molecule of our bodies came from that s...

A thought regularly occurs to me that a cell often mutates to its advantage when forced by outside circumstances. If I understand it correctly, mutations occur when life is exposed to a drastic change of situation. Right down to the cellular level we adapt to adversity through the act of mutation. I’m sure it will please many fans of the Marvel Universe to know we are all to become mutants now. They say a kick in the ass is good for the soul. Let’s see what attributes we can add to the complement of our souls right now. The reason we go to church, the reason we follow spiritual teachings or good advice of any kind, is so that we know what to do when faced with a crisis. So that we know how to act. How to make our choices when fear is speaking much more loudly than normal. In church, or while sitting and listening to spiritual teachers, while we are calm, and relaxed, we are methodically taught principles of ethical and humane standards of behavior so that we know exactly wh...

Society has a checkered relationship with people and things we consider to be peculiar. On the mammalian level—for we are still biologically animals, don’t forget—our biology instinctively notices sudden differences in our environment and acts on those findings. Depending on your viewpoint, you may be highly suspicious of anything or anyone new, or unusual, or who doesn’t neatly fit into the narrow list of categories we often construct for ourselves. Some people are more comfortable welcoming difference than others. Pray for those who struggle. In the wild, sometimes an unknown fruit or plant is good for you, a potential new food source, and sometimes it is poisonous. Biologically, we can’t just eat everything we find and expect to survive for long. There’s a process of establishing trust and information before we feel safe to try that new fruit. Some differences in the wild can mean life or death. I empathize with those who are afraid right now. That biological function of seeking o...

I cried this morning when I prayed. Hard. I surprised myself with just how much fear is lurking beneath the surface of my optimism and hope. This is all very real. I have been encouraging myself with a quote from Mr. Rogers. It was taught to him by his mother. She told him, when tragedy strikes, “look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” And it’s 100% true. I have been encouraged by things I have seen in the news recently about how neighbors have banded together. They have delivered humor where they could not bring hugs. And hope. And friendliness. And simple recognition of each other’s existence. We are being reminded right now about who our neighbor really is. Don’t worry, though. We’ll forget it again when this is all over. Most of it. Not all. But we will indeed forget about our unity again, at least a bit, because of one incredible feature of our humanity. It is the reason why some of us have employed our higher communal and neighborly i...

At what point do you suppose someone first pointed out the notion of “blind faith?” It is my assumption that the term was a critique. But I could be wrong. Of course, there are passages in the Bible which people have attributed as exhortations to blindly obey all of God’s commands, such as Abraham did when commanded to kill his child, Isaac. But Abraham's faith wasn’t blind, it was complete. It was based on a track record of experiences between himself and God. For Abraham had already been made certain promises by God that the death of his son would prevent. So he may have gone through the motions of preparing to strike down his son, but he clearly didn’t believe that would be the end of it for Isaac. Abraham's faith wasn’t blind, only winking. There are many places in scripture which are in support the ideas of wisdom, discernment, debate, and deep questioning. Even Paul complements his followers for doing their homework on him. So it can’t be that we are supposed to ...