Intersect

God of endless grace, thank you. Thank you for one more chance to get things right. One more chance to tell you “I love you” and hear you whisper, “I love you, too.” One more chance to seek forgiveness from people I’ve wronged, and from myself because sometimes, the worst bully I’ve ever encountered is me. Thank you for one more chance to defeat the bullies in my mind, and in our world, merely by recognizing and becoming the love we need. I call you Holy and thank you for one more chance to fully surrender my life to you. Thank you for one more chance, one more day, one more week, one more month, one more year, one more life, one more resurrection. Thank you for making me new, over and over and over again. Thank you for the gift of patience as I learn to follow in the footsteps of our teacher, Jesus, the anointed one, who shows us your intimate, everlasting love. In the name of love and the manner of Jesus I will practice giving and receiving grace, mercy compassion, forgiveness and ...

  This article first appeared in Intersect on April 4, 2016. I’ve revisited and updated some thoughts for today's article. I’ve always found it useful to look for common threads weaving throughout the world’s religions. The intersection of ideas creates wisdom. At the very least, religious commonalities reveal that in our quest to understand our place in the universe , we quite often come to the same conclusions. One such common thread is “The Golden Rule.” Every religion, theistic or not, includes some variation of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Check out the chart below (click for a larger version): If most religious systems agree that we should be good and fair to each other, why then do we so often attempt to annihilate each other in the name of our religions? I have two theories about that. First, many of the wars fought for “religious” reasons were (and are today) political wars. On the ancient world stage, most of the states were theocracies in ...

God of endless wonder and surprise, fill us with your joy! Excite our senses with the sights, sounds, tastes, and calming touch of your presence. We need to experience you, our Lord of resistance. How else can we overcome the blathering bullies trumpeting hate to an all-too-eager crowd of lost souls? Without you, where is hope? Without you, how can we the people, lost souls all, lead each other to your light? So we plead to be with you, only with you , our love, our light, our song of life. We give thanks for you, our Holy, Loving God and hold you near, today and forever. Hold us near, too, as we traverse the slippery and obstacle-strewn path to a higher level of being; a greater sense of Universal Consciousness pervading all things. This higher state of being reveals enemies as friends and turns strangers into family. Help us journey together, leaving no person behind. Unite all people in love and understanding through the clarity of mind, body and soul that comes from r...