Justice questions are an explosive dividing line.
Persistent, heartfelt prayer has a long history of bringing good things into the world... but perhaps not in the direct way we'd hoped for.
Modern mystics are quite user-friendly--but the early Christian saints encouraged us to sail into some deep waters.
Constant change can feel uniquely hard.
Being lighthearted, while pleasant, can sound trivial.
It's a paradox. Faith overtly offers us the chance to hear and live out promises from God.
Contemplative spirituality might suggest becoming more "inner"--being aware of all that's happening inside your consciousness.
How "should" we feel in the craziness of the world around us?
Of course we all want to maximize pleasant times and minimize difficult ones, but the great spiritual teachers--in many cases taking perspective from the eccentric biblical book Ecclesiastes--tell us that learning to fully inhabit both the hard and the good times transforms everything as we're taken into a sort of God Zone.
"What's new?" has become a difficult question for many of us to answer during the pandemic, and yet neuroscientists tell us that novelty is a key to happiness.
Many earnest churchgoers have found great encouragement from lots of Bible reading. But, as life goes on, many of them not only burn out on Bible reading, but become disturbed by parts of the Bible that didn't bother them before.
As life moves forward, faith changes for many people, which can feel unsettling. Where, some might ask, is Jesus in whatever this new phase is?
