Our lives can feel like one big waiting-room where the stuff we're hoping will happen is taking a long time to actually, like, happen.
Contemplatives tell us we all make a classic mistake: we desperately try to fix ourselves when, instead, we're offered a powerful road to change that both works and takes far less effort.
In this occasional TPC series in which we consider what might be familiar Christian themes in fresh ways, Dave Schmelzer looks at the unrivaled power of crossing cultures on God's behalf.
We all face disillusionment, but the contemplatives offer us the good news that we're then given a profound opportunity to be initiated into the mysteries that lead to freedom and growth--and maybe even enlightenment and eternal life.
A good deal of our misery comes from not feeling like our lives are turning out the way we'd planned.
We live amidst profound cultural and spiritual divisions but can feel adrift in terms of what to do about it apart from judging people across the divide from us.
Sometimes fervent, youthful faith can't make the journey into our adulthood, maybe because of life's suffering.
The recent Atlanta shootings offer many storylines, not least highlighting racism directed towards Asian Americans. But one compelling storyline looks at the often destructive consequences of how conservative churches have taught about sexuality.
As we mature, we do whatever is required to make our lives work out. Still, the great spiritual traditions suggest that there remains a true you and me that will become forged over time, but will require attention and perhaps risk to experience.
Inspired by the Oscar-nominated movie Sound of Metal, Dave Schmelzer looks at the latest research on how to find greater wellbeing.
We're told that God is powerful, but as we age, most of us are flummoxed or frustrated with how to think about that, because clearly that power quite often does not bring about things that are important to us.
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?
