Daily Compass

Inspiration:

 

Today you will lose something, but also gain something. This will happen tomorrow as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

Missing God

“I can’t believe what I was taught to believe,” said the woman facing me. “I’ve just read too much. I know that stories in the Bible were drawn from other cultures and myths, and reason and my experience have taught me different things. So I can’t believe what I used to believe.” She paused, and looked at me sadly. “It’s just … there’s something in me … I …” She looked at me, a bit sheepish, a bit sad.

“You miss God?” I asked. She nodded.

I understood.

I’d gone through my own stripping-away, discarding things that no longer made sense, setting aside immature, not well-examined beliefs. But out in nature, or at the end of the day, when I used to “talk to God,” I missed what I used to have. A connection, or a conversation, with … what?

A wise friend, sensing where I was, sent me a quote by John Shelby Spong:

I do not experience God as a supernatural power, external to life invading my world in supernatural power. I see no evidence to think this definition is real. The problem is that most people have so deeply identified this definition of God with God that when this definition dies the victim of expanded knowledge, we think that God has died.

So … even though my previous understanding of God no longer held value, might I find another understanding, with new value to me? I embarked on a journey, one which I am still on. I’ve explored panentheism, process theology, and world religions. Some things I keep, some I discard. All help me to expand my view of “God,” and connect with the transcending mystery.

For you, perhaps you’ll decide that “God,” as a word, holds no value for you. That’s fine. As many have pointed out, “God” is not God’s name.

But for those of us missing God, the journey to find a definition that fits our experience can take us to places of insight and reward; places where we feel we can embrace both reason and Spirit.

 

Inspiration:

 

I have woven a parachute out of everything broken.
–William Stafford 

 

 

Brokenness and Origin
 Rev. Meg Riley

“I think we would have been out there, climbing that tree, if we’d been in the garden.”

 

Inspiration:

 

 

Spirit of Healing, today help me to recognize and encourage some pocket of health.

 

 

 

 

How Does Our Faith Hold Brokenness?

I have come to believe about human beings that we require food, water, shelter, air, and stories. Something in us needs to speak and to be heard, to forgive and be forgiven, to sing and hear music, to speak our truth and listen for the truths of others. Part of our vocation as human beings, and as religious human beings, is to aid and abet the transmission of beauty and truth.

My husband will say on those occasions when the weight of the world is closing in and the evidence against hope mounts as I read the news, when I start confusing cynicism with pragmatism, and I sigh, “I’m so tired, I’m so discouraged”—he’ll say, in the kindest way: “What kind of entitled grandiosity of privilege is this, to think that you or I or anyone has the right to sever the bright thread of hope, the tradition of dedication to the common good and faith in the people’s power to imagine great change and great risks and then take them; the beautiful, proud history of work for human rights and freedom? We’re only here to pass it on,” he’ll say. “All you have to do is keep the fire burning for a little while, and pass it on. You have no right to put it out.” Not in so many words, but that’s about what Ross will say.

It’s what we say every Sunday. The sacrament of celebration involves memory, as much as it involves forward-looking hope. The church can hold evil and injustice only if it holds the story of resistance, too. It’s not the mourning, but the dancing, that will move our people out of the sanctuary and into the street, into the statehouse, where the life of prayer is embodied.

by Victoria Safford, senior minister of the White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church in Mahtomedi, Minnesota.TO READ MORE

Inspiration:

 

Sometimes doctors have to break a bone in order for it to heal properly. Have you ever had to break something in order to set it right?

 

 

 

Divorce

“Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God.”
—Ram Dass

Just as much as marriage, divorce or separation can be a holy choice.  When divorce is grounded in deep reflection and care, it can be an expression of love and commitment to life.  The covenant of committed partnership is an important one, to be honored and respected.  However, ‘till death do us part,’ is not a vow to cling to, if the relationship itself is causing death.

A belief in continuing revelation in our search for truth and meaning says that, when new information becomes clear to us, honoring that information is a spiritual path to be followed.

A Prayer
May the love that was at the core of my marriage or partnership continue to bless the world.
May the courage I felt in making a commitment to love continue to bless me, even as I now make a commitment to a new life going forward.
May I remember that love endures all things, even when that love is deep underground and not easy to see.
May I know that I am part of the human family, now and always.

by Rev. Meg Riley, Senior Minister, Church of the Larger Fellowship TO READ MORE

 

Inspiration:

 

“Be like the bird who, halting in his flight on a limb too slight, feels it give way beneath him, yet sings, knowing he has wings.” – Victor Hugo

 

 

Hope: The Theology of Despair

The one trait that most criminals share is hopelessness. Hopelessness is the root of all deviant behavior. Hopelessness tells us that the future is bleak, that all we have is the present moment. If our personality can be viewed as a chain of memories, hopelessness is the broken link that keeps us from even considering that we are larger than this moment, larger than these bodies, larger than our cultural and national identities. It cuts us off from the recognition that humanity, with all of its accomplishments and failures, is embodied in each person.

My hope was restored by degrees, and I did not do it alone. It has been a group effort. Even during months and years when I had no outside contact I have always felt a part of the “inter-dependent web of existence of which we are a part.” Knowing the truth about why I am in prison, it would be easy to give up hope, embrace bitterness and become what I was portrayed to be. But studying us—humanity—I know and am convinced that the only thing that separates angels from demons is that the latter gave up hope and in doing so came to personify hopelessness and all of its fruit.

There can be no rehabilitation, no reform without hope. Learning from my peers, from the greatest minds, like Emerson and Dr. King, gives me hope. Challenging those who work to keep me in prison, without resorting to lies, and while maintaining my compassion, gives me hope. People like Chaplain Pat—who puts extra care into making sure that UUs in prison stay connected to all of you in the “free world”—give me hope and inspiration. The fact that you donate time and money to spreading and promoting our values and principles gives me hope.

Most of all, my mother’s support and friendship, her strength and resilience, gives me hope that I can live as courageously as she has in a life of brutal adversity and struggle.

Hope, to me, is the mental, emotional and spiritual equivalent of that ineffable force that holds the universe together, and which has given the universe the ability to look upon itself through our eyes, and marvel at the breadth of its diverse and infinite beauty. Hope is not merely an attitude. It is our birthright.

BY DANIEL A. GREEN, CLF MEMBER, NORTH CAROLINA TO READ MORE

Join us at 1:30 pm ET tonight for our service of Reflection & Connection: http://www.livestream.com/questformeaning