temparbor

How To Know God (in exactly 1000 words)

We live under the illusion that we are separate from God. If we believe in God at all, we think we are “here” and God is “over there.” The truth is that we are part of God, and God is part of us. This is not to be confused with Hindu pantheism, which states thatContinue reading “How To Know God (in exactly 1000 words)”

Desperately Seeking My Soul

I often find myself barreling through life, moving at light speed from one suffocating activity to the next. I experience my life as chaotic, random, and exhausting, yet I do not stop. t’s not that I particularly enjoy most of what I’m doing. It’s just that I’m doing something, and there’s always more to doContinue reading “Desperately Seeking My Soul”

Anti-Believer Bias?

I was checking out my MySpace page tonight and did something I never do – I read a bulletin. It was posted by an old acquaintance of mine from high school. It was very long (and a bit tiresome) and went on about how “fundamentalists” are to be feared for various reasons: We see fundamentalists as a relatively containedContinue reading “Anti-Believer Bias?”

The Hopeless Believer

I am a hopeless believer. That’s breaking news for me. I just discovered it last night. By “hopeless believer” I do not mean that I am without hope. I mean that I am without “hope” of ever becoming anything but a believer. Just as some atheists reach a point where they say, “I wish IContinue reading “The Hopeless Believer”

The Shadow

Have you ever gotten to a point where you realized, somehow, that you were a mess? Have you ever gone through a time where you discovered deep in yourself some dark fear, or some deep insecurity, or some profound feeling of insufficiency that scared you? Have you ever seen something in yourself that bothered youContinue reading “The Shadow”

Desperately Seeking My Soul

Motion and Stillness – Blueprint, by vramak I often find myself barreling through life, moving at light speed from one suffocating activity to the next. I experience my life as chaotic, random, and exhausting, yet I do not stop. It’s not that I particularly enjoy most of what I’m doing. It’s just that I’m doing something,Continue reading “Desperately Seeking My Soul”

Ego Smackdown

In the past few months I have become increasingly interested in Christian meditation, not as some flavor-of-the-month passing fad, but as THE way out of the mess in which I have always found myself — the mess that is my own ceaseless thoughts. Be they thoughts of good or of ill, I am stuck inContinue reading “Ego Smackdown”

Notes from Manresa, prt. 6

Sunday, 10:11 a.m. – This is turning out to be one of the most grace-giving, lighthearted, free, joyous, and easy times of my life, though I have prayed more often, and more intensely, than ever before. Prayer has not felt like a burden, even when I have prayed at hour-lengths multiple times per day. IContinue reading “Notes from Manresa, prt. 6”

Sores on my knees

I am beginning to get sores on my knees from praying for people I love who are messing up their lives. Small groups meet. Sermons get preached. Pleas get made. Prayers get prayed. Still, lives implode. It never ends. Lives do not implode because they have to. No one makes anyone give up on aContinue reading “Sores on my knees”

How To Relate To Your Kids

No parent is perfect. Certainly my wife and I have not been perfect parents, but I think we have succeeded in doing what is most important, which is creating an atmosphere of openness between us and our kids. Most parents want more than anything to do a good job, but I work with parents allContinue reading “How To Relate To Your Kids”