Spirituality comes out of our lives. For each of us, our sense of the spiritual has emerged from some significant event in our lives. For some, and maybe most of us, the nurture of one’s spiritual side energizes their compassionate response to human needs and their passion for social justice. For others, personal experience and involvement in the injustices of the world is what creates and nurtures a spiritual awareness. Social justice and spirituality are intertwined. They are really two sides of the same coin, and have to be seen as part of a whole.

A personal spirituality without a concern for the needs of others can be self-centered, narcissistic , and only inward-looking: “being”, but not always “doing”. Social justice, on the other hand, without a spiritual foundation can result in frustrated activism, loss of focus and direction, and will last only as long as your energy holds out.

This morning I want to tell the story of how my outward journey into social action led to an inward spirituality. For me the awareness of the “spiritual” in my life came from my connection with other people in the midst of confronting injustice, both personally and in society. These experiences of the injustices of the world is what nurtured a spiritual awakening within me. (more…)

A few months ago I agreed to lead a service on this date tentatively titled, “Dark Night of the Soul” and I had collected some poems and passages along the way that I thought might help me form this theme. But when we actually got to the planning stages of developing this service, I felt like I had nothing to say about “Dark Night of the Soul.” In fact, I didn’t have much to say about anything. I was feeling depressed, but it wasn’t a “Dark Night of the Soul” kind of depression. Rather, I felt like a lot was happening inside me but it was best if I didn’t talk about it, resist it, or try to change my mood. It was best if I didn’t try to describe what I was feeling or why I was feeling it. I recognized intuitively that I should refrain from trying to name it and define it and then give a reflection on what it is I had experienced or was presently experiencing. Intuitively, my sense was that I needed to be quiet. I need to let the process unveil itself.

I think all of us go through times when we need to shut down and quiet ourselves because something is happening, growing, changing within us. So instead of giving a reflection on what it is that is spiritually unfolding, I decided all I could really talk about was the process of unfolding, the process of being as still as I can be until more is revealed. And while this thing- this new change or insight (or whatever it is) is in the process of becoming, I have three choices: I can fight it; I can try to force it to unfold faster; or I can trust the process and let more be revealed in the space and time it needs to emerge.

That’s what I’ve been trying to do this time with mixed success: trust the process without analyzing, defining, forcing, fixing, trying to control, manage or steer my internal life and the world around me. That’s what I usually do. I always feel like I have to be in charge of my internal life somehow, that my vigilance will help things along, that I can control the outcome, the pain or lack thereof. This process of change is often uncomfortable and my first reaction is to cut down on the discomfort in whichever way I can. I read books looking for answers, I make lists, I talk about it, I try to manage how I’m feeling, I try to steer my moods, I try to force myself to do things I’m just now ready or able to do. But that’s usually counter productive and doesn’t help the unfolding process. (more…)

There’s nothing worse than being both lost and disoriented. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced that frightening duo but high on the list of things that simply do not go well together have to be the experience of both being lost and disoriented. And if you think about adding another dimension that just makes being lost and disoriented even worse it would be not knowing where the destination is. Not knowing where you are and not knowing where you are going and which direction takes you there, that’s big time lost.

In my view spirituality is all about dealing with this dimension of orientation. Where are we? Where are we going? And what’s the direction to get there?
I recently visited with a dear friend who like all those diagnosed with a terminal illness is living out notice of his last days, months, years. While he has always been a wise man, I find his wisdom bears an added measure of worth as he tacks into the wind of this ultimate challenge. More often now I find pearls in what he says.

We were talking about the mystery of life, this reality, this consciousness that we are caught up in. And he said, “Life, our circumstance, being caught up in life is so mysterious, so vast. Nobody can possibly say they have it figured out, that they have the answer. Nobody knows. So you shouldn’t adopt anyone’s views or what anyone says about the mystery of life. And that includes me and what I have just said.”
I found what my friend said a beautiful word picture, an almost poetic expression of the vastness of this mystery.
We are all caught up in this great mystery, coping with it as best we can. I suppose that one thing all of us have in common is that in our coping we tend to rely on what works for us. All of us have ways of coping with the mystery of life, those that tend to not only help us cope with this predicament of being caught up in this mystery, but those that also consistently help us find joy in being with life. And these are the ways of coping that we strive to rely on more of the time. (more…)

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving to Harry’s house for a brainstorming session. We hold these sessions about once every 6 weeks to generate new ideas for services, and this particular day, I had nothing. I was completely empty of ideas.

SO on the way to Harry’s, I turned off the radio and I began thinking about the types of topics we typically explore and it occurred to me that what we’re doing many times is examining some aspect of the human condition; those ordinary experiences that touch all of our lives. This thought led to the idea that if I were to go through my day, I would inevitably come across something that resonated with me spiritually, and if I was lucky would inspire a theme for a service.

Now before I share what I discovered in examining my day, I want to clarify what I consider to be a spiritual experience, or the experience of “God”.
Up until now, my idea of what “God” is has been only a feeling that I’ve struggled to verbalize, it’s been more of a picture in my mind. (more…)

In the film clip this morning, there were two views of home. The brother and sister experience “home” in very different ways. I will speak of both of these view of home. Every year people ask each other: “Are you going home for Christmas?” And for many of us, that question has a special meaning. Home and Christmas go together. Images of Christmases past evoke memories of a wonderful place and time in our lives. And, in reality, home is a special place - where you feel you belong - you feel safe. (more…)

This past September was a difficult time for me. The lazy days of summer had ended and I found myself thrown back into the world of school and extra curricular activities. I was chairing an event at my children’s school that took place the first week of classes. My daughter was just starting ballet, tap, and gymnastics. My son was beginning a new therapy and a new social skills group. And both kids were beginning piano lessons.

There were changes here at Journey’s as well. Steve Franz announced he would be leaving and Valerie Bornemann let us know she would temporarily be unable be a part of the creative team. Days were beginning to get shorter and I was exhausted.

I remember coming home from Journey’s one Sunday and feeling completely wiped out, I was drained of all my energy. On Sunday’s, my husband and I like to take the kids hiking or kayaking when the weather is nice, so I got myself up and went, but as soon as we got home I went straight to my bedroom and collapsed.

As I lay there, I remember asking out loud, “What is wrong with me?” Within a couple of minutes, as my mind began to clear, pieces of information that had been gathering over the previous couple of weeks, starting to come forward into my consciousness. (more…)

In today’s service we are looking at the benefit available, the nourishment available to our spirits, through living more intentionally in the so called routine moments of our lives and in playing the role of author or designer of the moments that we put into our lives and elevate to the status of regular or repeat moments, moments we can call rituals.

And I’m reminded of how important it is for us to be good designers, good authors of the regular behaviors that we introduce into our lives. I remember hearing some time ago about a baseball player who had a ritual that he designed and introduced into his life and religiously observed; a ritual of never stepping on the white lines that marked the baselines on both sides of the field. As he ran onto the field of play he would make sure that his stride always made it possible for him to avoid stepping on the line. As time went on this ritual grew to require that he also not step on the line while the ball was in play. Because he played third base, this became a ritual that required a considerable amount of talent. And as the story goes, the ritual continued to grow so that not only did it require that he not step on the baseline but also that he turn a circle in the air as he crossed the baseline. So as he ran onto the field to start each inning he would jump across the baseline and as he did he would turn a full circle in the air. He also observed this requirement to rotate as he crossed the line when he was going after a foul ball. Supposedly he came to be quite adept at all of this but eventually the ever increasing demands of his ritual made it impossible for him to perform his job as a ball player. (more…)

June 20, 2004We had been married twelve years when Lynn suggested we take a long vacation, a car trip to Sanibel, three weeks. The plan was to return with a decision whether or not to try to have children. Toward the end of our time there we walked one afternoon on the beautiful shell beach and returned to our room to make the decision. Lynn was concerned that one of us might influence the other as we expressed our choices. She wanted us to each speak our hearts independent desire and so she suggested we write our decisions and simultaneously show the other what we had written. (more…)

One of the most defining events for me in creating the Journeys experience relates to a letter a minister of my own Christian tradition wrote to my Bishop challenging the whole basis of Journeys Community. His complaint was that Journeys Community did not subscribe to the historic creeds of the Church and beliefs about God that had been a part of the Church’s doctrine and belief system for centuries. As a result of his negative view and his opposition to Journeys, the Journeys creative team was no longer allowed to meet at his church. And he strongly urged the Bishop to stop funding Journeys as an innovative, creative expression of what I have always thought was the central message of Jesus: “I have come that all people might have life, and have it abundantly.” At Journeys we try to create the experience of God in our services, not just knowledge or information about God. Our services and activities present opportunities for people to recognize deeper emotions and feelings that may create an opening to God and experience deeper meaning, purpose and fulfillment in their lives-to have life and have it abundantly!! (more…)

What if you could design your own God? What would he-or it-be like? I’ve titled our time together “Why Not Design Your Own God?” Notice I didn’t call this a presentation, or a sermon. What it will be, actually, is a spiritual rumination in the pattern of some of the great ruminators: Samuel Clements, Will Rogers, and Andy Rooney.

Before I start to ruminate, though, you need to know a little of my background. You see, I am a “recovering Christian.” And no, I don’t go to meetings and stand up and say, “Hello, my name is Vic, and I am a recovering Christian.” The irony is that here I am, in front of you dear people of Journey’s Community, saying just that. Well.

I’ve experienced a bunch of “passages” since I was confirmed in the Methodist Church in 1950. They have included confusion, concern, anger, renunciation, and letting go. There may be more passages on the road ahead. As Yogi Berra once said, “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” I feel like I’ve forked fairly often in the 58 years since I was confirmed. And I suspect most of you have as well. (more…)