Just as I can believe in others, I also believe in me.

The journey toward inner truth is too taxing to be made solo.

Our bodies are so wise, and they hold so much information.

We must choose each other again and again, though conflict and through plenty.

The spiritual touchstones I trust are found in community.

We tend the spark of imagination and hope for the world to come.

Every time someone showed up for me, I learned that love is greater than skin deep.

Each Advent, my empathy for Mary’s situation returns.

May we release ourselves from the need to fit every truth neatly into our own language.

"Most of us have been led to believe that prophets 'foretell' the future. That is true, and it is also misleading. It is not the point here. Prophets are seers of the big patterns; they see what is always and forever true. Prophets like Isaiah know how God acts by watching and listening, and they...

Impermanence, mortality, ashes, dust: this is the truth of being human.

What’s the one word you hope will define your upcoming year?

Make sure, both at Christmastime and in other times, that you ask for that which you really want.

It’s important to honor the footprint others leave on our heart.

In these days of so much uncertainty, may we choose honesty over comfort, love over complacency, and truth over convenience.

The harder things are to say, the more necessary they are to say.

The most life-giving coping strategy—for me—is to attune to a voice calmer and wiser than mine, and allow that seeking to be its own expression of faith.

We all have our foibles; pieces of ourselves that we both admire and occasionally revile. These gifts and struggles exist in tandem.

Can we strive to have the grace to back away when our presence doesn’t feel like safety?

We can be cheerleaders for simple joys (even when we don't share them) and compassionate about the fact that we’re all just trying to survive.

This is the beauty and sparkle of spiritual communities: needs arise and beloveds appear to ask, “How can I help?” There’s no fixed timeline, just the spiritual practices of generosity and stewardship.

There are so many spiritual lessons from the natural world and—in a season filled with Ingatherings and Water Communions—this is one for me: oxbow lakes as a beautiful combination of resiliency, strength, and flexibility.

“The favoured method of showing the supremacy of the Christian belief was the destruction of the holy trees of the Germans. These were trees, usually old oaks or elm trees, dedicated to the gods....

We pray to you, Mother Earth, with gratitude For your holding and sustaining love For the air, water, and soil that feed us For the mountains and rivers and oceans that calm our spirits For loving and supporting all beings and all creation. We pray to you, Mother Earth, with humility Help us to...

Today I’m going to tell a story about a girl who was searching for a porpoise. Now, as you probably know, a porpoise is a sea mammal in the dolphin family. Porpoises are smaller and shyer than dolphins. They are more difficult to find, but porpoises are very important. Minister (or other Worship...

Spirit of Life and Love, Justice and Peace, The spectacle of foolish pride is ever before us in these times. Indeed, pride has seldom looked so foolish in our lifetimes. So many people in positions of public trust and responsibility have lost their authority and our confidence spectacularly. And...

Spirit of Life and Love, Holy One of our Being and our Becoming, That which is Sacred Within, Among, and Beyond Us… We know so many stories about You: God, Lord, King, Father. Earth Mother, Great Spirit, Universe. Holy Parent, Divine Love, Deepest Longings, Covenanted Partner. We know stories...

The innkeeper isn’t part of most Nativity sets. No one sings carols about innkeepers. There don’t seem to be any paintings that include them. But we can imagine the scene: Bethlehem is crowded with people coming home for the census. It’s late at night when the innkeeper responds to a knock on...

Once I quit drinking, my inner voice and I began the harder work: that of creating a life from which I do not need or want to escape.

We could see the main path to the swimming hole ahead, but we had to pick our way through sand spurs to get there. Behind us were rattlesnakes. What did the youth do? They started playing.

In real life, we can only place the pieces, one by one, and see what kind of picture we create. Sometimes we turn out to have chosen the wrong piece. Sometimes the picture is wildly unexpected.

I’m not the same person who stood in that tattoo parlor eleven years ago. Still, I don’t for a minute regret being permanently marked with this snapshot in time, of my wounds and my hope.

"I went back to church thinking that it would be like an epidural, like it would take the pain away… that church would make the pain go away. Faith and church was not an epidural for me at all; it was like a midwife who just stood next to me saying, 'Push. It’s supposed to hurt a little bit.'"...

May I remember in this tender moment that Love is my guide, always, shepherding me toward ways of openness and compassion. I have what I need, really, with Love at my side, above me, below me, in front of me, behind me, inside every cell of me, Love infused everywhere! Just when the weight of the...

Life is neither a playground nor a game. The folded lies are real. With our voices, we can and will undo them.

We humans have both a natural desire and a spiritual need to feel connected and to grow roots, even if those roots aren't necessarily tied to a geographic place.

The author suggests supplementing this Time for All Ages with a PowerPoint/slide show of interesting doors and asking the kids to imagine what is on the other side of each of them... Who here knows the book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? Can one of the kids in the room tell me how Lucy...

There are two questions that [a person] must ask [themselves]. The first is "Where am I going?" and the second is "Who will go with me?" If you ever get these questions in the wrong order, you are in trouble. source: Fire in the Belly by Sam Keen, p. 12.

On this sacred day of choosing—with gratitude to those who entrusted us with this honored task, who struggled and suffered that we might have the power to choose—may we choose well. May we choose love over fear, wisdom over cleverness, courage over cowardice, life over death, kindness over...

Help us to live in peace together and serve one another and to see the holy light in everyone, even when those holy lights are especially hard to see.

Go slow if you can. Slower. More slowly still. Friendly dark or fearsome, this is no place to break your neck by rushing, by running, by crashing into what you cannot see....

Spirit of Wisdom, As we prepare to elect new citizens to lead us, in our communities, town and cities, in our counties, states, and our heart-torn nation, grant us wisdom and discernment so that we may choose those of peaceful heart, of competent mind and of servant spirit. Spirit of the Harvest,...

"I remove my shoes because this is hallowed ground," the guide says. "A holy place, not an everyday life place." The guide tells us how we know—or think we know—it was the one and not the other for those people millennia ago. But aren’t the places where we live holy ground? Don’t our very...

Gracious God, A warrior fights for those who cannot fight for themselves. As a warrior prepares for battle, there is a solemn responsibility: to know how and when and if to take life, just as a warrior must know how and when and if to risk their own life....

Note: #FOMO means "Fear of Missing Out" and #YOLO means "You Only Live Once." These are accompanied by hashtags because their acronyms originated out of the Twitter-style writing (limited to 140 characters, with hashtags that connect you with other posts about the issue). Each #FOMO or #YOLO is...

If we have any hope of transforming the world and changing ourselves, we must be bold enough to step into our discomfort, brave enough to be clumsy there, loving enough to forgive ourselves and others. May we, as a people of faith, be granted the strength to be so bold, so brave, and so loving.

As we approach our agenda let us remember that we are doing the work of the congregation.* When we do the work of this congregation*, we touch lives. When we touch lives, we change the world. May this chalice flame we now kindle remind us throughout our meeting of our ministry and our mission....

O Thou unseen source of peace and holiness, we come into thy secret place to be filled with thy pure and solemn light. As we come to thee, we remember that we have been drawn aside from the straight and narrow way; that we have not walked lovingly with each other and humbly with thee; that we have...

We have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god......

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them....